Editi Effiong’s The Black Book has a lot of bright ideas. On one level, it’s an action flick about a former member of a private undercover elite squad. Even people with power and influence tremble at his name. At the 47-minute mark, one character, completely freaking out, says, “You people went to kill Paul Edima’s son? The most feared man in the country.” Then he begins to reel off the man’s accomplishments, in a way that reminded me of vendors of herbal concoctions advertising their wares in markets: “23 assassinations, 113 domestic operations, plotted and participated in 8 coups d’état…
Author: Osamudiamen Joe
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At no point during The Modern Woman was I the least bit moved by anything happening on screen. At no point were things kicked into high gear, causing me to inch forward in my seat, enthralled by the events unfolding. At no point was all the tension in the atmosphere defused by an expertly-timed moment of comic relief. When it ended, I did not clap (which I did at the end of Juju Stories, and The Trade), did not leave with a smile on my face (Ile Owo), and did not feel like I’d just had a good time at…
It was always going to be an extraordinary feat to bring the titular toy owned by Mattel Inc. to the silver screen. Partly because, with time, Barbie has gained a lot of significance in pop culture, far beyond being just another doll produced by a multinational company with multiple merch and movie tie-ins. First released in 1959, the Barbie character has been the subject of a great degree of controversy, causing several recalls by the company, as well as protests on several occasions by detractors of the brand, who, among other reasons, view the toy as damaging to feminism and…
I never thought I’d say this: Almajiri is a better exposé on some of the heinous things that go bump in the country’s dark underbelly of violence and crime than Gangs of Lagos or Shanty Town. Both films feature a ton of senseless violence and death, a tragic and unmistakable part of Nigerian life. One thing they fail to do, however, is construct a compelling protagonist to lead the audience through it all. In Gangs of Lagos, it’s hard to be pulled into the orbit of Obalola’s desire for revenge and bloodshed because the loss of his dreams doesn’t seem…
If you’re a young up-and-coming filmmaker in the country right now, you probably want to be Jade Osiberu ‘when you grow up.’ In less than a decade, Osiberu has become a force to reckon within the Nollywood film landscape. She started out writing and directing a web series for NdaniTV, Gidi Up, starring OC Ukeje, Deyemi Okanlanwon, Somkele Iyamah, and Titilope Sonuga. Gidi Up was set in Lagos and followed the life and times of four young adults trying to make their way in the big city. It was produced by Osiberu and Kemi “Lala” Akindoju. The duo would work…
A Sunday Affair follows two friends as they fall for the same complicated man. This situation tests their loyalty to each other in the face of a heartbreaking revelation.
The day before I saw Tainted Canvas, I settled down to watch Babylon (2022), the latest outing from Damien Chazelle, known for La La Land (2017) and Whiplash (2014). I say ‘settled down’ because at just over three hours long, Babylon is the kind of flick you have to plan ahead to watch, fighting tooth and nail to carve out time in your schedule– it’s up there with The Irishman (2019), Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021), and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Babylon, with a 56% score on Rotten Tomatoes, was released to mixed reviews; while some critics lauded…
One of the things film can help us do as a people is reckon with the past. Events which seem to have been forgotten can be brought to the fore through the power of narrative, becoming, even for a brief moment, the principal object of social discourse, and by the same token, an entry point into that period in history, as well as an opportunity for deep reflection. Sometimes, the number of films being made about a particular occurrence is able to reach critical mass; when this happens, it means that said occurrence now holds such a prominent position in…
In 2019, the number of Nigerian students in the United Kingdom was 1,586. By 2022, that number had skyrocketed to 51,648– a whopping 3,156.5 percent increase– and that figure shows no signs of slowing down. To say that there is a ‘japa’ wave currently sweeping across the nation, and indeed the continent, is to understate matters– it’s more like a tsunami. Last year, the Nigerian Immigration Service called it a ‘worrisome phenomenon,’ with good reason; the rate of emigration of everyone from skilled workers to students is undoubtedly alarming. ‘The Way Things Happen’ Review: “Cinema as Therapy” Apart from the…
If you ever watched Teen Wolf, the MTV high school fantasy drama series that ran from 2011 to 2017, then you’re probably familiar with the riddle, “When is a door not a door?” The answer is pretty straightforward. A door is not a door when it fails to perform its basic function for being a door, which is to keep out the elements, rodents, strangers, thieves. A door is not a door when it is ajar. The construct is still on the hinges and it looks and feels like a door, but it might as well be completely absent. ‘Far…