Category: Reviews

Review: Does ‘A Day In The Live: Wizkid’ bring the Starboy closer?

With the Coronavirus pandemic upending traditional music industry structures globally, artists, their management and record labels have had to figure out alternative ways of getting their content out to the…

Read More Arrow
Ed Keazor

Ed Keazor Remembers Nigeria’s Forgotten Army in “Company Yaya: Lost African Voices of World War 2”

When powerful nations were plunged into a war and interests clashed, more than half of the world was drawn into the war. The rise of Fascism across Europe put many…

Read More Arrow
Aviara

Book Review: Othuke Ominiabohs’ Aviara affirms his place in Nigeria’s literary canon

In 2016’s Odufa, first time author Othuke Ominiabohs spun a disturbing tale of the toxic nature of love and the several ways that people who are supposedly in love turn…

Read More Arrow
Omah Lay

EP Review: Omah Lay takes the Burna blueprint and elevates it with ‘Get Layd’

Contemporary Nigerian music witnessed a change of guard from one generation to the next the moment Wizkid’s Holla at your Boy announced him as the next big deal. Prior to…

Read More Arrow
RIta Dominic

Film Review: Rita Dominic and Kalu Ikeagwu find their way through a marriage crisis in Light in the Dark

Light in the Dark opens with what may be becoming cinematographer Muhammed Attah Ahmed’s signature flourish. The camera, placed upside down, zooms in on Joke Silva, lying down on a…

Read More Arrow
Wives

Theatre Review: ”The Wives” is a near perfect outing

Fresh off her stage directing debut with the dramedy, Lavender which premiered at the Lagos Theatre Festival in April, thespian Lala Akindoju returned to the stage on the week ending…

Read More Arrow
A pelican of the wilderness

Adora Nnadi reviews Jacqueline Agweh’s A Pelican of the Wilderness

Editors Note:  When Enajite Efemuaye, editor of Farafina Books heralds someone as the next big revelation in wordcraft; you drop everything you're doing and read. I read Adoara's review of…

Read More Arrow
Jagagba

Theatre Review: Forget Game of Thrones, Jagagba is the real deal

The winning play of the second edition of the Bikiya Graham-Douglas run Beeta Universal Arts Foundation playwright competition was staged over the weekend at the Agip recital hall of the…

Read More Arrow
Mokalik

Film Review: Kunle Afolayan’s Mokalik isn’t quite a return to form

He may not know it, but Kunle Afolayan has been in need of artistic redemption since he followed up the disappointing clutter of his last truly ambitious film The CEO,…

Read More Arrow
Markate Must Sell

Film Review: Makate must sell will waste your time, and test your last nerve

Forget the colorful marketing, the glossy rom-com ad-spin and the parade of comic heavy hitters, there is almost nothing redeemable about Makate must sell, the insipid new film written and…

Read More Arrow
Katung

Film Review: In Katung Aduwak’s Heaven’s Hell, the rich also cry

If you scored a thousand Naira for every time the f… word was uttered in Heaven’s Hell, the long gestating debut feature length by former reality television star, Katung Aduwak,…

Read More Arrow
Chico Ejiro

Film Review: Chico Ejiro’s Night bus to Lagos is going nowhere

There was a period between the late nineties and early aughts when Chico Ejiro was easily the most influential figure in all of Nollywood. Long before Tyler Perry would arrive…

Read More Arrow
knockout

Film Review: Knockout wants to make you laugh. What’s wrong with that?

It is hard to recall considering today’s fragmented media space but there was a time when Wale Adenuga Productions was at the center of mainstream Nigerian entertainment. With influential titles…

Read More Arrow
Abuja Literary

The Abuja Literary and Arts Festival (ALITFEST) is back this July

The Abuja Literary Society (ALS) is proud to announce the second edition of its literary festival, the Abuja Literary and Arts Festival (ALITFEST).Having held its inaugural festival in early July…

Read More Arrow
Katung

Katung Aduwak’s Heaven Hell succeed in breathing new life into the sex scandal?

If you scored a thousand Naira for every time the f… word was uttered in Heaven’s Hell, the long gestating debut feature length by former reality television star, Katung Aduwak,…

Read More Arrow
Tade Ogidan

Film Review: Tade Ogidan mastered video, but ‘Gold Statue’ movie shows he is yet to find his cinematic voice

When it comes to Nollywood movies, the name Tade Ogidan is about as iconic as it gets. Since he put a helicopter in an audacious chase scene in the 1996…

Read More Arrow
Nimbe

Film Review: Nimbe assaults you with overt moral lessons, but isn’t that all of Nollywood

The protagonist for which Nimbe: The movie is named after is a high school student growing up somewhere in southwest Nigeria. Nimbe is the kind of character usually ignored by…

Read More Arrow
Zero Hour

Film Review: Isn’t Nollywood tired of derivative films like ‘Zero Hour’?

Forget everything you saw in Lionheart. When in Nollywood, a young man returns from the United States of America to take control of his late father’s business empire- because God…

Read More Arrow
4th Republic

Film Review: 4TH Republic is an explosive ride through political Nigeria

Art imitates life in 4th Republic, the twisty political thriller directed by Ishaya Bako and truth is, no fiction is stranger than fact. It has been barely a month that…

Read More Arrow
Fat lie

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…

Read More Arrow
President

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…

Read More Arrow
Annabel

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…

Read More Arrow
Void

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,…

Read More Arrow
Chiwetel

#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…

Read More Arrow
Plagiarist

#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…

Read More Arrow
Easy Love

#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…

Read More Arrow
Private War

#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…

Read More Arrow
Rafiki

#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…

Read More Arrow
Denmark

#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,…

Read More Arrow
Capernaum

#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,…

Read More Arrow
cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail