Kagiso Lediga is slowly becoming a veteran in the South African film industry. He was involved with Bunny Chow, co-wrote and produced Pure Monate Show, was the writer behind Blitz Patrollie, is the brains behind The Bantu Hour and has two films coming out this year: Matwetwe aka Wizard and his take on romantic comedies, Catching Feelings.
So are we catching feelings or are we curving Kagiso’s latest? Let's dig in.
We’ve been flooded with romantic comedy since “Tell Me Sweet Something”; escapist fair with little to do with reality, trying to copy and match the whimsical Hollywood classics that are in vogue.
Kudos to Kagiso Lediga for giving us a romantic comedy with a little more bite and a little more "real world" context. Catching Feelings still gives you romantic comedy candy floss but with a touch of middle class black South African pain and angst over race issues, drafts, wallet size issues and cheating.
Lediga feels like Woody Allen in Anne Hall or Manhattan …a man disconnected from everyone. We laugh at his idiosyncrasies. Agree and disagree with his insights. Get to experience the 8% life of black middle class that’s not in the township…rural areas or squatter camps.
That's refreshing. We don’t see enough of black middle class life that is not super rich nor super poor. Loved that Kagiso did not centre the story solely on his relationship with Pearl Thusi… there's a lovely and funny subplot with Akin Omotoso's character.
Which makes it a pity that Lediga’s script does not pay it off. He tries to do too much with the script.
There's a need to comment on almost everything from crass BEE consumerism to the last white bastion that Cape Town is, whilst still trying to tell a story of a writer who is thinking of cheating on his wife… no, a writer who's having too much fun with the white dude… no, a writer with a hot wife but feels like she's not good enough… no, it’s about a writer who has a friend who has an affair...
By the time the movie ends there are many strands that are left untied or wrapped up, which bugged me. Some interesting characters are set up with a subordinate character that go nowhere.
There’s a lot of stuff that is set up but doesn't go anywhere once the gag is done, and doesn't play out whatever ideological insight Lediga was trying to make.
At times the gags work beautifully and are funny for what they are, but when put together in the story as a whole it made me wonder why have them if you are ever not going to pay them off?
Yet I'm proud to see Motheo Moeng getting to shoot another feature film after the great job he did on Thina Sobabili… heaven knows we need more black Directors of Photography in the industry and he does a competent job... with a very different look from his prior film.
The soundtrack is lovely and captures the different flavour of Johannesburg and the continent.
So it was not terrible movie - I laughed, I enjoyed the gags, loved the cameos by the South African stand up comedian fraternity. Enjoyed seeing characters living the life one can relate to. Pity about some of the character arcs, especially from the supporting cast, not being paid off.
It felt like a more optimistic Woody Allen film in Jozi.
Rating
***
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* rubbish ** ja nee ***its aight ****now we cooking with gas *****it’s a Classic ,man