REVIEW: Loqueesha - Directed by Jeremy Saville

Review by Jon Donnis
Loqueesha is a film by Jeremy Saville, it tells the story of Joe, a bartender. Joe has a very smart son, and decides to send his son to a Private School whereby he can get the absolute best education possible. Since Joe is a bartender and regularly gets told his advice is "amazing" and that he should charge for it, after being given an advert, he decides to apply for a talk show job at a radio station, whereby he could have his own talk show, giving advice to people with problems.

As a white middle aged man, he is told that he is not right for the show, and gets rejected, remembering the advert he creates a character called Loqueesha, a larger than life, black woman. As expected the radio station employs "her" straight away. And this is when the fun really starts.

The film's comedy comes from Joe's attempts, or should that be Loqueesha's attempts at keeping her/his identity a secret, as well as keeping the "scam" going at all costs. Some of the advice given during the radio show is truly laugh out loud at times, a rare feat to accomplish in the "we've seen everything before" generation.

Despite being a comedy, there is an underlining issue here that is addressed very well, that being of identity, race and gender, and although we have seen similar comedies in the past that flip the script on gender and race, "Loqueesha" does it in a very original and unique way. And with something as serious as race and gender issues, the film keeps it lighthearted and the laughs never stop coming.

The cast as a whole were all new to me, which is something I like, and hopefully this film will be a good launching platform for many of the younger actors who really come across well.