Education (2020) Movie Drinking Game
Do a Shot: every time Kingsley is yelled at.
Take a Drink: for every mention of Kingsley’s love of space.
Do a Shot: every time the kids are showing not getting what they need, or being ignored.
Take a Drink: every moment you cry.
Drink a Beer: for Steve McQueen who in this year put out 5 feature length films. I know these won’t compete for Oscars, but McQueen should be in the conversation for Best Director.
By: Movie Snurb (A Toast) –
Education is the fifth and final film in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology film series. All of his films have in some way dealt with racism, especially to English immigrants from the West Indies. This final film tackles the Haringey Council’s Educational Segregation Policy of 1971. 12-year-old Kingsley’s family is distracted and doesn’t take too much stake in the education of their children until Kingsley is sent to a special school. The school is not to help the children, but to corral these children so the school system doesn’t have to deal with them. It also has a large proportion of West Indian children, which appears to be used to keep that immigrant community uneducated in order to keep them economically poor.
A Toast
This is more of a toast for the entire Small Axe series rather than Education alone. All five stories except Lovers Rock were true stories, but the other four told me stories that I did not know about, and I was glad to learn about them. One thing audiences want from stories is a unique voice telling us a new story we have not heard before. People from England or the United Kingdom maybe had known a couple of these stories, but as an American I didn’t know anything about these horrible instances of racism. Not only that, but the fact that this series dropped in 2020 during a time of hopefully great change in America, makes it especially timely and important. No wonder people in the U.K. were protesting along with America after George Floyd.
The empathy I was made to feel through the film was astounding. Part of it is due to it being about children. Children and animal stories are automatically more emotional because children and animals are unable to help themselves. It takes us and a community to look out for and take care of them. The scene when Kingsley’s mother asks him to read from a book and he can’t will break your heart. If this and other scenes do not break you I cannot help you.
The acting really helped to get the emotion through. Kenyah Sandy, who plays Kingsley, is excellent; he feels wise beyond his years. Throughout most of the film he appears to be lost. He has zero direction and his parents are mostly checked out except for his chores at home. His father didn’t want to talk about the Special School Kingsley was sent too. When he gets into the homeschool style school on Saturday at the end of the film and he gets answers right, he gets adoration from the teacher and begins to shine. It’s a subtle shift in emotion on his face and tells you everything you need to know about Kingsely and the struggle he has been going through. I cannot wait to see what Kenyah does from here on out.
Verdict
Education is the perfect cap for the Small Axe series by Steve McQueen. I would even go in blind and just start watching. It’s a strong finish for a brilliant anthology about racism and prejudice in late 60s and early 70s England.
