Directed by Destiny Ekaragha and released in 2012, Tight Jeans follows a group of young black men in London while they wait for their friend. While they comment on the appearances of passersby, one of which is wearing a pair of black skinny jeans, setting the boys off on a comedic yet frank discussion of race, cultural appropriation and slavery.
The cinematography within Tight Jeans only seeks to amplify the boomerang style of dialogue between the main characters, as the camera engages through a slow track between the characters. The opening montage of the film establishes the diverse and lower class location the characters inhabit. This dialogue forming the basis for the entire film, it seeks to subvert the long-standing idea of "show, don't tell", much like Operator, however, its usage here is distinct in it does not attempt to appeal to emotion or use its short length effectively, instead it uses it lazily with no music bar during the introductory montage, a lack of subtextual mis-en-scene bar the fact that the main characters do not wear tight jeans. In fairness to Ekaragha it does actually have half decent dialogue but not good enough to ignore the other flaws or areas the film is substantially lacking in.
While linear the film lacks a traditional sense of a narrative structure but is told in chronological order. This lack of structure leads to poor pacing, with events and secondary characters appearing out of nowhere, for example, the audience only learns that the main characters are waiting for another character at roughly three quarters of the way into the film, while in some films an obfuscation of character motivations can be well implemented, in this film the mundanity of their motivations only seeks to make the audience feel as if their time has been wasted.
Overall, Tight Jeans attempts to make up what it lacks in depth and subtext through dialogue and themes, however, it doesn't achieve this goal even remotely, culminating in a lacklustre and mundane film.
The cinematography within Tight Jeans only seeks to amplify the boomerang style of dialogue between the main characters, as the camera engages through a slow track between the characters. The opening montage of the film establishes the diverse and lower class location the characters inhabit. This dialogue forming the basis for the entire film, it seeks to subvert the long-standing idea of "show, don't tell", much like Operator, however, its usage here is distinct in it does not attempt to appeal to emotion or use its short length effectively, instead it uses it lazily with no music bar during the introductory montage, a lack of subtextual mis-en-scene bar the fact that the main characters do not wear tight jeans. In fairness to Ekaragha it does actually have half decent dialogue but not good enough to ignore the other flaws or areas the film is substantially lacking in.
While linear the film lacks a traditional sense of a narrative structure but is told in chronological order. This lack of structure leads to poor pacing, with events and secondary characters appearing out of nowhere, for example, the audience only learns that the main characters are waiting for another character at roughly three quarters of the way into the film, while in some films an obfuscation of character motivations can be well implemented, in this film the mundanity of their motivations only seeks to make the audience feel as if their time has been wasted.
Overall, Tight Jeans attempts to make up what it lacks in depth and subtext through dialogue and themes, however, it doesn't achieve this goal even remotely, culminating in a lacklustre and mundane film.
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