Payday

The movie, Payday, could have quite as easily been called “The Adventures of Paul and Tega” because that’s almost all that it is.

Payday is the story of two tenants who suddenly loose their landlord right before their rent for the year is due. They take this to mean that the rent money now belongs to them so they proceed to spend the money on a no-holds-barred night out. The next morning, they are visited by their new landlord and are given 24 hours to pay up or evacuate. The boys now resort to all sorts of schemes and practices in an attempt to get said money.

One of my least favorite genres of movies is the series-of-unfortunate-events type of film. You know the type – the one where the protagonist finds him/herself in one unfortunate event after the other and the other. The reason it’s my least favorite ‘genre’ is mostly because these types of movies just seem dreary and unending. Now even though Payday can technically be classified as another series of unfortunate events type film, it manages to evade that dreary feeling for the majority of the movie. How does it manage this? A few ways actually, but the major way it avoids this feeling is through raw comedy.

This is not Aki and Pawpaw type comedy, it’s not the adventures of Akpos. It’s not comedy that seeks to be funny, it’s comedy where it just happens to be comedy. Don’t get me wrong this is no Hangover. This movie doesn’t quite attain that degree of effortlessness that such movies have but it is on the path towards it. Payday doesn’t ever achieve that grip over its audience, but while it has you seated it gives you laughs for days.

Baaj Adebule as Paul is succinct in this one and manages the weight of protagonist effortlessly without letting the audience down at any point with his comic timing. Having said that, we must mention the king of the show – Ebiye (who plays Tega), or should we say “professional show stealer”. There’s not a single scene with him where he does not steal the show. His timing is fluid and effortless and every joke is on mark from him without feeling forced. Somehow Ebiye managed to overshadow our usual funny girl, Bisola Aiyeola, in this one alongside every other cast member. Even then, Bisola was still impressive.

But not everything is impressive here. I can’t talk about performances here without mentioning Mawuli Gavor’s role as Orlando. I was really not sure what was happening there. First of all, I must ask what kind of of fictional neighborhood is this where the neighborhood tout is this American-accent toting, one-leg-up swaggering character played by Mawuli. Is this a different spin on tout-ism? Is this liberal use of artistic license? Is this accommodations for the actor’s skills or lack thereof? Or is your fictional neighborhood based in some cross of the Bronx and Lagos city?

The usual nollywood comedy movie is a leave-your-brain at home type affair. The initial appeal of Payday is that it manages to defy that by being 100% comedy (not romantic comedy) and yet being in a realistic situation. However, when the local tout has an American accent and is called Orlando, it seems like they would like for you to continue to leave your brain at home. But fret not ladies, Mawuli takes his shirt off in this one too so all is well with the world.

Asides the comedy, the next most striking thing about the movie is the picture. The color grading is immaculate, some shots were truly ooh-and-aah inciting and all of it would have been perfect save for one-too many shots where the camera is unsteady and the frame is shaking ever so slightly. Then there are the graphics. From the gunshot to the chandelier, it’s no nollywood spidergirl level but it’s also not completely there yet.

The music in this movie is well suited, our only wish was that the transitions were not as abrupt as they occasionally were and that in the last ‘motivational’ scene, the music did not overpower the dialogue. Payday is a fun and easy watch that will have you laughing from start to finish.

THE MOVIE PAYDAY PREMIERES IN NIGERIAN CINEMAS ON JULY 13, 2018