Reviewing Ghanaian Films

The aim of a review or a critique is primarily to point out certain things that make a movie or not and by so doing, helping the creator of the movie improve.

Being a writer myself and a movie fan, I’ve sometimes felt like changing parts of movies and other times, wanted to give up writing because I can’t surpass some. Art is not about money and the failure to reach a certain height due to lack of funds shall not derogate from the art. In that, we cannot blame scarce financial resources as the sole reason for failure in displaying the potential of an art. We have a lot of stories and talented actors in Ghana; that is potential - maybe money and links can provide their success but are we even using this potential?

Growing up, I’ve seen too many films with ghosts and witches and fake so-called royalty systems. I used to be frightened when It was a ghost and reacted correspondingly to the other ‘creatures’ and themes. I’ve come to realize that my fear wasn’t because they were scary, it was just me and my generation and the things we found scary. Right now, it’s not ghosts that scare me; it’s the thought of some cheating husband getting caught by a lonely wife reading her husband’s txt messages or someone finding some exam results. The list is endless. Have I matured? Or have I done away with the belief or perception of existence of Ghosts? Or is it that the depiction of the ghost characters is not quite real (ironically)? Mind you, the kids today, don’t fear ghost, or AIDS or anything, they fear losing their phones etc. So how do we scare them without always using ghosts or teenage pregnancy etc through a movie?

So I’m browsing on facebook and in between chatting with friends and reading stuff on goal.com, I start watching a movie because none of the conversations are intense. Is that how low the option of watching a movie has fallen?

I’m talking to friends about my relationship problems and all they say is it’s the Ghanaian films they’ve been watching. Is she too immature to know it’s just fiction or really, I’m wrong and the movie is right?

Somebody give me a good Ghanaian film that will make me put my phone on silent, smash something on the floor and use swear words when my parents are around and most importantly, make me put it on my facebook status, tweet about it and call friends and say, chale you see this film...?

Lights, Camera, Action....

P.K, my neighbour, just popped in and we seem to agree on these. I asked for his point of view on Ghanaian films and he’s impressed with the eloquence of the actors (herein and hereafter referring to actresses too sometimes) and the depth in youth and reality of some scenes and acting. We have come to appreciate that not all things can be perfected, not even in movies. Some of the defects will be mentioned later on.

I’m not sure if there is a strict rule on the pattern to criticizing a movie (I prefer review because critique just generally sounds like saying the negatives).

Whenever I watch a movie, I seem to memorize a lot of things; I think it’s a craft that I have nurtured through arguments and the fact that I sometimes, almost on a weekly basis, have to recommend a movie for a friend. Although, my information on locally made and African movies is not as in depth as it is on foreign movies, I still try to appreciate the local ones in my own small possible way. These are the steps/guidelines I want to use as my style of appreciation.

Title

Storyline

How it unfolds

Music/sound/cameras

Cast

Acting

Ending

TITLE

As a writer, I’m a fan of the art side of a film and not the money aspect but the title has to have all to do with the film. If you’re into making money out of a work, at least go for a good title; I liked PERFECT PICTURE, I think there was a creative concept behind that last picture taken at the wedding and it was a sensible one and a superb work of art. A title is a name, a name identifies a subject and a movie is a subject so you don’t want a title that depicts something that has little or nothing to do with the movie even in a remote sense. This aforementioned ‘description’ of a title is invariably what the art is all about. To the money part- you want the movie to sell with just its name – its title. On the market, they don’t see you standing by the DVD’s and posters waiting to explain what your movie is about so you normally choose a name that sells. Settling on a title has little to do with this marketing notion when you think about it seriously. It’s the art side that really helps carve out a title. All the same, a title may push away some and pull some. You can’t pull them all.

THE SCRIPT

The script is a visual representation of a story using, and this is very important, primarily, dialogues. A good script can make everybody’s work easy. It tells the relationship between characters, their moods and traits amongst other. I can’t go on about the script and what it has to do in terms of the story line because that would be stating the obvious like - look it’s 12 noon and the sun is shining Ghana.

THE STORY LINE

The plot or story line forms the ‘reason’ of the movie. It is the excuse for the actors, director etc coming together.

More often than not, we see movies, locally especially, with story lines that we have become conversant with. A rich man’s daughter wanting to marry a poor guy with education, (so poor guy with no education is out of the equation?). As real as this may seem, I don’t want to pay for a DVD to see something I already know. Sure some people don’t know it exists. Maybe one person and it’s worth doing a movie for one fan because it might change her life and that might change the world but are we out of stories? Of course, I will still watch a movie even if I have an idea of the movie and the story line is so familiar but then are you being fair to me? You just want your money and you should feel smart because you just sold something I already have twice. It’s always the same plot. Can someone do something out of relationships?

To say I am equipped with the best storylines would be a big lie but sometimes I’m the best liar because I’m lying to my girlfriend or trying to convince someone to do me a favour. At that point, I’m better than some scriptwriters. I think all Ghanaian writers want to do something big and extraordinary. I feel in their endeavours to have a story that isn’t too flat, they put a lot into one film and worsen it with sequels that we are compelled to buy. It’s not fair to add unnecessary details to films and pause somewhere and tell me on the TV I bought to watch unlimited entertainment, “watch out for part II”. Let me be the judge of whether or not the film deserves a sequel. Let me say I can’t wait to see it. As much as films and scripts may be written or done in a planned manner so they have sequels and probably to cut down cost etc, it’s not artistic at all. I don’t have a certificate in drama or in acting but I know when some scenes are just a waste of time. I think THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE, SUNCITY, TAXI DRIVER, ULTIMATE PARADISE and now TINSEL are ages ahead of our films. Let’s leave the suspense to TV shows. I know some TV shows do well and better than movies in the states but the movies aren’t poorly and sluggishly lacking behind like we are allowing.

THE UNFOLDING OF THE PLOT

The unfolding of a plot is how the story plays out. This is no mat that we’re unfolding, or a coiled snake. It’s a story and how it unfolds depends, to me, more on the director than the writer. He may use flashbacks and other ‘techniques’ in his apparel or that from his ‘reputation’ to achieve these goals. I think movies like THE USUAL SUSPECTS, DEAR JOHN, SHUTTER ISLAND, and VANTAGE POINT just to mention a few, speak for themselves. The concept of unfolding a story is largely dependent on how the series of scenes are placed before or after each other. Regardless of whether or not they make sense during this unfolding, it is imperative that at the end of it all, the intended audience gets the message that the director is sending out.

Some people think if a story is predictable, than it is a bad thing. Sometimes, don’t you wish someone would die and the person dies and you’re happy and when he doesn’t, you say you wasted time watching it? So if I’m right, the average Ghanaian says the movie ‘no dey be’ because he didn’t get his ending, meanwhile, when it started, he was complaining bitterly about how he knows how it’s going to end so it’s waste of time. We live in a country where we curse when it’s not raining and want to change the government for that and now the dam is over-flowing and we want to change government.

Anyways, the unfolding of a story may or may not be predictable but it’s up to the director and writer to add certain detail or extras to distinguish their film from the ‘norms’.  AVATAR and THE EXPENDABLES had flat storylines and were predictable but they were good if not great movies and did well at the box office.

Example

Let’s say all stories start with a happily married couple and then they have kids and they divorce and the kids grow up in a broken home and they end up on the streets and we are tired of it. Ghanaians want new things but here’s a case where I want to do this movie because I was a victim of the cause. So I change a few things. I make my step mum, this ugly woman, I draw out clear scenarios where my real parents were clearly not meant to be together and cite occasions of my mother cheating, as I give reasons why the kids are on the streets, I paint a larger picture, something external like civil war and breaking down of some schools including the one the kids attend.

What I have done now is changed the complexion of the unfolding of the usual boring divorce stories. I’ve taken the blame of the divorce from the man to the woman. Ghanaians aren’t objective when it comes to these things (it’s always the man, end of story. HOW?). Fine the kids end on the streets, but it’s not because of the broken home. There are kids on the streets but from negligent parents. In the cited example, the kids are on the streets just as everybody predicted but probably because of the civil war. Let us not confine stories to strict patterns.

A tip here - a cause and an effect are different but sometimes seem similar. Let’s draw out as many causes on one side and see how many effects we can have and we’ll realise we need not draw an effects list

MUSIC, SOUND, LIGHTING and CAMERA

These have been poor but I tell you, I love track 4 from that scene in PERFECT PICTURE. It just lasts when you see something like that and sometimes I want to try a song to see if it will work. That is what movies are supposed to do; dare you and deter you.

The lighting in movies, I can’t really comment because I feel some people don’t have the technical equipment and to be fair, just look at football matches played by the Black stars locally and outside of Ghana and see the camera difference.

As for sound, I’ll give it a 5 out 5. Take away fake accents (is it by force?), take away poor sound quality (sometimes) and we have really great sound. It’s super clear. Unless required ( I think), there are no lisps, doors bang and you look behind you, you can hear traffic, the wind that blows a dress is exactly the same wind blowing a voice or intercepting it. I think the editing too is good because sometimes I open my ears to hear noise in the background because I know the particular setting is busy but neither earphones nor home theatre can unravel what i’m suspecting.

Quick one

Every time, someone is listening to the radio, it means there is important news. Can’t someone listen to drive-time on JOY or something and hear something that has nothing to do with the story line? I mean if the lead character is broke, does it mean when he turns on the radio, there is an on-going promotion? A movie director is “almost” like what God is to us human beings and should use this power wisely.

Instruments

Different instruments connote different moods. Invariably, pianos are for romance and some level of horror. I don’t get why sometimes we hear a piano version of a hiphop song when someone is driving to work. All I’m saying is, the same song, with beat played by piano carries a different mood when it is being played by drums.

Music: PICTURE PERFECT again. There was a repetition of this song, at the scene where Lydia Forson went to get that married guy stripped in some bush. The song just carried me into a mood and I kind of played back the scene again just to listen to the song. It was a funky reggae-ish song. I loved it. What music does sometimes is, if it’s good, distracts you and you get swayed into this dilemma trying to decipher the lyrics and relating them to the film on one side and the other, focusing on the film. This is not a bad thing unless you miss a detail in a scene but trust me it’s sometimes a break. Persons with good taste in music can select the score for a film and this will definitely spark a lot of attention to the movie especially popular songs but sometimes I also feel the movie is the stage to showcase a new song. I would recommend that at least one song be made for a movie. The song DAA K3 DAA by BECCA(I think it was in SCORNED), that was where I heard it and if it’s in line with my recommendation, then I have a point.

Camera

There is something about a moving car and camera in Ghana that just don’t go. The quality becomes poor suddenly in a moving car. These days, we’re getting a lot of aerial views and scenes like sex scenes which in my opinion are almost too much (especially kissing; does a man have to kiss his wife every evening at home? Maybe we all do it but sometimes it’s too much and usually lacks passion). We sometimes want to be the camera man. Sometimes ,we say ‘the camera man dey enjoy o’ but some scenes really aren’t worth watching. If it’s a sex scene, give it to me like I’d want to be the one in bed. If the actors can’t do it, get doubles. If you are going to defend a movie’s sex scene, I’m not saying make it nasty, but let the movie tell us how it’s going down and if that can’t be done, it won’t hurt a fly to remove the scene. Camera and lighting and evening scenes, I’d really like to not talk about just to be fair to lack of technical support and equipment in Ghana

CAST

The cast of a movie helps complete the visualization of the script. In my opinion, it is not the scriptwriter’s job to describe the cast (there are exceptions though) because that will invariably limit the ‘God-like’ powers of the director. Casting should be done by an independent body through screening and the judges or panel should include the director and maybe the scriptwriter. Without my technical eye, I always say actors make films and I would argue my point out in the appropriate forum.

I think the new movie, 6 HOURS TO CHRISTMAS has curbed the attitude of flooding our screens with stars. I saw only 2 familiar faces in the trailer which I’m yet to organise my thoughts on. Casting may increase cost of the making of a movie and sadly for us it seems to us that no screening is being done for major roles in movies. What’s up with NAFTI? And the extras in films; are they part of the cast? Sometimes I wonder if they are. Well I think they are. I think they should be part of the cast but we shouldn’t so easily detect that they are. It’s the directors work to determine which extras to be casted and mine to say good/bad job but I seriously hate to see people standing in a shop not buying anything because the main characters are in. Can’t we expand scripts so extras act a bigger role so we can’t say we think they have been paid not to talk? I only know of Michael Jackson to be the only person who enters a shop and then it’s closed till he leaves. It seems to me, that the director signals people to leave so only the actors are left in the shop.

And why must they be friends? Why must all of the cast be friends? I loved LIFE AND LIVING IT and PERFECT PICTURE but like FOREPLAY (4PLAY), I don’t like that the cast know each other so well. It’s not a TV show/series we’re watching here; with those, after season 1, it seems everyone has dated the other or something like that but for a big one time movie, must they always be friends and have their lives intertwined? It’s a small world yes but all the happenings can’t happen among friends like that. We shouldn’t use a film as an excuse to live monotonous fantasies and revert ironically and say but it’s a film so or anything can happen. The worst thing to hear about your movie is when we say, after all, it’s a movie.

AGAIN, we could do with some new faces and more screening and well advertised and soliciting for persons to audition.

ACTING

I always wonder what it would be like to be someone you’re not and have people believe it; to live a lie. That is true acting.

As much as I didn’t want to pick on actors names, I think the cast for THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE- every single member was too good and ahead of our time. They set the pace in ‘expression’ (language, words and ideas) which only a few movies and TV shows seemed to attempting. The rest, all due respect to them, really have to work on even their facial expressions for one. And this brings me to clothing which I have nowhere to fit in; but why are the cast always so neat and in new clothes? I wear old clothes all the time and I have a big closet. I don’t look so fresh at home. No!! I’m not talking about make-up. And maybe the actors’ wardrobe is provided by some designer or boutique but can he wear those on his way out? If the clothes are robes etc to be worn at home, can we see him tear the tag and stuff? This will serve as advertisement for the designer and also add some sense to why his towels etc are all so new.

Miscellaneous

A STING IN A TALE - I liked the acting, the cast and the dressing. The setting was great, especially the hospital scenes and the bar where they usually hang out and this is all about A STING IN A TALE ( I got the art/creative eye behind the ghost seeing Shirley etc but was it worth killing all the lead characters? The guy was over his wife and moving on, did he have to die?)

The dialogues in most movies don’t flow. I think I’m a poet if not a common assembler of words in an attempt to say something and trust me, I hear poetry if not mere recitals of poetic phrases between even the most casual of persons. It causes disarray because sometimes, with the rapid recital; no, slow actually, they have a slow momentum; the ‘victim’ of the statement is not given a chance to react, the camera only looks at his/her face when it is emotionless and the victim, in my opinion, sometimes does not have to say anything back but poorly written scripts draw out a needless but ‘corresponding’ reply and we have a play and not a film. If you have any problem with this, check A STING IN A TALE (great dialogues mostly) and compare with PASSION AND SOUL (terrible, speech, apart from funny scenes, should have been censored).

ENDING

I think at the ending of a movie, you either stay glued to your chair for close to a minute or get up before the cast list appears.

I have loved movie endings, the USUAL SUSPECTS, SHUTTER ISLAND, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, LIFE AND LIVING IT, STAR WARS EPISODE VI and many many more. Sad to say I didn’t like how FOREPLAY (4PLAY) ended, I think the movie was conjured in such a way that the friends all had happy endings.

When does a movie end? When it loses its edge, it ends for me. In a movie like FOREPLAY(4PLAY), I think the fairytale, happy ending was abused, I think the fat( pardon my language if offensive) friend’s ending was the best and that of the girl with the bisexual husband but Jackie, I really think when she went home and her mum gave her that speech, it should’ve have ended( by prolonging the end, we are made to believe that love always ends well, not that we don’t know that it doesn’t always do so but it reduces the maturity when it ends well like that ... Also, if John Dumelo claims he can spend the whole day in the pool, on the day the he cheated, why didn’t he dive into the river/stream at the end of the movie to get to his wife?

TRAILER

I just saw the 6hrs TO CHRISMAS trailer again

Looks more polished than others I’ve seen. Best trailer is A STING IN A TALE though (because of the cast). So far it seems edgy and even though I didn’t get the humour from the trailer, I get that it’s meant to be funny or at least the movie is a comedy. Sense of humour as are other ‘senses’ is relative but there are standards and it is hard to see which side of the bar the humour in this trailer falls. A very informative trailer, I love the last bit at the end, it has a decisive and firm message. I think it means the risk of cheating. Guys never think of what they stand to lose and even if we do, at that point, we simply don’t appreciate it. I hope I’m wrong about the humour because that’s what I read and I didn’t see it in the trailer. Maybe funnier scenes could be used. The room they were stuck in is colourful. That toned down the seriousness and that too, is not funny.

Oh and the voice in the background, the woman, that is like listening to some Malaria drug advert. I’m with whoever chose a woman to give the ‘commentary’, it’s a change and with the right voice and tone, we might achieve a spectacle. And the commentary sound is a bit poor. It all adds up to a very boring, dull mood albeit illegally blanketing what a lot of people are or were anxious to see.

I think i’m done watching Ghanaian movies for now. I love Ghana, I really do. Our music has transcended yet all i’ve seen is Agyaa Koo Gbegbentus in terms of movie soundtracks. Maybe i lack knowledge or i’m refusing to believe or admit but if i’m right then i can open a blog for criticizing movies as when and how we like. We know we can’t do movies but with the present standard, it’s sad to say, anyone can.

By Aubrey Aidoo

23^rd October 2010