Film Review: See The Big Fat Lie only at your own risk

Another day another insipid Nollywood comedy. And how we’ve come to dread them. This time around Darasen Richards directs Rita Dominic and Blossom Chukwujekwu in a rather mirthless comedy of errors involving a hotel porter who gets himself tangled in a white lie only to find that to sustain the impression created, he has to... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

Blossom Chukwujekwu, rita dominic, Tana Adelana

March 25, 2019

Film review: Mr President doesn’t take itself seriously. You shouldn’t either

No better time than election season to usher in a parody of actual political happenings. Mr President (The Controversial Election) directed by Toka McBaror and produced by Shirley Ann Ede is a satire that puts up a mirror to society and takes numerous shots at everyone from the political class to the regular citizens who... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

Mr. President, review, Wilfred Okiche

March 25, 2019

Profile: The Rise and rise of Teni the Entertainer (and yes, she’s problematic too)

The fastest rising superstar in the country is a twenty-five-year-old bubbly young lady. Her name is Teniola Apata but she goes by the name Teni the Entertainer. Every year the music industry throws up a bunch of contenders, each one claiming to be the next big thing. Some of them disappear as suddenly as they... Read More

Specials

Oreoluwa Peters, Teni The Entertainer

March 24, 2019

Obituary: Okwui Enwezor, giant of contemporary art

The global art world lost one of its most important and dynamic figures on Friday, 15, March when Nigerian born curator, art critic, writer, educator and administrator breathed his last in Munich, Germany. According to his partner, Louise Neri, a director at Gagosian gallery, cause of death was cancer. He was 55. Born and raised... Read More

Specials

biennale, obituary, Okwui Enweazor, Wilfred Okiche

March 21, 2019

Film Review: Being Annabel should have gone straight to video

Identical twins have been a mainstay of film culture for so long that stories involving look alikes and mistaken identity might as well have a sub-genre dedicated to them. With this in mind, one would assume that any producer mining for stories around this particular depot would make some effort to dig up a fresh,... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

Being Annabel, Wilfred Okiche

March 11, 2019

Obituary: Adeyemo Elebute; surgeon, academic, entrepreneur

On 23, February, renowned surgeon, medical elder, distinguished academic and exemplary entrepreneur, Professor Adeyemo Emmanuel Elebute breathed his last. He was 86 years old. The family announcement did not detail the cause of death. A colossus in the field of medicine as well as in the boardroom, Elebute was a nation builder who distinguished himself... Read More

Specials

elebute, obituary

March 10, 2019

Film Review: Void is a surprising psychological drama

In Void, the new psychological drama produced by actor Frederick Leonard and directed by Eneaji Chris, troubling signs arrive early enough. The film opens with a handsome young man, Tonna, played by Leonard who seems very much within his comfort zone. He is getting ready for work in one of those mass assembled upper scale... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

void, Wilfred Okiche

March 2, 2019

Obituary: Bisi Silva, godmother of contemporary art from Africa

The art world, locally and internationally, mourns the loss of Bisi Silva, influential curator, founder and artistic director of the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), a nonprofit art gallery and education center in Lagos. Silva, a peerless patron of contemporary art- and of the Lagos art scene- who nurtured the career growth of countless contemporary... Read More

Specials

art, Bisi Silva, Joke Silva

February 17, 2019

#Berlinale2019: Of fathers and their sons: Chiwetel Ejiofor’s The Boy who Harnessed the Wind

Editor’s Note: Our in-house critic, Wilfred Okiche, was invited to the 2019 Berlinale Film Festival as part of its Berlinale Talents programme and is sending dispatches from the front lines of global film, enjoy. In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, the stirring directorial debut by British-Nigerian actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, an interesting moment arrives in... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

berlinale, Chiwetel, Malawi

February 16, 2019

#Berlinale2019: Books, lies and videotape- Review of The Plagiarist

Director Peter Parlow attempts a deep dive into the creative mind, trying out a series of ideas before settling on a curious comparison of the merits of books versus film in this frustratingly pretentious art-house styled film playing in the official forum section of this year’s Berlinale. A young heterosexual couple, Anna (Lucy Kaminsky) and... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

February 15, 2019

#Berlinale2019: Sex and the City: A review of Tamer Jandali’s Easy Love

Editor’s Note: Our in-house critic, Wilfred Okiche, was invited to the 2019 Berlinale Film Festival as part of its Berlinale Talents programme and is sending dispatches from the front lines of global film, enjoy. Opening the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section of this year’s Berlinale, Tamer Jandali’s feature-length debut, Easy Love, is a hybrid documentary-fiction... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

Berlinale 2018, reviews, Wilfred Okiche

February 14, 2019

#IFFR2019Review: Rosamund Pike is terrific in A Private War

Editor’s Note: Our in-house critic, Wilfred Okiche, was invited to the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam as part of its Talents programme and is sending dispatches from the front lines of global film, enjoy. Adapted from a 2012 Vanity Fair long read titled, Marie Colvin’s private war by Marie Brenner, A Private War is the... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

A private War, Rosamund Pike, Rotterdam

February 6, 2019

#IFFR2019: Wanuri Kahiu’s Rafiki is vivid and technically accomplished

Editor’s Note: Our in-house critic, Wilfred Okiche, was invited to the International Film Festival Rotterdam and is sending dispatches from the front lines of global film, enjoy. In Wanuri Kahiu’s sophomore film, the tender romance drama, Rafiki, the idea of two adolescents navigating the same sex attraction brewing between them is almost a normal occurrence.... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

IFFR, Rafiki, Wanuri Kahiu, Wilfred Okiche

February 5, 2019

#IFFR2019Review: Fear and loathing in Ulaa Salim’s Sons of Denmark

Editor’s Note: Our in-house critic, Wilfred Okiche, was invited to the International Film Festival Rotterdam and is sending dispatches from the front lines of global film, enjoy. In the feature-length, Sons of Denmark which opened the Tiger Competition at the 2019 International Film Festival, Rotterdam, Danish born director Ulaa Salim considers the rising wave of... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

January 31, 2019

#IFFR2019Review: Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum is a triumph

Editor’s Note: Our in-house critic, Wilfred Okiche, was invited to the International Film Festival Rotterdam and is sending dispatches from the front lines of global film, enjoy. In present-day Lebanon, Zain, a street-smart kid is brought into a courtroom, facing charges of stabbing an adult. On interrogation, he reveals he wants to sue his parents.... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

Capernaum, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Nadine Labaki, Wilfred Okiche

January 28, 2019

Investigation: Has Enugu State unlocked the model for genuine community development in Nigeria?

Enugu State government’s landmark Visit Every Community (VEC) programme looks to be delivering on its mandate despite several gaps and inconsistencies. What can the model teach Nigeria? Enugu State, capital of the South East geopolitical zone, has 99 problems but a shoddy intra-state road network isn’t one of them. The reason for this? The Visit... Read More

Specials

Enugu State

January 24, 2019

Review: Woli Arole takes on Nollywood with ‘The Call’; He doesn’t succeed

For Hollywood’s latest remake of A Star is Born, the titular character, Ally, played by pop star, Lady Gaga has her pivotal, starmaking moment the old-fashioned way, belting out a tune to a live, appreciative audience. If A Star is Born were to be made to reflect Nigeria’s contemporary pop scene, perhaps Ally would have... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor

January 23, 2019

Review: Enyinna Nwigwe and Bimbo Akintola in dull, nondescript Baby Steps

Enyinna Nwigwe headlines this dramatic comedy about a chronic bachelor whose playboy lifestyle is jolted into reset mode when he wakes up to a baby- the product of one of his numerous sexual encounters- at his doorstep. Confused and frustrated, Ransome (Nwigwe) must learn to accommodate the newest member of his life while jumping through... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

baby steps, bimbo akintola, Enyinna Nwigwe

January 22, 2019

Profile: How Genevieve Nnaji became Queen of Nollywood (again)

In December 2018, two decades after starting out with a bit part in the crime drama, Most Wanted, Genevieve Nnaji entered yet another phase of her eventful career with a limited theatrical release of her directorial debut, the family comedy, Lionheart. Earlier in September, just a day before Lionheart’s world premiere at the Toronto International... Read More

Editor's Pick, Featured, Reviews, The Cutting Floor

Akin Omotosho, Genevieve Nnaji, Lionheart, Road to yesterday

January 16, 2019

Review: Knock Out Blessing delivers more hits than misses

The prodigious Dare Olaitan announced his arrival in audacious form with the 2017 crime drama Ojukokoro (Greed). A welcome breath of fresh air, Ojukokoro was quite unlike anything that had come before it, a hugely impressive showcase of Olaitan’s gifts as a storyteller, writer and director. Two years later- with a brief and better forgotten... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

Dare Olaitan, Knockout Blessing, Ojukokoro

January 15, 2019

Review: Up North is big, beautiful and bland

Geography was big in Nollywood in 2018 with films like Lionheart, King of Boys and Kasala looking within to reflect worlds and create narratives that are distinctly local. While the former films spread themselves across various regions in the South, Anakle, a digital media agency took the road less travelled- at least as far as... Read More

Reviews, The Film Blog

Banky W, Up North

December 26, 2018

Film Review: Lionheart is the feel-good movie of the year and everyone should see it

Genevieve Nnaji isn’t a fan of the division of the film industry into old and new Nollywood. These boxes and labels, convenient but ultimately far from all-encompassing were employed by the media in response to the pivot of Nollywood films to cinema, as distributors began to seek out new ways of reaching audiences. “People come... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

Genevieve Nnaji, Lionheart the movie, Nkem Owoh, Onyeka Onwenu

December 14, 2018

Vonne Couture Presents Dudu Collection

Womenswear label, Vonne couture has unveiled its latest collection named ‘Dudu’- which means black in Yoruba language. The creative director, Yvonne Nwosu who poses as her own model for the lookbook expressed that ‘Dudu’ was inspired by the ‘African Woman’ who is an embodiment of strength and beauty, and with all that she is burdened... Read More

Reviews

fashion, Vonne Couture

December 13, 2018

Film Review: In an industry drowning in cliches; Kasala is a breath of fresh air

In an interesting twist, one of the most refreshing movies to come out of Nollywood in a long time has no big name leading lady attached, isn’t fronted by a comedian turned actor, wasn’t made by committee and appears to have little marketing spend. Set over the course of a single day in a Surulere,... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

Ema Edosio, film, Kasala, review, Wilfred Okiche

December 10, 2018

Film Review: Ayoola Ayolola is the best thing about If I am President

What better time to put out an old school drama about aspiring for the highest political office in the land than electoral season? As the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lifts the lid to allow for active campaigning, and political parties and their candidates scramble for a piece of the pie, filmmaker Bright Wonder Obasi... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

Ayo Ayoola, Mac Arthur Foundation, Wilfred Okiche

December 10, 2018

Review: Chief Daddy is ready to take all your money

You have seen the trailer. It is no spoiler to report that Chief Beecroft (Taiwo Obileye), the character for which EbonyLife Film’s latest extravaganza is named, has just kicked the bucket. This unfortunate event, the film’s inciting incidence is pretty much dispatched with in the opening sequences. The real drama lies in what happens after.... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

Chief Daddy, Wilfred Okiche

December 8, 2018

With “Dead Lions Don’t Roar”, Tolu Akinyemi opts for relatable simplicity

Poetry can be likened to spades, whose ability to dig deep and unearth largely depends on who is handling it. It’s fairly obvious, but the fate of a line or a paragraph, in terms of its resonating effect, has a lot to do with the thumb and index (and all other accompanying) fingers wielding the... Read More

Reviews

Dead Lions dont roar, Poetolu, Poetry, Tolu Akinyemi

November 11, 2018

Theatre Review: Our Son the Minister is the story of all of us

In 2016, the Beeta Universal Arts Foundation, founded by Bikiya Graham-Douglas, launched the Beeta Playwright Competition to give a voice and create opportunities for emerging writers. Our Son the Minister, a political satire, back for a second run from 9 through 11, November 2018 at the Terra Kulture Arena, was the inaugural winner. Written by... Read More

Reviews, The Cutting Floor

Our Son the Minister, theatre

November 7, 2018

King of Boys: An unvarnished look into the seedy underbelly of the Lagos elite

Kemi Adetiba’s King of Boys is a coming of age film and a departure from the mundane theme of comedy prevalent in Nigeria’s movie space. King of Boys is a movie of grit, dialogue and character, laced with auteur brilliance intent on making a strong statement in Nollywood. The movie begins with a party scene... Read More

Film Review: ‘King of Boys’ is everything and nothing you expect

Director Kemi Adetiba is one of Nigeria’s experimental auteurs. That much was made clear from the scene that played out at the Sunday night premiere of her hotly anticipated King of Boys. The version that screened to a crowd of industry people- most seeing the film for the first time- came in at over three hours..... Read More

Featured, Reviews, The Cutting Floor, The Film Blog

Adesua Etomi-Wellington, k1 de ultimate, Kemi Adetiba, King of Boys, Sola Sobowale

Film Review: See The Big Fat Lie only at your own risk

Film review: Mr President doesn’t take itself seriously. You shouldn’t either

Profile: The Rise and rise of Teni the Entertainer (and yes, she’s problematic too)

Obituary: Okwui Enwezor, giant of contemporary art

Film Review: Being Annabel should have gone straight to video

Obituary: Adeyemo Elebute; surgeon, academic, entrepreneur

Film Review: Void is a surprising psychological drama

Obituary: Bisi Silva, godmother of contemporary art from Africa

#Berlinale2019: Of fathers and their sons: Chiwetel Ejiofor’s The Boy who Harnessed the Wind

#Berlinale2019: Books, lies and videotape- Review of The Plagiarist

#Berlinale2019: Sex and the City: A review of Tamer Jandali’s Easy Love

#IFFR2019Review: Rosamund Pike is terrific in A Private War

#IFFR2019: Wanuri Kahiu’s Rafiki is vivid and technically accomplished

#IFFR2019Review: Fear and loathing in Ulaa Salim’s Sons of Denmark

#IFFR2019Review: Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum is a triumph

Investigation: Has Enugu State unlocked the model for genuine community development in Nigeria?

Review: Woli Arole takes on Nollywood with ‘The Call’; He doesn’t succeed

Review: Enyinna Nwigwe and Bimbo Akintola in dull, nondescript Baby Steps

Profile: How Genevieve Nnaji became Queen of Nollywood (again)

Review: Knock Out Blessing delivers more hits than misses

Review: Up North is big, beautiful and bland

Film Review: Lionheart is the feel-good movie of the year and everyone should see it

Vonne Couture Presents Dudu Collection

Film Review: In an industry drowning in cliches; Kasala is a breath of fresh air

Film Review: Ayoola Ayolola is the best thing about If I am President

Review: Chief Daddy is ready to take all your money

With “Dead Lions Don’t Roar”, Tolu Akinyemi opts for relatable simplicity

Theatre Review: Our Son the Minister is the story of all of us

King of Boys: An unvarnished look into the seedy underbelly of the Lagos elite

Film Review: ‘King of Boys’ is everything and nothing you expect

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