Title: A Critical Review of Lionheart
Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, stands as a landmark in Nigerian cinema, not merely as the nation’s first Netflix original, but as a thoughtfully constructed film that entwines cultural specificity with contemporary cinematic craft. This review undertakes a critical analysis of Lionheart through four analytical frameworks: Formal Media Analysis, the Oppositional Gaze, the Male Gaze, and Hall’s Encoding/Decoding model. The central argument advanced here is that Lionheart deliberately subverts dominant cinematic conventions by asserting a distinctly Nigerian vantage point, thereby reframing discourses on gender, power, and spectatorship. Through the integration of these critical perspectives, the review aims to illuminate how Lionheart disrupts conventional Nollywood paradigms and Western presumptions about African narratives. Section A: Formal Media Analysis Cinematography Lionheart’s cinematography is characterized by its clean, balanced compositions that underscore notions of order and...