Video Club 001 - Nollywood Wants To Kill The 'Bad Belle' Critic
Nollywood does not love criticism and this is because some critics lack the range to review movies.
No one likes to be criticized, most especially Nollywood filmmakers.
Producers/directors/lead actors believe they don’t deserve negative reviews because producing a movie in Nigeria is not only tough but can be categorized as a Grade A Old Testament miracle. It’s akin to the art of squeezing cold orange juice from a rock.
Movie critics are tagged ‘haters’, ‘bad belle people’, and ‘enemies of progress’ once they publish a less than favourable review of a Nigerian film.
How dare you rate a product of my grind and sweat as inferior? Don’t you know how hard it is to produce a film in this country?
These critics are perceived to be either Hollywood cinephiles who are out of touch with the taste of the common cinema goer in Nigeria or agents of darkness sent from the camp of the enemy to rubbish the hard work of good people who want to entertain Nigerians.
The Nollywood New Wave has definitely improved in terms of the production quality of films compared to movies produced in the Home Video Era. It has also mastered the art of the glitzy rollout and colourful premieres.
What it has failed to master is the process of converting a good idea into a good story and then to a good script. There are many Nollywood movies and TV/web series with boring stories, weak plots and poor dialogue.
Critics have been hammering on this fact for years now - Nollywood needs better stories and scripts. Even John Boyega said it during one of his visits to Lagos a few years ago. The industry can only improve with better stories and not just bigger cameras.
Unfortunately, Nollywood hates critics and what is 800 words of truth compared to N500m in the box office? We have seen star actors, directors and producers react badly to criticism on social media.
The music industry used to be like this a decade ago but honest reviews from a bunch of brilliant music critics helped the quality of music in the long run. Today, if a critic says an album is not good, no one in the industry gasps. It’s left for the artist to do better next time around. In Nollywood, the response is to double down on the nonsense.
Nollywood needs to appreciate feedback for it to seriously improve.
It’s not only filmmakers that should do better. Movie critics also need to do better with how they review films.
You can’t review a movie and say it is bad, crap or trash without detailing why it is so. You need to add context. Without context, your review will be perceived as a smear campaign.
If a movie is bad tell us why it is bad. Is it the acting, the plot, the editing or the story itself? Anyone can say a movie is bad but as a critic you need to give a constructive assessment as to what a film lacks. That is what separates a critic from the man who watches movies on the roadside.
In 2012, Don Jazzy announced his Mavin Records label which was accompanied with a compilation album called ‘Solar Plexus’. I gave the album a horrible review and I was dragged for it. The reason I got negative feedback from that review was because I didn’t state the reasons why the album was bad. I just blasted it with a colourful choice of words without proper highlighting its faults.
I learnt my lesson after that and since then whenever I publish a bad review I make sure it is well detailed.
A critic with 13,000 followers on Instagram has to do more than slam bad reviews on our timelines. The critic should give a proper and well-detailed review of the movie he or she has just watched. This is what Cinema Pointer is lacking.
The job of a critic is to elevate the art and properly assess art for posterity sake. If you call a movie trash on your huge platform, then you are chasing clout. If you tell us why a movie is trash, then you are elevating the art.
We all need to do better, both filmmakers and critics.
P.S I am not a Nollywood critic.
Movie News
Dare Olaitan’s ‘Ojukokoro’ originally released in 2016 is now out on Netflix. I loved this when I watched it at the cinema and I will watch it again to see if it still holds up.
Speaking of Dare Olaitan, the gifted director has dropped a teaser for his next project ‘Dwindle’. It is scheduled for a July 16 release and it stars big names such as Funke Akindele, Bisola Aiyeola, Broda Shaggi and others. It smells like a comedy to me.
A bit of storm was raised over what some consider the early removal of the Mildred Okwo backed movie ‘La Femme Anjola’ from many of the cinema outlets owned by Filmhouse. If you want to catch up with the controversy feel free to read here.
And speaking of The Prophetess, the Niyi Akinmolayan directed movie is doing well at the box office. The movie raked in N43.9 million in its first five-day opening. It is also the biggest Easter weekend opening at the Nigerian box office. Nigerians really love comedy. Don’t they?
According to multiple reports, veteran Nollywood actor Chief Bruno Iwuoha has passed away.
Finally, the actress Osas Ighodaro is back after a brief hiatus from the movie scene. The last major release she was involved in was ‘Rattlesnake: The Ahanna Story’.
R.I.P DMX
Finally, the Dog can rest. During his lifetime he had an active acting career. If you have the time, you can check some of his urban classics such as ‘Romeo Must Die’ and ‘Cradle 2 The Grave’ starring Jet Li.
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