I'm sort of fascinated by how The Discourse on Lovers Rock doesn't exactly know what to do with [the incident sexual violence that occurs in it]; it's hard to incorporate into a celebratory story about community, which I suspect is exactly why McQueen included it
A lot of the talk about LR--in many ways following SM's lead--emphasizes the *safety* of the community formed by the blues party, but the most interesting thing about LR, I think, is that it doesn't sit comfortably in that celebration of celebration
"Safe" is such an interesting word to use about a 70 minute movie that includes an act of sexual assault! 
Which is just to say that the movie is smart about distinguishing the ideal of safety and community--as necessary fictions, and powerful animating ones--from the question of their actual realization
It's especially interesting in a moment where "going to a dance party" would be uniquely dangerous for us, now; that is not, of course, the danger for Martha and the other women at the lovers rock party, but the scene is still carefully suffused with risk, and that's important
(There's also the thing where reviewers instinctively bend over backwards to downplay or de-emphasize the centrality of sexual violence to the thing they're reviewing, in accordance with how our culture automatically treats sexual assault)
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