It’s
the spigot theory that says a developing nation is better off without the
discovery of a precious natural resource like oil, because it allows a corrupt central
government (is there any other kind?) to control all economic activity at the
source. That is sort of what Jeta Amata’s newly revised agit-prop film argues,
but it is more interested in assigning blame. Yes, the multinational oil
companies are at fault and so is our government and the Nigerian government, as
well as the former regime it replaced. However, you are most to blame as an
American consumer guzzling Nigerian oil, so go hang your head in shame—and don’t
even bother with Amata’s Black November (known in a
previous incarnation as Black Gold, trailer
here),
because it is not worth your guilt-tripping time when it opens tomorrow in New
York.
Oil
executive Tom Hudson must be an evil, because he is played by Mickey Rourke. However,
the tables have just been turned on him when a group of one-man’s-terrorists
take him hostage, demanding he use his influence to save their spiritual leader
Ebiere Perema from the noose. If you are expecting a tense kidnapping film,
then just move along, because November is
really just one interminably long flashback, allowing the men with guns to
explain how special Perema is, starting with her birth, of course. Mercifully,
Amata spares us the Michenerian prologue explaining how geological processes
formed the oil deposits in the river delta. Still, at least that would have
been educational.
It
is possible for nakedly didactic films to engage the audience on a cinematic
level. Iciar Bollain’s Even the Rain
is not exactly subtle, but it is still a distinctive work. On the other hand,
you can safely say Black November is
no Battleship Potemkin. Frankly, it
is simply not professional grade. Amata may have come out of the Nollywood
scene, but the handful of Nollywood films covered here all feature sharper
character development and more polished scripts than November, and there is little difference in the quality of
performances.
Embarrassingly,
that includes a number of formerly big-name Hollywood actors turning up in small
marginal roles, presumably so they could participate in a few press conferences
to show they care. Nevertheless, November
is notable for reuniting 9½ Weeks co-stars
Rourke and Kim Basinger (playing “Kristy,” the journalist unwittingly filming Hudson’s
kidnapping). One can imagine their on-set reminisces: “So, remember those ice
cubes? Good times.”
According
to the poster, Anne Heche is also in this movie. This is a pure guess, but
maybe she plays one of the federal agents, as does Viveca Fox who briefly
appears as “Angela,” the scoldy anti-terror agent constantly passing judgment
on her superiors’ crassly Machiavellian ways.
November is counting on
viewers cutting it a lot of slack, because of its supposed good intentions, but
when you are sitting through it, there is no getting around its low level of competency.
It even fails on the fundamental level of propaganda. Perhaps out of some odd
notion of narrative balance, Perema and her allies are constantly making
inexplicably dubious decisions, but their cumulative effect is downright
exasperating.
By
the time it wraps up, the only lasting take-away from the film is the fact the
hostage takers smuggled themselves and their guns up from Mexico, so it would
seem the film is really advocating for increased border security. Black November is not recommended. It is
not even presentable to a ticket-buying public, but it opens tomorrow (1/9)
nonetheless at the Quad Cinema.
