Following the trail of great classics about body switches like The Hot Chick (2002) and Prelude to a Kiss (1992), Uyoyou Adia’s Life, which she writes and directs, is a moral drama about contentment. The light-hearted, didactic film presses on the importance of perspective when we yearn for another’s life. While the film has its heart in a good place, it comes off as heavy-handed in select spots, and apparently, its core moral—contentment—isn’t convincingly justified. Ema (Omowumi Dada) and Yinka (Efe Irele) are on either end of the social class. Ema works in a successful advertising agency that sets her…
Author: olamideadio
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One would be forgiven if they concluded that Slum King was a Gangs of Lagos spinoff. It is a good comparison. Gangs of Lagos carries its weight, and if read a certain way, it might even be called a great Lagos film. The comparison doesn’t end in narrative similarities; the feel, the slow-mos, the neverending battle for territories and defending said territories. These are all staples that align both films. (We can, merely for acknowledgment purposes, summon Shanty Town as a possible, far-off influence, but it isn’t as good as Gangs of Lagos.) However, the comparisons end here. Qualitatively, Slum…
From Get Out to Midsommar, the dilution of narrative tropes is a filmmaking staple. It is a misdirection technique to heighten or spotlight a specific element within the film. Coupled with being a great, slow-burner horror, Get Out is a film about racial disparity. It is most uncanny because the film starts out as a harmless romance. Kaelo Iyizoba’s Boy Meets Girl neatly falls into this category—a film that deliberately chooses narrative deception to highlight the death of innocence. In a fateful meet-cute, a schoolboy, Musa (Gabriel Dung), and a girl (Aaliyah Atamazu) meet on a public bus in Northern…
Dinner is a 2016 movie written and directed by Jay Franklyn Jituboh (The Origin: Madam Koi-Koi). It stars Okey Uzoeshi, Keira Hewatch, Eyinma Nwigwe, Deyemi Okanlawon, and Kehinde Bankole as its principal characters. Making special appearances are Richard Mofe Damijo and Ireti Doyle. It is a small-cast film that plays on the energy around what happens when you put a small number of people in a room and dial up the emotional chaos. Ade (Enyinma Nwigwe) invites his childhood friend, Mike (Okey Uzoeshi), for dinner with his fiancee, Lola (Kehinde Bankole). Mike comes along with his reluctant fiancee, Diane (Keira…
After a run of original series like Diiche, Crime and Justice Lagos, and Flawsome, Showmax has finally released its first Nigerian original feature, School Run. The film stars Ifeanyi Kalu and Amanda Iriekpen as its torchbearers. In School Run, a series of unfortunate events lead to Bolu’s (Greatness Ewurum) disappearance after he is picked up by a different driver his nanny delegated to pick him. His workaholic parents, Timelehin and Adeola Kalejaiye (Ifeanyi Kalu and Amanda Iriekpen), must now come together and accept the burden of parenthood before they can find their son. The biggest grouch to have with School…
Funke Akindele’s star-studded Christmas submission, A Tribe Called Judah, is a good film. That is one part of criticism simplified: To arrive at the point as early and quickly as possible. The film hits all the right chords for a warm Nigerian family drama. There is the hardworking parent, there is the financial struggle in the family, and there are good children, and there are black sheep, and then there is the adversity that finally brings them all together. A Tribe Called Judah highlights that fear we all have as Nigerians. That every middle to low-income family is one surgery…
In the distance atop New Culture Studio, Ibadan, the panorama of an old city spreads, gilded with rust and forgotten history. The resigned compliance of age ricochets, punctuated with occasional loud car horns. There is a permanent nostalgia roaming this city. Turn away from the vista, and you will find the Ibadan Indie Film Awards (IFA) waiting. The festival mirrors the ancient city’s sensibilities yet is a different kind of beauty itself. An assemblage of over a hundred creatives and filmmakers; some dressed with avant-garde leanings, others downright bizarre. Come for the dressings, stay for the films. Goodness Emmanuel, Ebuka…
By the time Moses Inwang’s Blood Vessel’s first act draws near its close, the gnawing, worrying feeling that this might be a bad, melodramatic movie begins to creep in on you. The emotional outbursts from Oyin (Adaobi Dibor), though justified, have been unearned narratively. The energetic opening sequence is abrupt and chaotic. Something undone about the first act makes it feel like it should be slower and faster simultaneously. But as the first act closes, an interesting thing happens: the story redeems itself. Blood Vessel pays homage to the illegal migrants who take the most dangerous routes to leave their…
Ololade opens with a morbid premise. It is a scene that’d set a tone for any viewer. Two figures shrouded in darkness and accompanied by an eerie soundtrack are digging a shallow grave. They pick a corpse and toss it into the grave. Then, we cut to the title card. One expects several things from the series with that opener: mystery, thrill perhaps, crime, definitely, and most importantly, a clever plot. As the series unfolds, it quickly becomes clear that Ololade doesn’t have the gravitas to deliver on all fronts. Ololade is a 6-episode Netflix-acquired original series with Lani Aisida…
Adeoluwa Owu’s Adire is FilmOne’s debut original. It is the first in their line-up for in-house originals. The all-purpose Nigerian film company has officially thrown its hat in the filmmaking mix of original productions. The director, Owu, responsible for The Griot (2021), has contributed to a line of films as director and cinematographer. In Adire, Owu and FilmOne grapple with the basic impulse of freedom and what it might mean to one who has never truly had it. Adire (Kehinde Bankole) is a retired prostitute on the run from her pimp (Yemi Black). She wants to define what freedom might…