Ugly September

I have been saying for ages that Amanda Ebeye is an undiscovered gem, quietly working behind the recognition of most Nollywood fans and it is perfectly demonstrated here. She has a huge range of acting skills however I will concede that her deserved popularity is blocked by her choice in movies to act in. She is always in one crap runs girl movie or the other hence her presence has become code word for bad, and skanky. She is not the only underrated performer in Nollywood; I would put her co-star Yul Edochie in this category as well.

In this film, they both were allowed to escape the label of ‘Tacky Runs Girl’ and ‘Prince’ and are given serious meaty roles. They didn’t disappoint and did show that they need to take more varied roles because they can handle it. This movie is the first time I have seen Lilian Madu but she impressed me with her portrayal of the troublemaker. It was both authentic and it felt personal to her, she made the role her own. The little sister was not as impressive but she was good. The characters were very interesting to watch, particularly the character of Adamma played by Amanda Ebeye who was a far cry from the usual cry-cry orphan because she was strong and determined and I really enjoyed that not often seen trait in poor Nollywood people. Yul Edochie’s character on the other hand was flawed and I also enjoyed watching and questioning the hell out of it.

Not original in any sense, the storyline did manage to take a whole lot of recognisable Nigerian movie tropes- I could name at least three original movies it copied from- to create something palatable. It was very predictable for instance it became a race to see when Mama will die (mama always dies). Whilst I may have disliked the ending- the evil girl changed out of nowhere- it did keep me entertained.  Thus the elements of the story are worth watching but on the other hand the way it was presented was a bit off. There were huge flashbacks containing scenes that we had seen before, in its entirety.

In conclusion, this film is interesting and captivating and only held back because the filmmaker relied on nollywood tricks to make their movie longer and I didn’t appreciate it. What is wrong with two parts? You dey forbid? By the way, IbakaTv really needs to start labelling these things because it’s frustrating to go scouring through the comments for some helpful person to point out the next part.