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Of Good Report, 2013
Parker Sithole (Mothusi Magano) is a quiet, reserved man who gets a job at a local high school. Parker goes home with a beautiful young woman one night after drinking at a bar, only to be horrified when she walks into his classroom the next day as a pupil. Nolitha (Petronella Tshuma) is willing to continue their affair, and the two become shockingly bold in pursuing each other even on school grounds. But when Nolitha goes through a traumatic experience and withdraws from her relationship with Parker, he becomes dangerously obsessed with her.
I am a fan of the contemporary use of black and white photography, and in this case the look of the film matches the topic perfectly. There are many noir elements to this story, and some of the best moments in the film involve the use of light and shadow. This is especially true in a series of flashbacks that show us Parker's miserable, abusive life with his dying mother.
The performances are also strong. In the role of Parker, Mothusi Magano pulls off the challenge of making the character a totally immoral weasel, and yet someone who you could sympathize with at times. He is just so desperate and needy that you almost (almost) have to feel bad for the guy. As Nolitha, Petronella Tshuma is also very good. She embodies a character who is gorgeous and knows it, and who enjoys their forbidden affair until she begins to feel fear at the real consequences of their actions, and ultimately an inability to understand or cope with Parker's adult, needy dysfunction.
The film operates in two different modes/tones: a more straight ahead thriller and a darkly comedic borderline horror. As is often the case with me and movies, I really wish that the film had picked a vibe and stuck with it. As the film starts with building a more serious tone and mood, it's a little jarring when it switches gears to something more tongue-in-cheek. This more darkly comedic tone is what seems to have been intended to dominate, and it's okay. Elements like the wordplay at hand (take a good look at Parker's last name and Nolitha's first name) signal this. But the comedy angle sometimes underwhelmed me a bit, and weakens the implied critique about people abusing their power.
While the comedy was hit or miss for me, the only thing that bothered me was the degree to which Nolitha's nude or semi-nude body was frequently put on display. As is often the case when I find this element frustrating, the film seems content to break its own rules of point of view if it's convenient to get some nudity on camera. It makes sense, in some of the sequences, to see her and to understand Parker's infatuation. But at a certain point it began to feel like the actual purpose of certain shots was just to put an attractive female body on display. (Will I shock and amaze anyone when I say that there is nowhere near the same amount of male nudity? No? We're not shocked?). There is, of course, a difference between a character in a film objectifying someone and the film itself objectifying that person. There were several times that I felt the film slipped from the former to the latter. And considering the actress would have been 21 or 22 while filming, it bordered on feeling a bit exploitative.
It's frustrating when the film slips into this mode of objectifying Nolitha, because at many points it seems to understand exactly why objectification is a problem. When Nolitha tries to move on to dating a boy her age, he is also demanding and needy (in one uncomfortable sequence demanding a "real kiss" with tongue before he will let her get in the car). Acknowledging the struggle of a person who is being mistreated but then exploiting her body for a jiggle factor lends the film a bit of a sense of hypocrisy.
I do want to give a shout out to Lee Ann von Rooi, who plays a police constable who looks into Nolitha's disappearance when the girl goes missing. She is incredibly charismatic and I wish the writing had given her a bit more to do.
That said, I would check out another film by this director. African films are a huge blindspot for me. I feel like when films from Africa or the Middle East get put on lists they are often the more serious dramas. It was neat to see a film pulling from different genres (noir, horror, dark comedy).
Of Good Report, 2013
Parker Sithole (Mothusi Magano) is a quiet, reserved man who gets a job at a local high school. Parker goes home with a beautiful young woman one night after drinking at a bar, only to be horrified when she walks into his classroom the next day as a pupil. Nolitha (Petronella Tshuma) is willing to continue their affair, and the two become shockingly bold in pursuing each other even on school grounds. But when Nolitha goes through a traumatic experience and withdraws from her relationship with Parker, he becomes dangerously obsessed with her.
I am a fan of the contemporary use of black and white photography, and in this case the look of the film matches the topic perfectly. There are many noir elements to this story, and some of the best moments in the film involve the use of light and shadow. This is especially true in a series of flashbacks that show us Parker's miserable, abusive life with his dying mother.
The performances are also strong. In the role of Parker, Mothusi Magano pulls off the challenge of making the character a totally immoral weasel, and yet someone who you could sympathize with at times. He is just so desperate and needy that you almost (almost) have to feel bad for the guy. As Nolitha, Petronella Tshuma is also very good. She embodies a character who is gorgeous and knows it, and who enjoys their forbidden affair until she begins to feel fear at the real consequences of their actions, and ultimately an inability to understand or cope with Parker's adult, needy dysfunction.
The film operates in two different modes/tones: a more straight ahead thriller and a darkly comedic borderline horror. As is often the case with me and movies, I really wish that the film had picked a vibe and stuck with it. As the film starts with building a more serious tone and mood, it's a little jarring when it switches gears to something more tongue-in-cheek. This more darkly comedic tone is what seems to have been intended to dominate, and it's okay. Elements like the wordplay at hand (take a good look at Parker's last name and Nolitha's first name) signal this. But the comedy angle sometimes underwhelmed me a bit, and weakens the implied critique about people abusing their power.
While the comedy was hit or miss for me, the only thing that bothered me was the degree to which Nolitha's nude or semi-nude body was frequently put on display. As is often the case when I find this element frustrating, the film seems content to break its own rules of point of view if it's convenient to get some nudity on camera. It makes sense, in some of the sequences, to see her and to understand Parker's infatuation. But at a certain point it began to feel like the actual purpose of certain shots was just to put an attractive female body on display. (Will I shock and amaze anyone when I say that there is nowhere near the same amount of male nudity? No? We're not shocked?). There is, of course, a difference between a character in a film objectifying someone and the film itself objectifying that person. There were several times that I felt the film slipped from the former to the latter. And considering the actress would have been 21 or 22 while filming, it bordered on feeling a bit exploitative.
It's frustrating when the film slips into this mode of objectifying Nolitha, because at many points it seems to understand exactly why objectification is a problem. When Nolitha tries to move on to dating a boy her age, he is also demanding and needy (in one uncomfortable sequence demanding a "real kiss" with tongue before he will let her get in the car). Acknowledging the struggle of a person who is being mistreated but then exploiting her body for a jiggle factor lends the film a bit of a sense of hypocrisy.
I do want to give a shout out to Lee Ann von Rooi, who plays a police constable who looks into Nolitha's disappearance when the girl goes missing. She is incredibly charismatic and I wish the writing had given her a bit more to do.
That said, I would check out another film by this director. African films are a huge blindspot for me. I feel like when films from Africa or the Middle East get put on lists they are often the more serious dramas. It was neat to see a film pulling from different genres (noir, horror, dark comedy).