With a 13-episode romcom, Last Year Single delves into the world of romance, career and lifestyles using three besties as heroines.
Despite being an interesting movie, Last Year Single features a drift in the drama and character dynamics among the main characters; Belinda, Tamara, Afua and Kharibi Fubara.
They are three friends with a common trait of self-discovery as they try to balance their career and love lives. Well their notion about love is shaped by their ideology.
For instance, Belinda, Tamara and Afua are eager to get some rings on their fingers because of societal pressure.
The aesthetics makes the storyline intriguing with commentaries on relationships, lifestyle dynamics, self-discovery, and societal expectations.
PLOT
Last Year Single was released on September 6, on Netflix. Karibi Fubara featured in this series, yet he passed away in 2021. This means this film was filmed in 2020 thereabouts.
Which brings me to the question; will the storyline and themes explored not be outdated with the way Nollywood has evolved in the last 4 years?.
The themes depicts Love and Career competing with each other. The storyline is perfect but the themes are off standard, very common in many romcoms. This added to the drifts in the movie.
Well the storyline features character dynamics which is acceptable. I’m glad that towards the ending of the movie, the three main characters reviewed their criteria for choosing men.
But why repitition? The three main characters have to revisit previous discussions. I understand that dialogues and flashbacks are used for effective narrative, but adding subsequent repititions might make the audience bored.
Also the pacing of scenes is slow, probably the producer did this to drag the movie for a longer watching time.
THEMES
I have reservations with the themes of this series. This is because Love and Career have been explored a couple of times in movies, especially romcoms.
Joy Isi Bewaji could have given the audience another dimension to the storyline outside the two main themes highlighted above. I have watched Love competing with Career countless times on the big screen.
It would have been better if themes like *Family Bond or *Sibling Fight were objectified. But thanks to the aesthetics in the movie, they cheered me up to watch till the end.
CHARACTERIZATION
Belinda (Omoni Oboli)
Belinda had her love life going until her man broke her heart. This made her to have resentment and bitterness towards men.
Aside relationship, Belinda is a successful businesswoman. Belinda played the main character and I find her character weird.
Her desire to get married at all cost was blown out of proportion. She was desperate to get a ring which made her take decisions on impulse. She regretted this anyway.
Tamara (Toni Tones)
Tamara has a long term relationship of 7 years, from the storyline she was trying to fit into the picture-perfect African wife.
Why on Earth will an ambitious lady be in a relationship of 7 years while her fiance enjoys frolicking with other ladies!
Shew was in a toxic relationship and her character is relatable to a regular Nigerian lady. She was stuck between self-love and fantasy.
Tamara built her whole world around her man which got me confused like all she came to achieve in this world is getting married and have children. She eventually lost it when Bayo broke her heart.
She did a perfect job overplaying the role with too much seriousness. Well I don’t see Toni Tones in that capacity in reality.
I think Omoni/JIB were trying to tell us there are some successful ladies whose validation is tied to marriage. If I’m being true it still happens.
Lest I forget, Tamara dress sense was poor at the onset, the wig and clothes she rocks was ancient. Afua helped her fashion sense with some advice. I guess the producer is using this to pass a message.
Afua (Bimbo Ademoye)
I noticed that Bimbo Ademoye keyed into the Afua character. Imagine an architect getting a career switch; blogging which is entirely unrelated to her previous career.
Afua was resilient to become a successful blogger, get connections and as well get a romance mate among male celebrities. Probably her decision to switch to blogging was to get a celebrity man.
This is because her career switch in Last Year Single is indifferent. I mean she was desperate to be among the top bloggers. She is the typical blogger who would publish anything including lies just to get engagements on her blog. That sounds desperate.
In addition, Afua reeled some humor into the scenes. While watching each scene I always look forward to another scene where Afua will come on screen with her comic character.
Bayo (Karibi Fubara)
Bayo, played by Karibi Fubara, featured character dynamics in his relationship with Tamara.
Seeing him and Tamara having chemistry got me confused because their character contradicts each other and they always have different sides to everything.
Fubara did a good job with his role, but sadly he is no longer here. That’s why at the end of each series you see: “Rest in Peace Karibi Fubara.
OTHER CASTS
Supporting characters also brought their artistic performances to the scene. The likes of Tayo Arimoro (James), Mawuli Gavor (Victor), Chy Nwakanma (Gloria), improved the aesthetics of the film.
OVERALL THOUGHT
Last Year Single has a wonderful plot but with drifts in the narratives and the producer’s effort in relating the scenes is slow-paced.
I must say that Last Year Single is restricted to a particular audience. The audience who will find it appealing are those who are fans of Love and Career competing in movies.
These concepts are not new, but I hail the producer for ensuring that the common narrative is told in an unusual direction. With this I rate the movie 8/10.
The movie world is evolving, producers and writers are upping their game but they should do better by giving the audience uncommon narratives.
