The Story:
The Obituary of Tunde Johnson is a great idea for a movie that spends more time trying to sound smart and sophisticated than telling a logical story. Tunde Johnson is a black gay high school student secretly dating Soren, a white lacrosse player whose father hosts a right-wing news show. Soren is also dating Tunde’s best friend Marley to hide his sexuality. While driving to Soren’s birthday party, Tunde gets pulled over by the police and shot, only to wake up the same morning to relive the day.
Tunde is either caught in a time loop or he’s hallucinating, and we never find out which one it is. After each death, Tunde relives the events of the day without trying to understand why it’s happening. Each instance of the same time plays out slightly different due to decisions that Tunde makes, but those decisions feel more arbitrary than due to a well thought out plan to end his situation. Aside from mentioning that he thinks he’s hallucinating, Tunde never asks why this is happening or gives it much thought. We do see him get frustrated at one point, but that’s all we’re given.
Tunde wakes up, goes to school, gets teased by one of Soren’s jock friends, Marley sticks up for him, then it cuts to a scene with Tunde and Marley alone, talking. The chemistry between them feels more like acquaintances than close friends who have grown up together. In fact, we only know they’re close friends because we’re told they are. While Marley talks about dating Soren, we never know if Tunde feels guilty for dating his best friend’s boyfriend. We also don’t know who was dating Soren first, Tunde or Marley.
As the story progresses, we find out that Tunde is seeing a therapist and he’s addicted to benzodiazepines, which is probably why he thinks the time loop situation could be a hallucination. Also, the only person who seems to know about his addiction is Soren. It isn’t until we discover, via a flashback, that Soren once rescued Tunde from drowning himself that some of the pieces come together. We’re left to assume that’s how they met, and that Tunde’s attempted suicide is the reason he’s in therapy; and that the prescription his therapist gives him is how he becomes addicted to benzodiazepines. It isn’t a huge jump, but it’s a lot of important information to assume.
Every time Tunde wakes up after being killed by the police, the day begins again. And with each loop of the same day—either through hallucination or a time loop—Tunde gets closer to coming to terms with his relationship with Soren and his sexuality. Also, the event of police violence happens at different times of the day and with different police officers, which gives us a sense that the two are somehow connected, but we never find out why or how.
Final Thoughts:
There are just too many unanswered questions and vagaries to give this movie a good rating. The acting is passable at best, and the script by Stanley Kalu is half baked. None of the dialogue feels real, and Tunde’s parents are there just to be supportive. In the hands of a more adept and experienced director, The Obituary of Tunde Johnson would have been a compelling film, but what director Ali LeRoi gives us instead is a vague mess of serious topics half realized.
