Cutlass

Written by: Burri-Taka Bolalima |   Directed by: Burri-Taka Bolalima |  Genre: Drama

 Vivian ( Catherine Fri ) arrives at her grandmother’s house where she will now be living, as she attends school. She’s a young woman wanting to give herself the best life possible, now paired with her care-free but hard working grandma played by Rose Fulia. Quickly we get a feel for her grandma and the life she leads. Vivian also meets Ben, ( Burri-Taka Bolalima ) who is an older, hard working man. Quickly he takes a liking to her and begins the courtship process and Vivian goes to school.  In school, she is surrounded by what I can only call rich bitches. Girls that seem to have it all and want to party more than learn. Vivian gets mixed up in this crowd, and the attitude associated with them. Meanwhile, Ben is still doing what he can to woo Vivian. Encouraged by Vivian’s grandmother herself. It’s at this point that grandma dies, due in no small part to her lifestyle. Now, with Ben still doing what he can, she must figure things out on her own. This is her story, as told by her. This is Cutlass.

  You know, it almost seems like this movie is a cautionary story about what happens when you don’t conform. But that’s ok, because aside from a few technical issues, Cutlass is a watchable film, maybe not great, but all right. The camerawork is decent enough, and the acting, from what I could tell, was pretty good as well. It’s really hard to decide on acting with a subtitled movie, so I went by the actions of the characters.  What I did notice, is that nobody is really hero-like. There’s nobody to instantly relate with, but maybe that’s on purpose. In real life, people are people, right? Other than that, a few sound issues here and there, and an edit that sometimes felt out of place – but again, nothing bad enough to make me not like this film. The biggest point of contention for me was that this movie was long. Almost 2 hours! There’s a lot of unneeded cuts and entire scenes, and I feel this film could have been done in an hour and a half or less. The pacing would have surely picked up.

  All in all, this isn’t a perfect movie, maybe a little long, maybe a little bloated, but still above average. I feel that anyone who can watch this without the subtitles will get more out of it than I did, but I guess I’ll never know for sure. Cutlass is a trip to the real world. The world that is not all sweet and pretty. It’s gritty, it’s real, and at times… brilliant. Not for everyone, but still entertaining in my books.

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