Blessing Uzzi and the Uncomfortable Business of Film Criticism

This Is Not About Whether Your Film Made Money

Uzoma, let’s get one thing straight, nobody is questioning the fact that Call of My Life is doing well at the box office. Good. You made a film that people want to see, and that deserves its own recognition. But you seem to be making the very common mistake of thinking commercial success gives you some kind of immunity from critical scrutiny. It doesn’t. I was on a panel where COML was mentioned. While myself and another panelist didn’t think it was great, a third panelist thought it was, and we were some sort vocal about it. That is not an attack on you. That is not “tearing you down.” That is literally the job. The moment you put a film in cinemas, you put it in the hands of audiences, critics and commentators. You cannot control what they think about it. You can control the film you make. You cannot control the conversation it creates.

You Don’t Get To Decide When Criticism Becomes Disrespect

Your comments reveal something that filmmakers need to stop doing, treating criticism as disrespect simply because it is unfavourable. Uzzi, nobody became a critic so that you could feel good about your films. We are not your publicists. We are not here to clap because production has wrapped, because the premiere was glamorous or because the cinema numbers are impressive. We interrogate the work. We question the screenplay, the performances, the direction, the characterisation, the pacing, the editing and the choices you made as a filmmaker. Sometimes the conclusion is “this is excellent.” Sometimes it is “this could have been much better.” And sometimes it is simply “this film did not work for me.” You are free to disagree. But questioning why critics are being given platforms because they don’t agree with you is not a defence of your film. It is an inability, or unwillingness, to separate criticism of the work from criticism of the person.

The Box Office Is Not Your Critical Report Card

And please, do not use the success of Call of My Life as though it settles the argument. It doesn’t. Your box-office numbers tell us that people bought tickets. They tell us that your film found an audience. They tell us that your marketing, distribution, subject matter or whatever combination of factors worked commercially. Congratulations. But the box office is not a film review. A film can make a billion naira and still have a badly constructed screenplay. A film can sell out cinemas and still be poorly directed. A film can be commercially successful and critically mediocre. This is not an insult, it is a basic distinction that anyone seriously interested in cinema should understand. So celebrate the numbers. Take the victory. Enjoy it. But don’t turn commercial success into a weapon against critics who didn’t think your film was great. Your audience bought tickets. I bought a ticket too. We simply didn’t buy the same opinion.

You have Been Talking Too Much For A Filmmaker

And then there is the Omotola episode. I found your response to her unnecessary and disrespectful, and I think it is relevant because it points to a larger issue with the way you have been engaging publicly lately. You have been talking a lot. About other filmmakers. About commentators. About critics. About opinions. And there comes a point where I have to ask, when exactly are you going to let the films do the talking? You are a filmmaker. Your strongest language should be cinema. Your most convincing argument should be your next film. Freedom Way showed promise. Call of My Life has demonstrated commercial appeal. Now build on that. You don’t need to fight every person who has something to say about your work. You certainly don’t need to become a commentator while complaining that commentators are being given too much space. Leave the talking to us. You have films to make.

Two Features Do Not Make Filmmaking Legacy

Blessing has done other work, and nobody is trying to erase that. But let’s be very clear about the feature-film conversation: Freedom Way and Call of My Life are still only the beginning. Two features do not give you a body of work strong enough to start deciding which critics deserve a platform or which commentators are qualified to speak about Nollywood. You are still building your filmography, Blessing. You are still proving what kind of filmmaker you are. Freedom Way showed promise. Call of My Life has shown that you can get an audience into cinemas. Good. Now do it again.Make the next film better. Then the one after that. Build a catalogue that can actually withstand serious scrutiny. Because right now, the arrogance of dismissing critics is far ahead of the weight of the filmography. A box-office hit is an achievement. It is not a coronation.

Make The Films, Leave The Talking To Us & The Audience

So let me make this as simple as possible. You make films. We critique them. Commentators discuss them. Audiences judge them. That is how a film industry works. You do not get to decide that critics are valuable when they praise you and destructive when they don’t. You do not get to demand thoughtful conversations about Nollywood while simultaneously dismissing people whose professional responsibility is to interrogate Nollywood’s work. And you certainly do not need to educate critics about the importance of their own profession. We know what we do. If I think your next film is brilliant, I will write that it is brilliant. If I think it is terrible, I will write that too. My responsibility is not to Blessing Uzzi. It is to the work. So make the films. Take the risks. Improve the craft. Let the work grow. But please, stop trying to control the conversation around it. You have the camera. We have the criticism. Get back to work.