Any literature is art, hence, can be seen as complete body of work independent in itself.
– a rough summary of the idea behind new criticism as a literary theory.
Having set this premise, it is important to further inform you that this review would be evaluating Glamour Girls 2022 outside the influences of its prequel released in 1994. That is, the movie would not be scrutinized in comparison to the first classic film, but as a film on its own.
Glamour Girls tells a story of young women who are sex workers but seem to exceed the norm by running an almost infallible system that employs strategic means of attracting the crème de la crème of society as clients. The system is run by Donna, an experienced pimp who recruits girls, gives them a make-over, and outsources them on requests. Although Donna’s ground-rule states to put oneself first, this system looks out for its own. As the story progresses, we see that donna had a partner named Jemma. They began life together, but Jemma fell in love and was considered an enemy because this is the biggest deal-breaker for Donna. Jemma comes into the picture because she is in need of Donna’s help but Donna wouldn’t budge until Jemma returns to the system. Jemma does. Things seem to be really beautiful, but soon take an unexpected turn for the worse. This leads to the climax and eventual resolution.
Contarry to very popular opinion, I must say that this production was good. The acting was really impressive. It was not hard to see that every actor brought in their A-game. Donna, Tommy, Lulu, Gemma, everyone! My favourite though is how Sharon Ooja brought the character Emma to life. Emma is a crude girl from the very deepest of trenches who does her best to survive and provide for her younger siblings. This role is a far cry from most of Sharon’s roles, yet she embodies it well. Although it was cringe for the most part of it, the actress did her part well. Her mannerisms, gesticulations, and even very hilarious expressions like when she used “na only you waka come” to describe Liverpool FC, etc.
Another thing I enjoyed is the realness of the conversation. The lingua reflected the Nigerian setting perfectly and was also used to further build up characters. We see Emma’s proficiency in English improve as she gets more exposed to her new reality, and even this is not rushed (which is unlike Nollywood). Although when I saw “6 months later” I got a little wary as that’s usually some kind of pass to rush plot, the progress that had been made was measurable within the time frame.
Enough about the plot.
Now I like this story, but there were a number of things that didn’t add up.
For a story that has painted Donna to have a formidable establishment, I thought it was rather too careless for her to leave a task as crucial as hacking the flash in the hands of Emma and her boyfriend’s randomly found “hacker”, obviously there will be unnecessary hick-ups.
At some point, there were too many slip-ups. And many things were left unresolved.
Zeribe and Emma were caught by Chief, so what happened? How come Cheif only had it in For Zeribe? What about Ella? Is he that forgiving or was there some kind of arrangement?
What exactly did Louisa’s husband see when he went to her fashion house that night?
How did 10m dollars turn to 15m, and then to 21m? I need clarification because the maths is not mathematicsing.
How much did the hacker know to demand to sleep with Emma?
And the exchange of the flash too. The one the hacker gave Donna was clearly the one that he, Emma, and Zeribe had planned to give her which was shady. So how come the one on Zeribe became the one with the exact amount the men were looking for.
I like how it ended. Everyone got a pretty fair ending, except of course for Hell, and Gemma, I mean I wish Alex didn’t have such a bad twist to him. As for Zeribe, a player got played, perfect! But that scene yeah? Lol, I daresay it was clumsy. As much as Emma already knew Zeribe and played a fast one on him, it was hard to decipher when. For Zeribe, we could tell when he put it there, but when did she put hers. Bear in mind that all of these happened at the same moment. lol. But let’s cover it up as “suspense”.
Let me just end by saying this…
Yes, I liked Emma, but she was a really stupid character. I love a daring woman, but girl you shouldn’t disrespect the queens that walked this path before you? What was that arrant nonsense she did at Donna’s house when her and Lulu came to question her on what was going on? Ahn ahn, you don’t know your mate sis?
