THE OBITUARY OF TUNDE JOHNSON features interesting variations on what is now a familiar theme. A young person of color is haunted by the nightmare that no matter what he does, he will be shot by police. In this case, Tunde (Steven Silver) is raised by very wealthy parents who live on the top of a California mountain in a spectacular house with amazing cars, and he is very much in love.
The object of Tunde’s affection is not his best friend Marley (Nicola Peltz) but the spectacularly beautiful star athlete (Spencer Neville). This trio of connected teens do a great job demonstrating the messiness of adolescence in short flashbacks which sometimes repeat verbatim or with fluctuations.
Director Ali LeRoi does a nice job of providing variety to the pacing of the numerous shifts in Stanley Kalu’s script, but I don’t think anyone will be surprised by the ending.
The film is timely and should be widely seen. I enjoyed it on Hulu.