Steve McQueen's second 'Small Axe' film for the BBC and Amazon Prime had little dialogue.
But that shouldn't matter because 'Lovers Rock' was all about the experience.
McQueen's film took his audience deep into the heart and soul of an underground blues party in West London in the early 1980s.
It was a chance to join young people from the Carribbean as they let their hair down.
Unlike 'Small Axe: Mangrove' racial struggle wad not to the fore.
However the sense of community was just as strong.
This was more about music as a quasi-religious experience, as its characters worshiped the pounding bass of reggae.
It was an escape from the humdrum of work and the harsh racist realities of a London where, in one scene, white boys tried to wind up a black girl on the street by making monkey noises.
Written by McQueen and Courttia Newland, 'Lovers Rock' focussed on a 17th birthday party for Ellis George's Cynthia.
Shabier Kirchner's camera plunged the audience into the heart of the action.
We observed the build up to the party as the Mercury Crew set up their sound system in the living room and women prepared curry for the evening, singing Janet Kay's high pitched, soft reggae classic 'Silly Games' as they crammed into a tiny kitchen.
McQueen and Newland concentrated mostly on the experience of Amarah Jae-St Aubyn's Martha, beginning the film with her climbing out of her bedroom window of her family home and sneaking outside to go to the party.
The crucifix on the wall of her bedroom told the tale.
Thus was a dash for freedom from a strict religious upbringing.
And the crucifix would be a recurring theme throughout the film, with its young people taking part in a different, more liberating ritual.
We watched Martha catch a bus and link up with her close friend Shaniqua Okwok's Patty.
There was tangible excitement as preparations for the party took place in the house, with Cynthia and Saffron Coomber's Grace dancing as they got ready upstairs running a hot comb through hair.
Guests arrived in anticipation of an epic night.
At the outset, Kadeem Ramsay's Sansom and his Mercury Rev crew span a few disco classics to warm the guests up.
This drew women onto the living room dancefloor, with Cynthia, Grace, Martha and Patty dancing with gusto to Sister Sledge's 'He's the Greatest Dancer' and Carl Douglas' 'Kung Fu Fighting'.
Soon, they slid into a reggae vibe, naturally turning to Bob Marley as the living room was bathed in amber.
But 'Lovers Rock' was more than just about the music.
Kirchner's camera wandered out of the living room to observe Martha and Patty fending off the attention of various men.
First up was the sexually frustrated Bammy, played by Daniel Francis-Swaby who awkwardly tried to chat Martha up on the dancefloor and later as she queued to use the loo.
Next to try their luck were Micheal Ward's mechanic Franklyn and his gauche mate, Francis Lovehall's Reggie.
Reggie made fun of Patty's name, calling her "Beef Patty" which went down like a lead balloon.
Franklyn had more success with Martha, drawing bitchy comments from Cynthia and others who noted her success.
But as the evening wore on, the intensity of McQueen's slice of life film grew.
Patty couldn't take Reggie's clumsy advanced anymore while Martha and Franklyn spent time together and stormed off, leaving her friend behind.
Martha's cousin, Kedar Williams-Stirling's Clifton gatecrashed the party and earned a stern warning from the bouncer after he almost brought the police with him.
After winding up Martha and Franklyn, he proceeded to swig bear and dance in a trance like state on the dancefloor, eventually being invited to freestyle with the mic over the dib beat.
In typical McQueen fashion, the action took a grim turn.
The audience was jolted by the prospect of a sexual assault before order was quickly restored.
However it was the little details captured by McQueen and Kirchner that once again made the film such as the condensation running down the living room walls as dancers packed into the living room or the expressions of dancers or those observing the comings and goings on the fringes of the makeshift living room dancefloor.
Two dance sequences stood out, though because of their intensity.
The first featured the playing of 'Silly Games,' which the entire party, make and female, sang with fervour even when the track stopped.
The other was the men going crazy as the Mercury Crew played The Revolutionaries' 'Kunta Kinte Dub' - a song transformed into a tribal rite.
These two moments best captured the liberating, transcendental power of music and dance.
It stood in stark contrast to the sobering crucifix on Cynthia's bedroom wall or the life size white crucifix towards the end bid the film being assembled by a street preacher at a bus stop.
And while the spectre of a hostile world outside hovered in the background, 'Lovers Rock' was more preoccupied with giving its audience an insight into the post Windrush generation at play.
It was a mostly joyous celebration, gorgeously filmed with Martha and Franklyn at dawn exploring the potential for a relationship beyond the party.
Amarah Jae-St Aubyn, Micheal Ward, Ellis George, Shaniqua Okwok, Kedar Williams-Stirling and Daniel Francis-Swaby seized their moments to shine in a 68 minute drama that did not follow convention.
But the real star was Kirchner, aided and abetted by Chris Dickens' subtle editing.
Kirchner's wandering camera took the audience on a tour of an epic night out - from the queues for food and drink and the loo to the back yard and its sofa to getting up close and personal on the dancefloor.
Without being a musical, this may be the closest McQueen will ever get to making a musical.
Tender, uplifting but with just the right portion of grit - what a wonderful way to do it.
('Small Axe: Lovers Rock' was broadcast on BBC1 on November 22, 2020 and made available for streaming on Amazon Prime in the United States on November 27, 2020)
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