Review: ‘Click Click Bang’ Is A Tragedy and An Extravaganza

Click Click Bang is Philit Production’s latest film directed by its Philip Karanja (A Grand Little Lie) and Michael Munyoki, and written by Kenyan fan favourite Abel Mutua. The story was inspired and adapted from an episode of Mutua’s YouTube series called “Young & Stupid,” and perhaps therein lies the problem. But more on that later.

In this reviewer’s experience, portents of the haphazard services due to be delivered on the silver screen waved across the Nairobi Cinema lobby during the one hour delay like big, bright, red flags. When it was finally time to get in, the door was unobstructed and a floodgate of muscle and meat was released like a flock of four hundred swagged out cattle; except, cattle usually do so peacefully, though yet again, the animals aren’t usually waiting so long to see the new Abel Mutua film. Alas, it was to be blasé. I had a bad feeling they weren’t taking this as seriously as they ought to.

Click Click Bang begins in earnest, really, quite literally so, as we see images from a camera strapped to a bicycle and other fantastic shots. We meet a boy who finds a crowd looking on at an executed man tied to a pole; bloody and shamed and branded and dead. The scene following immediately after, we meet the protagonist called Kev, a struggling orphan this close to being scouted to play in Norway as a striker but, unfortunately, strikes out, and along with his terminally ill sister are left with nothing. We’re never quite sure whether the boy is supposed to be him from the past, or whether he’s just some boy. Kev, our protagonist, partners up with a local thief and begins ‘thugging’ folks on the road, pushing the line stop after stop, reaching some sort of frizzled crescendo. 

Jacky Vike, fondly referred to as Awinja, from Papa Shirandula fame, plays Mokeira, Kev’s terminally ill sister with plenty of nuance and grace in what I think is the performance of the picture. Most of the rest of the acting is serviceable, though a few of the players ham it up pretty badly. The cast, taken as a whole, could be seen as belonging to different films. One actor striving for realism and subtlety, others playing like they are right in front of a thousand strong in a packed auditorium. Individually there’s nothing wrong with them, but collectively, they lack cohesion; consequently we see the illusion while it’s supposed to be… eluding. This blame, of course, belongs on the shoulders of the director. 

Nyakundi Isaboke (Maria, Ayaanle), who sports the coolest blue (purple? yes, in certain lights) pupil in his right socket, gives a charming performance as the avuncular thief; the more experienced, more ruthless thug, Kasisi. Shigwan Shiqo matches his wit with her own portrayal of his funny girlfriend, Mamushka. Basil Mungai (Kina), playing Kev, shows a little too much at times. In certain sections, he’s a culprit not only in the film but towards it as well, acting in that familiar way that screams ‘Look at me, I’m having emotions!’ Though the whole thing certainly holds till the end, where it just kind of tapers off and concludes, there’s no conceit in this movie. It tells a story, all right, but it doesn’t say or show anything we don’t know already, in exquisite sheng. 

Click Click Bang was adapted from a YouTube episode of Mutua’s story series. Boasting almost three hundred thousand views on the platform, they decided to turn it into a movie. It could have been a better movie had it had a tighter structure, but unfortunately, it was translated directly in the mode of a man looking into a camera and telling a story, and delivered in that same spirit. There is no poetry between the lines, there is only the lines.

Amina Hussein plays Kev’s potential love interest from a more prosperous background, a totem of uptown purity and prey for the struggling sect like Kev and Nyanduki’s Kasisi. It’s easily understood that this relationship cannot blossom and is doomed from the beginning, easily understood, very much on the nose. One only learns by way of a TV news deus ex-machina midway through the film that the events depicted here happened during the 2007 post election violence, a jarring manner to deliver such information. There are far too many characters in the film, many of whom go missing for long stretches without one noticing or caring, creating yet another problem of the film being too long. Nairobi Half Life was almost this exact movie but arguably better, at ninety minutes, as opposed to a derivative one hundred and fifty here. 

Sold as a heartwarming tale of two honest thieves, it’s strange looking at the marketing for Click Click Bang. I mean, here we have a young man from the ghetto who has his dream stolen from him, apprentices in stealing from others, is saddled with a dying sister, but the poster has exuberant cracking rocks for typography. Is this supposed to be an extravaganza or a tragedy? Watching the movie, you can see that the filmmakers weren’t exactly sure which either. 

The audience snickers when an extra walking in the background is doing a little too much, one of the movie’s assorted embarrassments, but applauds mercilessly when Abel Mutua makes a cameo and does the exact same thing. “Stan Lee!” they cry out, not realising that they have already been taken out of the movie, as it were. Khaligraph Jones makes a fun appearance, very much appreciated. In fact, Click Click Bang can be fun when given to it completely, the only problem being the way it seems to be intent on preventing one from doing that. Not to be mistaken with the 2021 American movie “tick, tick… BOOM!”

Click Click Bang is available to watch on philittv.com.

Update: Click Click Bang is now available to stream on Netflix.