Villains in the Metropolis is a crime thriller film with a title that quite literally alludes to its genre. Thrillers have the power to instantly put the audience at the edge of their seat while enthralling them with the twists and turns that unfold throughout the story. There has been a notable shift among Kenyan filmmakers towards this genre, with the likes of Antisocial (2022), Kaz (2022) Hypnagogia (2021), Consigned to Oblivion (2014), Lost in Time (2019), The More Things Change (2021) and 40 sticks (2020), just to mention a few. This is a refreshing angle in the film space that, for the longest time, comprised the soap drama category.
Written and directed by Dancurf Brown, most known for his acclaimed film Poker (2019), Villains in the Metropolis introduces us into the psychological world of the main villain character Lora (Sara Hassan, Crime and Justice), the circumstances that lead her towards a dangerous turning point and ultimately, her ruin. In the first few minutes, the film immediately sets the tone of a classical thriller by breaking the fourth wall, in which the film sequence of events is mostly told from the narrative voice of detective Generalli (Raymond Ofula, Country Queen).
The plot is standard by convention. Lora is a soft-spoken doctor in a loveless marriage with her husband Alex (Lucarelli Onyango, Single Kiasi). As with all, if not most, unhappy marriages, there is the case of infidelity. Alex is sneaking behind his wife’s back with Julie (Pierra Makena, Just in Time). Now, one would easily assume that there would be a crime of passion at some point. However, the unnecessary twists and turns leading us to that bring the entire credibility of the script structure to question.
The story begins with Lora back at home, just finding out that she is pregnant, while at the same time, Alex is out with Julie in one of their many sexual escapades. As these two events are occurring, on the other side of town, Pinchez (Bilal Mwaura, 40 Sticks) a low-life thug is on the run. His crime – raping a young girl. The mob is baying for his blood. Bleeding, he secretly breaks into Lora’s house and silently hides. Without her knowledge, Lora assumes it’s Alex and walks into Pinchez’s trap.
To ease the situation, she offers help to tend to his wound. He agrees, and as soon as he lets his guard down, his friend phones him to find out his whereabouts; as the conversation is ongoing, he mentions that people know he is a rapist, and they are after him. Lora eavesdrops and this information offsets a childhood memory of her mother being raped and killed by thugs (insert flashback). She snaps and ends up killing Pinchez. All human beings have that one underlying trigger point that sets apart their sanity and insanity. It is only a matter of time before someone or something activates it. This turning point in Lora as a character catalyses the entire story of Villains in the Metropolis.
What follows is the inevitable. Alex returns home and finds the dead body sprawled on the ground; Lora, on the other hand, is unapologetic about it. As an audience, we can see the shift in her state of mind when she brazenly points the gun at Alex, confronting him on his affair. Out of sheer fear and bewilderment, Alex bends to her will, and his loyalty is put to the test when a police officer (Vikash Patni, Crime and Justice) comes knocking. Alex fails to cover up the murder scene, and as soon as the cop sees blood on the floor, Alex panics and shoots him, hoping to have killed him, or so he thinks.
You see, the trick with crime thrillers is always to keep the viewers guessing by being one step ahead. Ofula’s Detective Generalli carries this goal forward throughout the film as he narrates the logic behind the human condition of each character within the story. He simply becomes the point of view. With his intelligent and witty commentary and thought-provoking remarks such as: “In each of us, two natures are at war, the good and the evil, throughout a fight occurs, one of them conquers, but in our might we have the power to choose which one wins.” These amazing one-liners, delivered in Ofula’s legendary voice, are the highlight of the film. Unfortunately, as an audience, your interest is only maintained as long as the narrator speaks.
Nothing is more appalling than a story that leaves more questions than answers. Constantly trying to play catch up, on who is who and what is their role as the events unfold makes it hard to believe anything you are watching in Villains in the Metropolis. Within the story, the plot of the thugs adds nothing but confusion and unnecessary screen time, ultimately killing the pace of the film. As viewers, we do not understand how they fit into the larger scheme of things. At one point, we notice some of Pinchez’s thug friends see Lora and Alex carry his dead body out of the house, and then they just rush off. Later, one of the thieves (Said Yeri) is almost lynched by an angry mob. Just as quickly as the thug characters appear, they disappear, leaving little to no impact or purpose to the general story arc.
Adding unnecessary characters to a story is one thing, but having poor characterisation within the existing cast is unacceptable. Villains in the Metropolis greatly underutilises its excellent cast by creating superficial, non-relatable characters who seem so detached from the world they exist in, making it so hard for the audience to invest in any of them. This is specifically true for the police, who, as the film evolves, their impact on catching the villain feels mundane, and at no point is there a thrilling hunt down. They, together with Detective Generalli (aside from being a wise narrator), result in just being talking heads with a lot of police jargon.
Lora and Alex are by far the most underdeveloped characters of them all. As the film ends, you really do not know how to describe their love affair. At one point, Lora forgives Alex for cheating, then the next, she poisons him to tie him to a rope next to Julie (his mistress). Then, in another moment, Alex clearly admits to cheating and begs for her forgiveness, and then the next, he begs her not to hurt his mistress. Remember the aforementioned crime of passion: Lora ends up killing Julie (no surprise there) with a butcher knife that looks straight out of a Hollywood horror flick. The cop who Alex supposedly shot bursts into the scene and catches them. In the heat of the confrontation, Alex saves Lora’s life but it is too late as she is shot by the cop, ending the chase.
Despite the script setbacks, the production makes up for the visual quality with amazing locations and production design suited for every scene, thus enhancing the general tone of the film.
The camera work (by Willie Owusu) is sub-standard, with some of the shots feeling misplaced with no clear intent as to why the shot was taken. However, the drone shots are superb in giving a general picture of the world that, at some point, one wonders how much of the Kenyan landscape is still untapped by the film and TV industry.
Crime thrillers have the task of keeping an audience wishing and desiring more of the thrill, suspense and dread. Making them ask premeditated questions such as: Does what I think will happen next actually play out that way? Will the villain or hero survive? Will the protagonist confront their greatest fears? Will the suspense at the end leave me feeling more curious or dreadful? Will there be a sequel? Most importantly, was the crime solved or not?
Villains in the Metropolis is a crime thriller by standard definition. However, it largely fails to grasp in its entire concept that for a film to attain the ultimate crime thriller status, it needs to be more than just a script with witty and random lines, a gruesome killing here or there, a hidden body, or detectives trying to solve a crime by making a few calls. To reach the status, it has to solve two simple questions. Are the stakes high with suspenseful twists? Will catching the criminal be thrilling? If you can answer yes to both questions, then you have yourself a top-tier crime thriller.
In the case of Villains in the Metropolis, perhaps you would be the better judge as to whether it levels up or not. While at it, how many villains in the metropolis, did you count? I counted six.
Update: Villains in the Metropolis is now available on Netflix.
