Small Axe: Education
Amazon Prime Video | Release Date (Streaming): December 18, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
87
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
92
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeDec 6, 2020
McQueen and co-writer Alastair Siddons capture that sense that the children of immigrants often have of living with one foot in their adopted country and one in their parents’ homeland. Read full review
91
The PlaylistRobert DanielsDec 6, 2020
Education ends “Small Axe” on unsuspectingly grand terms. Yet the compact 63-minute coming-of-age film never loses its soft devoted touch. And McQueen, already an incredible filmmaker, shows another facet to his immense range. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeDec 13, 2020
The brilliance of this particular episode is how it allows us to see ourselves in Kingsley and to consider the many unseen forces at play in our own socialization. For Black audiences, it confirms many of those invisible barriers. For white ones, it may lead them to question whether the myth of their “success” owes in part to keeping others back. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisDec 10, 2020
McQueen, who attended one of these schools, uses this small, hopeful story to illustrate how one generation, by means of an ingenious workaround to bigotry, fought to secure the future of the next. Read full review
90
VoxAlissa WilkinsonDec 9, 2020
Education becomes a portrait of a community disappointed by the country they came to with eagerness — and determined to make something of themselves, and their culture, in spite of it. Read full review
90
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganDec 7, 2020
Education is aptly titled as a finale, as it describes the effect of the Small Axe series, but the word ‘open’ also comes to mind. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyDec 6, 2020
It's short, sweet and effective, tying together the divergent threads of the decades-spanning Small Axe project on a note both poignant and personal. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonDec 18, 2020
This is heavy material, to be sure, but it’s not without dark humor. Read full review
83
The Film StageVikram MurthiDec 22, 2020
The simplicity of McQueen and Siddons’ screenplay is a feature, not a bug. More than any other film in Small Axe, Education resembles a kitchen sink drama in the vein of films from Mike Leigh or Ken Loach, where the political messaging remains crystal clear but is still filtered through personal narratives. Read full review
83
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonDec 18, 2020
Education is a tinier, more intimate button on McQueen’s set of stories, but it’s one of its most potent: the simple act of learning is powerful actualization, so proven in the white establishment’s efforts to make it so inaccessible to Black people. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnDec 6, 2020
This minuscule but affecting hourlong story is an extension of the “Small Axe” mission to fill a historical gap deserving of greater scrutiny, and achieves that goal by serving as a kind of education itself. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsDec 30, 2020
One the feats of McQueen’s movie is that, by the end, the ability to read — proof of having been educated — is all the more powerful for seeming exceptional. Read full review
80
EmpireCorrina AntrobusDec 17, 2020
In his final and perhaps most personal Small Axe chapter, McQueen superbly rounds off a succulent portrayal of the resilience of Black British people ending where it matters most — the youth. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 10, 2020
Sandy is heartbreaking in the lead role, as his face registers surprise, then betrayal at the way the adults in his life—including, at times, his parents—fail him. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 7, 2020
It’s brief, but not so much to-the-point as wandering around it for an hour. And while it doesn’t spoil the effect of the whole, it does feel wanting as a finale. It’s the dullest “Small Axe” of the five. Read full review
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