Disco Boy

Hello and welcome back to another weekly Movie and TV Review!
First off, thank you to everyone who’s stuck around for my ramblings this far. You’ve spent precious time you’ll never get back, and for that, I’m truly grateful. As you may have noticed, I’ve been missing post dates because… well, the sky is blue. Any excuse will do. But that’s exactly what I don’t want to do — make excuses.

But you do deserve an explanation. Lol. Honestly, I just couldn’t keep up with the schedule I set for myself—crazy, I know—and that made me feel even worse. I am truly grateful to my subscribers, because you guys gave me the gumption to keep writing. With all my punctuation and spelling errors, you still stuck with my crazy self, and for that, I’m thankful.

Happy belated Thanksgiving, by the by!

With that out of the way, this week’s film on the chopping block is none other than Disco Boy.

Honestly? I was fully expecting a queer film based solely on the title and poster. Lol. But no! I was hoodwinked — and not in a good way. Once I realized what the movie was actually about, it fell even shorter of my expectations. Now let’s get it!!!!!

The Setup

Disco Boy opens in a strange, unsettling way: a mass of brown bodies layered on top of each other in a tropical setting as the camera creeps inward toward a shadowy figure. Then we meet Mikhail and Alexei (Alex), traveling with a group of men headed to what I can only assume is a football — sorry, soccer — match.

Mikhail and Alex ditch the group at a gas station and begin their journey toward France. Their mission: get in by any means necessary. Sadly, Mikhail dies during a boating incident that looks like a routine inspection gone horribly wrong.

Devastated, Alex wanders the streets of France in a daze before being picked up by authorities. The interrogation feels less like immigration screening and more like a military recruiter sizing him up for a secret French mercenary squad.

War and violence, as always, are the great equalizers of the working class.

Meanwhile, in Niger…

Back home, the land is being stripped bare — resources siphoned off by foreign nations, this time the French. Fed up, a group of Niger Delta natives, led by the charismatic Jomo, form MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta). Their goal: fight back.

But… what did MEND hope to accomplish? Becoming Nigeria’s number one enemy? Unlikely. Nigeria’s number one enemy has always been its own government — corruption from the top down.

MEND managed to catch a few small fish, but violence is a small boy’s game. If Jomo truly wanted lasting change, he should’ve gone into politics. Yes, he might’ve ended up as another Lumumba, but at least history would have remembered him.

When he died, the movement lost its head. And that was that.

Side Note

Is Francesco gay? Only asking for a friend. His behavior rubbed me the wrong way. Pun intended. Lol. He constantly ribbing the Indian guy — not too deeply, but still — and he’s so handsy with other naked dude in the locker room. Loud, talkative, always doing the most. I side-eyed him every time he showed up.

Final Thoughts

The film felt one-dimensional and frustrating. Once again, we get Africans portrayed as spiritually tethered to the ancestors, dancing in front of firelight while the modern world looms in the background.

We don’t all live in huts. Why not show Lagos or Abuja? Air-conditioned homes? Skyscrapers? Or the many nonviolent channels Africans use to fight corruption? Africa is beautiful and diverse — it deserves better representation than the same tired aesthetic.

I’ll give Giacomo Abbruzzese an A for effort, because the atrocities shown in the film are real and the world does need reminders. But beyond that? I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being too critical.

Anypoops, I give Disco Boy — 3 out of 5 rose petals.