One of the greatest party films in recent memory, Lovers Rock teleports spectators onto the sweaty dancefloor of a 1980 all-nighter in Ladbroke Grove, West London. The euphoric trip takes its title from a reggae subgenre; yet the designation is misleading insofar as Steve McQueen’s soulful slice of Black British life—the second entry in his Small Axe pentalogy—luxuriates in a much richer record crate of '70s musical expressivity. From the opulent disco of Sister Sledge and Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting,” the soundscape fluidly evolves into the hazier, reverberating creases of dub (Augustus Pablo, The Revolutionaries) before erupting in a collective a cappella rendering of Janet Kay’s “Silly Games” that is nothing short of ecstatic. Demanding to be experienced on the big screen (and a massive sound system to boot), the film is nevertheless marked by the ever-lurking threat of police intervention and sexual violence. Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn excels in her debut appearance on screen, while Antiguan director of photography Shabier Kirchner lenses the electric choreography up-close, swaying in unstoppable rhythm with bodies and beat. - Harvard Film Archive