Bling Lagosians: All over the place in search of a purpose

RELEASE DATE: June 2019

PRODUCER: Bolanle Austen-Peters Production

DIRECTOR: Bolanle Austen-Peters

RUN TIME: 97 minutes

MAIN CHARACTERS: Gbenga Titiloye, Elvina Ibru, Alex Ekubo, Osas Ighodaro, 

DOP: Adekunle “Nodash” Adejuyigbe

GRADE: 3/5

The Bling Lagosians is a nice family drama if we keep to the nuclear plot of the Holloway family — a flawed family with a couple of humane and beautiful daughters navigating through life in their various lanes and meeting at the necessary family junctions. 

Temidun and George’s marriage is struggling because of her one instance of infidelity while Tokunbo or Toku as Nnamdi calls her is an Oxford-trained lawyer who prefers screenwriting and dresses outlandishly. They are free spirits and we are happy that it ultimately ends well for them with George accepting Temidun back and Toku and Nnamdi discovering love while trying to make a movie.

But the father, Akin Holloway and Mopelola, don’t get such passes. Akin is a philandering, wayward, money guzzler who runs the company aground while the introduction of Mopelola’s character evokes images of a wicked witch or “spirit mother” which was a motif of the pre new-cinema Hollywood a la “Alaba Nollywood” as she proclaims “My party must be unrivaled in the land of Eko partydom…”

There are a few more subplots — a bunch of jealous friendly-enemy society ladies trying to out party each other; an Alaba/Upper Iweka movie marketer realizing that there was need for some professional diversification in movies invites a scriptwriter to write a blockbuster but tries top impose his own ideas on it; Shaggy and Helen Paul and the domestic crew who are being owed by an irresponsible couple planning a huge party and buying big cars and watches.

Production wise, the advent of international steaming services like Netflix, Amazon and co. to our film industry has had an effect akin to that of the arrival of MTV Base on our music videos. The quality of our films are improving by the day and is up there with international counterparts.

I also believe that we have some of the most talented actors, directors and producers in this country and what they were able to do on shoestring budgets are beginning to be transmitted to better funded projects and we are the better for it. However we need to capitalize on our strengths and not try to outdo anyone because we have enough and we are enough.

In an earlier review, I had mentioned that due to the fact that this “New Nollywood” is still at a formative stage, comedy seems to be the order of the day for now. Nnamdi says, “Nne we need to put comedy, people need to laugh, obodo siri ike.” But he was talking more about the slapstick kind which had reigned supreme in the Alaba and Asaba movie markets, but we are thankfully past that stage now. 

However there seems to be a pattern creeping into the New Nollywood. I don’t think it’s a full-blown genre yet, but it’s there and heavily too. Despite this film being called “The Bling Lagosians” which should already point us to its direction, there seem to be a whole world of movies designed in the “Crazy Rich Asians” model —“Wedding Party 1&2, Chief Daddy, etc… 

New Nigerian producers who are replacing the Alaba cartel, appear to have been caught up in this ostentatious display of riches trend in movies and making it look cool. But the danger here is that they are about falling into the Alaba pit and develop tropes that tell a whole different story from  the realities of the people outside the one percent of the one percent. Because while the one percent of the one percent may have the kind of money mentioned in the film, the current minimum wage of Nigeria is still 18 000 naira per month and we all live in the same country o!

Cinematography-wise this movie ticks the basic boxes and more but has some questionable blocking in some basic over-the-shoulder shots. There are a lot of profile shots of face to face dialogues where more frontal placement of the camera would have captured the emotions better. The scenes of Nnamdi showing Tokunbo his intended market and the party scene towards the end played out more like music videos than a movie. There are also a few focus-pulling issues while there are no subtitles for the various instances of Yoruba and Igbo usage. Netflix provides subtitles but not everyone watches TV with the subtitles on.

Even though I feel that Alex Ekubo doesn’t really fit into the role he was cast, his character was deep and funny and along with his looks, his romance with Tokunbo could be accepted even if it barely pulls through and looked more appropriate for a prose fiction which was the original form of the movie as written by Chris Ihidero. The exaggerated Igbo accent however, has become cliched and Alex has already done it in a couple of other films, so there was no need to replicate it here. 

Ultimately, The Bling Lagosians is another big step towards our freedom from the Alaba, Upper Iweka and Asaba creativity pits which bogged down Nollywood longer than they should have. It’s only going to get better from here and we would accept this and other movies of its ilk for now as we make steady progress in the New Nollywood.

The Wedding Party and the present-day Nigerian cinemagoer

Year: 2016

Director: Kemi Adetiba

Run Time: 100 Minutes

Main Acts: Banky W, Adesua Etomi

Production Company: Ebonylife Films, Inkblot Production, Koa Studios

Distribution: FilmOne Distributions

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Nollywood

Rating: 3.5/5 

By Chilee Agunanna

I once interviewed Terry G, a Nigerian music artist, in his heydays sometime in 2010, after his song, “Free Madness”, was released or leaked, as he claimed, and he said: “Chilee, how do you think I will just put that kind of nonsense together and ask people to buy it as music, it’s just as I said in the song, the beat was for other people and I was just testing the microphone because production is not like MC where you will just say, hello hello to set the microphone, here you would have to do something for a stretch before you can get the settings right. That’s just what happened here and because of plenty shayo, I was carried away and sang a whole track.”

He went on to tell me that the Nigerian music public was not yet ready for meaningful lyrics in music. Nigeria, he said, was still a dancing society and no one really cared about the lyrics, it was just the beats that would make them dance and they were happy with it.

Nigeria seems to be at that stage in the movie sector at the moment, any cinema-quality offering with a simple storyline, star-power and comedy to make them laugh is enough to make it a good movie for now.

The Nigerian movie audience has wandered for long in the wilderness of Asaba, Onitsha, Lagos and other places where cast and crew are hastily assembled and low-budget home movies are churned out in large quantity with stock characters, cheap cameras and witchcraft, that any sense of quality from our movies is good for them.

Nigerians love Nigeria and no matter what happens, once there is quality from our locals, most of who have gone international and back, we will be very happy to patronize it. That has always been the Nigerian spirit.

Nigerian movies have long been challenged by the issue of funding and this in turn affected the quality of works produced in Nollywood. Comedy has always been bedrock of the Nigerian movie industry because with the very low budget of the movies, even the most common film tricks were difficult to accomplish and the success of the industry then rested on the sheer talents of the actors and they expressed this fully through comedy and drama.

Also the budgets of Nigeria movies were severely stunted in the past and the producers who controlled these movies were the marketers at Alaba who only wanted profit and were also afraid of piracy. Those days are virtually behind us now because gradually movies are going back to the professionals and the artists will have the chance to actually produce good art.

Nigeria had cinemas in the past but most of us never saw them, we only heard about them from our parents, just like we had movies and theatre before without really seeing them until “Living in Bondage” came out in 1991 and Nollywood, was born.

The new Nigerian cinema is here and the taste buds seem to favour comedy at the moment. A whole lot of good Nigerian movies are hitting the box office recently but none has been as commercially successful as The Wedding Party before it was AY’s 30 Days in Atlanta and its sequel, A Trip to Jamaica.

Quality is now more demanded by the audience, comedy is once again at the rescue and a storyline not demanding any major tricks like The Wedding Party, with star-quality of the dramatis personae, it was always going to be a success.

The Wedding Party is a romantic comedy that fulfills most of the needs of the present Nigerian cinemagoer. Its success is largely based on the quality of production and the star cast and crew whose fans and friends have hyped the movie into the stratosphere. It is a simple storyline that incorporates a number of serious messages and issues along with the party atmosphere. There is the clash of cultures between the Yoruba and Igbos; the promotion of local dishes above cozy expensive ones; the abandoned Nigerian graduate and so on.

The movie is about wedding and reception story of an Igbo boy, Dozie Onwuka (Banky W) and Dunni Coker (Adesua Etomi), a Yoruba girl. The funny inter-tribal clashes that could have occurred during such event from the beginning of the ceremony to the end. Within this were issues of unfaithfulness both for Dozie and his father, Chief Felix Onwuka (Richard Mofe-Damijo). There is the snobbish attitude of Lady Obianuju Onwuka (Iretiola Doyle) to the perceptibly loud and seemingly uncultured attitude of Dunni’s family. Dunni’s mother, Tinuade Coker is played by Sola Sobowale while the father, Bamidele Coker is played by veteran comedian, Ali Baba.

The cast, which cuts across the major entertainment genres of Nigeria—actors, comedians and musicians, means that the appeal base was spread across the fans of these stars. Also the heavyweight production team of Ebonylife Films, Film One Distribution, Inkblot Production and Koga Studios and the direction of Kemi Adetiba, a New York University-trained filmmaker who has so far directed only music videos in Nigeria, should be also be counted towards the success of this movie. It further buttresses the fact that films are returning to the professionals instead of the Alaba marketers who were only after profit.

While the claims of open casting can count for some of the members, Zaina’s job at Ebonylife, Banky and Adesua’s act in his video “Made for You” would have definitely swayed things in their favour. Zaina is excellent in her role and to me her discovery is one of the highlights of the movie and I hope to see her again on a movie screen.

There are no complicated plot twists, but like I said, that’s not what the movie aims to achieve, it just wants to provide quality laughter different from the bombastic characters of the Osuofia and Jaguar. In fact the serious scenes are somehow wished away to make way for the laughter sections and this is provided in ample episodes of the movies. This at the moment satisfies the Nigerian audience and as we proceed to appreciate good movies, the stakes would continue to be raised on all fronts.

COSSY ORJIAKOR OPENS PLAYGIRL MANSION; SET TO RELEASE ALBUM

Cossy

Nollywood actress, Cossy Orjiako, is never out of the news for a long time. She recently celebrated her birthday party by releasing semi-nude pictures of herself pole-dancing to friends.

Last week, she dropped a double-impact news – She christened her new house “Playgirl Mansion” and dropped news of releasing a full-length music album of December 15.

Using her handle, @cossydiva, the actress who also acquired 12 plots of land in Abuja recently, Tweeted pictures and the menu of the mansion to her followers: Play girl mansion is now open. Pls send the left over rams …A pretty big boobs chef will make a delicacy out of em.

There were also information about the forth coming album in subsequent tweets: ‘My Album launch is Dec,15, Venue ..in the sea..Prest Boat Cruise.. life band …buffet..and lots of take home gifts. 1st class affair

If the album is anything close to what we are suspecting it would be, Cossy would simply be readmitting herself into an exclusive cast of Failed Nollywood Musicians. A list which includes herself, Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Ini Edo, Desmond Elliot, Jim Iyke and the ongoing disaster of Tonto Dikeh.