This director is known for tackling hot-button issues and being visceral with all the passion and fervor that he was able to translate onto screen. Of course, his name is Steve McQueen. After watching his films, I noticed that he had a very calm and subtle approach when the scene called for it, but knew how to explode the screen with harsh drama and thrills when it was absolutely necessary. His work showcases a plethora of talent and admirable skill, as he is comfortable handling multiple différent genres.

The director was born in London, England in 1969 and began the foundation of his film career in the early and mid-nineties, making short films. He eventually directed his breakout film in 2008 Hunger which starred Michael Fassbender and later earned himself an Oscar for Best Picture for 12 Years a Slave. Luckily, we have been gifted with this director’s presence and his filmmaking abilities to transcend cinema. 

Lovers Rock

This is one film–or short film–by Steve McQueen that does not seem to translate well from script to screen. Standing at around sixty-eight minutes, the film sees two people meeting each other at a reggae party that takes place in the early 80s in West London…..and that is literally the extent of that film.

I feel like this one of those films that McQueen made in some off time that he had but gave very little to the story and the set up. It works fine as a short film made in grad school, but it seems to be missing some elements and the script even seems padded with club songs that last way too long. The film does benefit from some fine performances and realism in the lighting and brownish-yellow tones in the color palette. However, that seems to be the extent of the positives.

Alex Wheatle

This film stands at around the same short runtime as the previous McQueen entry and tells the tale of Alex Wheatle, who is a black British novelist who became incarcerated after the Brixton riot in the 1980s.  The film certainly benefits from Sheyi Cole’s powerful performance as Wheatle himself and it can be visceral to look at the film through such a unique lens.

However, that doesn’t overcompensate its short runtime and the fact that it could easily cover more ground during its screen time. It might be a little hard to digest when there is so much to process and so little time but it certainly could have been a lot better and seems like another experimental film in McQueen filmography that seemed more like an afterthought. 

Education

This was a more solid approach in the director’s work. This film sees a young, illiterate boy named Kingsley Smith who is sent to a special needs school for children with educational difficulties and attempts to adjust to the change the best way that he can. Once again, it suffers from trying to cram in a lot in a short timeframe but it does a better job doing it.

The film works as a nice and potent soliloquy as well as an indictment about the educational system for underprivileged youth. Once again, it isn’t all that it could be but it does what it can with the hour that it has. Moreover, the performances in the film are very powerful and certainly have an audacious manner about them. 

Red, White, and Blue

The next film in McQueen collection of Small Axe films for BBC is the John Boyega-led film about real-life British police officer Leroy Logan, who joins the police force to change the institution from the inside after his father was violently beaten by two officers. This is one of the films in McQueen’s BBC anthology movies that feels like a fleshed out movie.

Boyega proves to be a qualified candidate for the lead role and flexes his acting chops for audiences with power and range. His willingness to the craft and the character is something incredibly admirable, to say the least. The performance is almost enough to make people forget about his wasted character as Finn in the Star Wars sequels, but that isn’t the focus of the article.

Mangrove

This is easily McQueen’s best film in his anthology of films for BBC. This film tells the true life events of the Mangrove, a black-owned restaurant and how it was raided multiple times unnecessarily by British police. The owners and patrons of the Mangrove restaurant band together to form a protest to keep police at bay and are forced to defend themselves in court.

Once again, like in most of McQueen’s movies, the film is bracketed by some amazing performances by the majority of the cast. The film itself might seem a little too similar to Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, but what audiences are left with is a morally vibrant and vividly welded film that showcases police violence in all of its forms.

Widows

This is one of McQueen’s few thrillers that is something of a surprise hit even if it wasn’t his best film. The film saw différent women have their husbands killed in a vicious police attack after a heist went wrong. Their “widows” must formulate a plot to pay back a villainess crime boss and politician that their husbands originally stole from. It kind of reminds me of something out of a Michael Bay or Mann film. You wouldn’t assume that Steve McQueen directed this movie.

The thing is that he did direct it and he did it as if showing Universal Pictures his reel for why he should direct the next Mission Impossible movie and that is all said in the most positive light that I can put on this film. Viola Davis knocks it out of the park with her triumphant leading performance under the direction of McQueen.  

Hunger

This film is a more restrained and nuanced endeavor in the filmography of McQueen. The story centers around Bobby Sands, who is a prisoner at the Maze Prison and goes on a hunger strike for prisoners’ rights. This is based on the real-life prisoner who did, in fact, go without food for 66 days straight. 

This sees Michael Fassbender in his prime and the film gives him a nice vehicle to display his full range of talents as an actor. The film decides to linger on some long shots as the audience becomes enveloped in the scene to the point that we feel Sands’ pain, anguish and hunger and if you know about what happens to Bobby Sands, you might shed a tear at the end of the film. 

Shame

Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender team up again in this explicitly erotic thriller with Fassbender playing successful executive Brandon Sullivan whose private life includes consistent porn-watching, masturbating, womanizing and having sex with prostitutes. It’s not in that order but you get the point.

Fassbender, once again, delivers a thrilling performance while playing the character in both a seductive and vulnerable manner. Some of the erotic scenes might be overdone and overwrought but this certainly stretches the filmography of Steve McQueen’s body of work and it is certainly entertaining to watch even if it can be very hard to watch, at times. 

12 Years a Slave

Whether you like it or not, this was the director’s crowning achievement that ultimately won him the Oscar for Best Picture. The story revolves around a talented violinist named Solomon Northrup who is approached by two traveling “salesman-types” that offer him an opportunity to perform his violin, but is, instead, hoodwinked and sold into slavery. 

The film is based on real-life violinist-turned-slave Solomon Northrup and not only does Chiwetal Ejiofor nail the role, but it’s McQueen’s genuine work that truly elevates this movie to be a classic in all of its forms. It’s not only the best movie that McQueen has ever made, it’s also one of the best films ever made.