Charles Novia has released his Best Actresses list 2014. He
published on his blog..I must state that you may not find your popular fav's
on this list..Read below"May I state here that these actresses on this list
have been judged on universal templates for acting and not on what I term
‘perceived popularity ‘on red carpets, social media or feisty fan clubs.There is a clear difference between being an overt socialite with tepid
performances in afterthought movies ‘just to be relevant’ and wholeheartedly
taking the business of acting seriously."
And my Number One Actress would be Nse Ikpe Etim (martially
known as Nse Sule). And why wouldn’t she be? Having watched her in three movies
released in 2014, there was little one could fault in her powerful sense of
interpretation, internalization and ‘chameleonic’ characterization in the
movies ‘Devil in the detail’, ‘ I Come Lagos’ and ‘Purple Rose’.To the trained eye, when an actress does her research, it is easy and quite a
pleasure to watch that thespian mesmerize the audience. Nse falls in that
category of silent but sure actresses whose works speak more for her than
anything else. In ‘Devil in the Detail’, she gives us a self-assured portrayal
of a wife whose fidelity is called to question by her suspicious husband. Nse’s
nuances, dramatic pause and body language in the role leaves one awe-struck.
This is a lady who knows her onions.
2.Onyeka Onwenu
Despite my reservations about the film adaptation
of ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, one of the delightful comforts for me from the
movie was Onyeka Onwenu’s fantastic role as ‘Mama’. With an elegant career in
music which has spanned over thirty years, Onyeka’s moonlighting to Nollywood
seems to have finally found its artistic rewards in HOAYS.Her mannerisms, facial expressions, voice modulations and characterization as
an over-protective mother are all almost flawless in the movie. It’s as if in
HOAYS, she set out to prove a point and only the blind would argue that
she did not achieve her artistic aim. It must be quite a fulfilling experience
to straddle, and arguably successfully too, two important sectors of Nigerian
Entertainment; music and movies. Onyeka Onwenu deserves our commendation. Well,
at least she has mine!
3.Omoni Oboli
Two movies which featured Omoni Oboli were enough to
convince me that Omoni deserves to be on this list. They are ‘Render to Ceaser’
and ‘Being Mrs Elliott’. Watching the two movies, I could appreciate various
levels of Omoni’s acting abilities. Artistically, she come across sometimes as
being restrained in her delivery in some roles but she more than makes up for
these pardonable inhibitions by her powerful ability to really, really act with
her face. Her facial expressions reveal the right emotions which her lines try
to convey. Few actors can achieve that in Nollywood as what we see mostly these
days are bland expressions in the delivery of interpretative dialogue. But it is in ‘Being Mrs Elliott’ that Omoni comes out
smoking. Her character has various levels of emotional and perhaps repressed
comical transitions and Omoni delivers when it matters most in
aspects of such artistic requirement. A wardrobe malfunction at
the Presidential Villa during a special premiere and the buzz it created made
me curious to watch the movie and while aspects of its directorial ambitions
were a bit arrested, one was not disappointed much by Omoni’s acting in the
movie. Indeed, she gave her best in the movie. And her best is good enough to
be on this list.
4 Queen Nwokoye
More-often-than-not, many tend to dismiss the ‘Asabawood’
genre of movies as crass, without structure and lacking in linear progression
of plots. While a lot of movies from that axis, juxtaposed with the so-called
‘New Nollywood’ movies, can be a critic’s nightmare to watch, there is no
denying that a few actors and actresses in that genre of movies have given us
some performances which deserve applause. Queen Nwokoye is one of such worthy of mention for 2014.
Whilst researching a bit more on her movies for 2014, I was authoritatively
told that she is presently the most commercial actress in the Asaba movies,
ever since Mercy Johnson went on maternity leave, with her movies selling in
the millions. While such information does little to influence my
artistic evaluation of her acting prowess, it was certainly important enough
for me to file away in my memory bank that Queen must have something which
appeals to the buying audience of such films. After watching her in a spawn of
top-selling Asaba movies in 2014, I understood why.
5.Kemi Lala Akinboju
A lot of readers might not have seen Tunde Kelani’s
‘Dazzling Mirage’, a film in which Lala Akindoju plays a young, frail sickle
cell patient, Funmiwo. I watched the movie at a film festival in November and I
was impressed with Lala’s portrayal of the lead character. A true-to-type
physical casting by the Director first draws some empathy from the audience
towards Lala and as she goes through the emotional and physical demands of the
movie, the viewer is taken in by Lala’s internalization of the character as we
begin to see and understand what it is to be a Sickle Cell victim. Of course there were tentative moments when Lala seemed not
to have fully measured up to the dictates of the role but one could
also appreciate that those moments were few and far between. In ‘Dazzling
Mirage’, the viewer laughs with her, cries with her, feels her pains and many
could very well finish watching the movie believing that Lala is a Sickle Cell
sufferer in real life. Such a performance should not go unnoticed.Kemi Lala Akindoju, in her first major role in a feature length, is one to
watch out for in the future.
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