The premiere of the movie Urban Rhythm was held at Lighthouse Camberwell on Friday 3rd October 2014. The movie showcased UK based upcoming new talents Lateef Lovejoy, Material, Gabriel Rinu, Zeezat Sadiq, Yvonne Hays, Maydaz, Ade Bello, Adasnoop amongst others.
Storyline: ‘Urban Rhythm’ is a musical film with a fusion of UK based afrobeat artists and actors and with a compelling story of an unlikely friendship and an afrobeat journey. It features two main characters who do not quite get along. A young artist, Material, suddenly finds himself in need of a defence lawyer when he is charged with a petty crime. Sean who works for a private law firm is assigned to the case. An unlikely friendship occurs which then leads to an afrobeat journey. The movie was directed by Michael Ibiayo and produced by Yinka Kuponiyi.
As a lawyer, I was concerned about Sean’s actions in chambers as they were to say the least unprofessional and could lead to debarring. If he had issues, he should have refused to take the case and act on behalf of the client. He had an interest in the matter and would be unprofessional to act for him. Furthermore, he knew the client had stolen from him and that is enough to create a bias and make a case for him to transfer the case to someone else.
I also found it strange that in between a case conference, the solicitor picked up a call and subsequently went off course from the reason for the conference and started talking about music.
Also I noticed miming during the course of some recordings. Music should have been lowered and the musician given more focus.
I commend the thought of bringing up a real issue of a professional who should have known better in making a lucrative contract agreeing orally in principle to manage a musician even after he had been warned by his colleague and after his client had become so successful. The story show cases a common error and is a big lesson that should be learnt how where there is no concrete agreement, one can double cross another and friendships and relationships can be destroyed. Well done for that!!
Cast: As stated earlier, the cast are not well known names in the Nollywood industry save for Yvonne Hayes who has done a few Nollywood Movies. I believe that as first timers, most of the actors and actresses did well although there is room for improvement. I think the extras were a bit excessive in their acting and in a scene like the gym or the pool, there were elements of overacting.
I commend the Director for using real musicians and allowing them be creative and express themselves.
Picture quality: There were some scenes where the focus was out of place and this was obvious. If this could be worked on, I think the picture quality would be a winner. Overall however, the cinematography was on point. I agree with Nelson that the shoot style was the American dept-of-field flavour with movement and over the shoulder shots heavily utilised.
Sound: Again there were some issues with the sound. In some cases, the sound was low and in some cases, the sound was excessively high. Again working on this would make the sound a winner.
Overall performance: I think this movie is unique being a musical and also telling a story. From what the Director told us, the project was worked on for two years and had a relatively huge budget for a Nollywood movie. I commend the team for patience and trying to get things right before actually premiering the movie. However, I think the movie dragged on a bit and people may get bored eventually.
Most of the locations were great, but as a lawyer, I had a problem with the law office and as stated above if a UK Solicitor was at the premiere, they may not have understood the whole office and law scenes. Some people who watched the movie alluded that it cannot be termed as an authentic Nollywood movie but a British movie with the makings of a Hollywood movie
Overall, I give a big nod to the movie and if people are music lovers and can endure, they would watch the movie to the end and enjoy it. Well done!!
Watch the trailer:
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