There are certain movies that pack heavy doses of reality in their fists but you feel nothing after getting hit with it. Then there are those that build momentum using tiny doses, hoping to create a snowball effect that gives an end result capable of (re)shaking an entire country, continent, and if you dare to say, the world.
Bolanle Austen-Peters’ Collision Course fits nicely in the latter.
It’s a story about two different worlds living in the same system. Two different people who have very different backgrounds but share similar pains bearing the brunt of an unjust system and are forced to act out of character because of their frustration.
While watching the movie, I could see the similarities between the storyline and the End Sars/End Police Brutality movement of 2020, and even though it was right to play in that space, it still gave us something more.
On one end you have a guy with a wealthy, and probably influential father, leaving his riches and law degree behind to pursue a career in music. On the other end, you have a policeman who wants to truly protect and serve his country.
But reality hits them just as much as it hits us, the viewers; For the musician, it is the fact that even with a wealthy father and a law degree, he isn’t safe from a system that promotes police brutality.
For the policeman, it’s the fact that serving your country means you get to serve a system that doesn’t care about you. One that leaves you to fend for yourself and your family any way you can; begging and/or collecting bribes.
There were certain nuances that made Collision Course a lot more wholesome; the dialogue was so natural, that it felt like a consistently increasing calm before a consistently increasing storm. The direction focused on shots that made us feel the panic, fear, happiness, calm, and other emotions that the actors felt. And the awesome acting that made it all possible.
Collision Course sends a strong message that you as a viewer can’t help but pray it reverberates through the noise and lights up a fire in everyone – both victims and assailants, society and system, and forces everyone to rethink what it truly means to be human, to protect and serve, and to play our part in creating a change that seems so far out of reach for the country and humanity as a whole.
And it reinforces the notion that all it truly takes is One Bad Day. A shocking but realistic fear that we all have to live with.
Is Collision Course worth watching? Yes, it is. I give it a B-.