Lara and the Beat is a coming of age movie about the young and beautiful
Giwa sisters caught in the center of a financial scandal with their
late parents' Media Empire. The sisters are forced out of their
privileged bubble, and must learn to build their own future - through
music and enterprise - to salvage their family's past. After
getting disappointed time and time again with Nollywood, I had no hype
whatsoever about Biola Alabi's music themed Rom-Com. I didn't want to
get my hoped up and then get let down for the 100th time, so I went to
the cinema hoping and praying that my hope for Nollywood doesn't die
after the credits roll
Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised at how the movie turned out. This is Seyi Shay & Vector’s first starring role and I was really impressed with their performance. They weren’t perfect, but they did a great job playing the lead roles. I just wish Seyi Shay’s Lara was a little less cartoon-ish. I loved Somkele Iyama-Idhalama as the ‘good sister’, Dara. I’ve always loved her acting ever since her days in Gidi Up, she never disappoints. The supporting cast which included Kemi Lala Akindoju, Chioma Akpotha & Chinedu Ikedieze were also fantastic. I particularly loved Shaffy Bello’s scene. It was short but literally the funniest scene of the entire film. I was a bit worried about the ensemble cast but they all played significant roles that made the movie quite entertaining. I loved how it looked visually and how the music fit into some of the scenes. In the beginning of the film, they were a lot of scenes that seemed out of place and unnecessary and I felt like they would have used their real baby pictures for Lara & Dara’s Family photo album. These little details matter in making the film different from the regular Nollywood films that pay no attention to little details. I also found the fact that they didn’t use subtitles for the few scenes of the actors speaking Yoruba very bad.
Lara and the Beat was very predictable and looked like a knock-off of a Hollywood film. I thought the script was very unoriginal but I still enjoyed watching it nonetheless. It's definitely a step up from what has been premiering these past few months. But, don't go into the movie theater expecting to be blown away or captivated by the story, because you won't.
RATING 5.5/10
DIRECTOR Tosin Coker
STARRING Seyi Shay, Vector, Somkele Iyamah-Idhalama, Wale Ojo, Chinedu Ikedieze, Chioma Akpotha, Uche Jombo, Kemi Lala Akindoju, Toni Tones
RELEASE DATE 20th July, 2017
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