SOOLE
1. As simple as it might look on paper, filming on a bus in transit poses a unique challenge for filmmakers. Any filming activity at a public transport facility or on transport infrastructures such as trains, buses, bus terminals, bus stops, and ports requires a certain level of expertise from the director and the entire crew. Good job on this.
2. Sensitization: In a country riddled with kidnapping activities, the movie does sensitize on the evils of kidnapping.
3. Great cinematography.
1. Asides Meg Otanwa, Adunni Ade, and the bad guys, almost everyone was trying to out-funny the next person, especially the herbs seller. The beats were colliding into one another with forced humour.
2. A host of continuity issues, especially in the third act.
An entertaining watch in your spare time.
Kayode Kasum seems to have an increasingly appetite for telling crime drama stories, we do not forget ‘Dwindle’, ‘Ponzi’, ‘Sugar Rush’ in a hurry. One who is typical of his works, would most likely know what to expect from the title ‘Soòlé’, a Yoruba term for buses with cheap fares boarded on the highway outside a designated park.
Soòlé tells the hurdles a Catholic nun, Veronica, who travels from Lagos to Enugu after failing to fund a children’s orphanage. ‘Soòlé’ which means cheap ride becomes her only chance to cut costs and get to her destination in the east. She gets into this very unconventional soole bus, where she meets different travellers like herself, who decide not to go to the park, but instead board the same cheap bus to Enugu.
The long journey to Enugu is beyond ordinary, trailed by various drama, from the driver picking passengers along the road to a pastor preaching and collecting offering afterward to another selling sex enhancement products, and then to an unfortunate robbery where a bag belonging to a passenger is stolen.
The armed robbers soon discover that they carry the wrong bag, which brings about a significant twist in the entire storyline.
In Soòlé, there is a jarring switch from the comedic to serious, evidence of Kayode Kasum’s bipolar directing potential; constantly unsure whether he wants to pursue serious issues through comedy or just pursue comedy; sometimes, painfully, it feels as though he can do neither. What we have in Kayode Kasum might be a director with huge potential who has given himself little time for development, little rest for proper introspection on artistic purpose.
However, while we must appreciate the director’s efforts in filming this, there are many questions that arise in the mind while seeing this drama. First is the bag given to the driver contained foreign currencies, which the robbers were after. But unfortunately, the movie did not tell or reveal whose money it was, how the robbers knew it was in that particular bus, and what happened when the owner of the money did not get the money.
Second will be the two students in the bus who turn out to be officers of the special investigative department of the police shooting at police officers at the checkpoint? Aren’t they supposed to be colleagues?
Not to puncture too many holes in this bag, however, we can’t but overlook the Soòlé bus driver who is shot during the robbery incident suddenly ‘resurrecting’ from the dead at the same spot he was shot 11 months after the robbery. How’s that possible? Perhaps the director forgot to add that scene before ‘the 11 months later. Continuity team, you’re here to help with some checks and balances.
Soòlé is a beautiful satire that tells the Irony in our contemporary society.
Shooting a movie on a road trip is a phenomenon, but unfortunately, it’s not a stunt you come across every day in Nollywood.
Well, the movie is quite relatable for road travellers because it captures certain phenomena peculiar to travelling within the Lagos to Enugu route. The movie also captures some unique high points of travelling along the Lagos to Enugu route. The scenes where the bus stopped at the famous Ore bus stop, the famous Onitsha bridge that welcomes you to the east, and the road sellers on the road, are commendable. It confirmed that the movie was shot on an actual road trip from Lagos to Enugu. Not to mention the quality sound technique and soundtrack, alongside the excellent cinematography.
Lead actors in this are Sola Sobowale, Femi Jacobs, Meg Otanwa, Adunni Ade, Adedimeji Lateef, Shawn Faqua, Bukunmi Oluwasina, Eso Dike, Teniola Aladese, Kelechi Udegbe, Mike Afolarin, Saidi Balogun, Ikponmwosa Gold.
Star Performer- Nil
As dramatic as the movie is, there really was no stand out performer. All acting seemed very bland, not to take away some forced comedy.
Can-do-better Performer- Nil
They all did beyond average. No one falls into this category.
