To Be A Friend (TBAF)- Movie Review

Intro

• Name of Movie- To Be A Friend (TBAF)
• Date of Release- July 2025
• Production company- A3 Studios
• Director- Great Val Edochie

Two very close friends conceive an Idea to create a tech company while still in their university days, but life happens and one goes ahead to build on the idea that became a conglomerate, while the other friend who conceived the idea drifts.

After a long search, fate brings them together, but the consequences of this reunion unfolds as one harbours unsavory thoughts borne out of jealousy, envy and covetousness, hereby unleashing a series of events that threaten the fabric of their friendship and Foster Brotherhood.

Hello Beautiful people and welcome to Box-office Africa where we discuss and dine with everything Nollywood and motion Pictures, locally and globally

Today we have yet another interesting movie review all for your viewing pleasure.

We will be reviewing the Movie Titled "To Be A Friend (TBAF), coming from the stables of Bimbo Ademoye's A3 Studio Productions. 

A drama filled with suspense, covetousness, betrayal and self reevaluation.

Cast

Deyemi Okanlawon is cast as Tega, a nerd--turned tech founder and savvy business man.

He is an introvert who mastered the art of exploring his innate capabilities to create wealth.

He is dutiful and focused to building his dream, this was his strength as well as his weakness.

Kunle Remi plays the role of Tunde, a vivacious and overly sociable personality.

He is curt and somewhat self centered, but skillful in manipulation, notably when he is determined to get the bag for himself.

Bimbo Ademoye portrays Fola, the love interest of Tega who became his wife subsequently.

She's easily swayed by emotions, and deceit, a bit clingy though her demands were righteous ones, a duty every husband owes to his wife- Love and attention.

Uzor Arukwe is cast as Rugged, fellow Prison inmate and now dutiful friend to Tega.

He is a man who was ruffled by life on the streets of Lagos, but he was trustworthy and dependable.

Tersy Akpata plays Ini, a loyal staff and assistant to Tega.

She also crushes on him, and was his ears and eyes when he was away and indisposed.

Desmond Bryce is cast as Young Tega, he was the nerdy version that the older Tega transitioned from.

Peace Remi is cast as the Young Tunde. He is suave, overbearing and slick. He laid the foundations for the older Tunde seamlessly to transition to.

Eyiyemi Afolayan plays the role of Young Fola, a campus beauty and love interest of Tega.

Crew

• Story- Bimbo Ademoye
• Screenplay- Bimbo Ademoye, Oyindamola Adebayo, Collins Okoh
• DOP- Lawrence Morgan
• Sound- Remi Benson
• Editor- Egbelu Chukwuemeka
• Associate Producer- Oyindamola Adebayo
• Producer- Grace Onyia
• Director- Great Val Edochie 

Plot & Story

The plot takes a deep dive into how to navigate through difficult situations and maintaining friendships.

Then failures inherent when there's an imbalance in your work life and taking good care of yourself as well as your family.

The story centers on Tega, a former nerd now a successful tech mogul, who built a company on the idea of his close friend and buddy - Tunde.

Years after they leave the university, Tega goes on to create the blueprint of the company singlehandedly, while Tunde gets caught up in life's messy situations that led him to fall faraway from the initial plan.

Character Development and Performance

Deyemi Okanlawon who played the role of Tega, a nerd and introvert while in his uni days, but transformed into a savvy business man; drowned his emotions in portraying this character.

His expressions, tone, inflections, and transition from nerd to tech founder; were impeccable. He once again showed how good of a character interpreter he was.

His Younger self played by Desmond Bryce was also a good one. 

The scenes that were dated 10 years earlier and fewer, but it was a good portrayal, building the character profile of the older Tega easily. 

Kunle Remi Starred in this flick as Tunde, a quick, very social and slick individual who loves being the epicenter of everything.

He is suave, covetous, sneaky and ominous in his dealings.

Kunle is a great thespian and did not disappoint in this outing.

Peace Remi who portrayed the younger Tunde had a very uncanny resemblance to the older Tunde. 

Word on the street is that they are actually blood brothers.

Peace transitioned seamlessly between the young and older Tunde. Outstanding performance, I’d say! We’d love to see him in bigger roles in the future.

Bimbo Ademoye, who played Fola, also delivered a strong performance. 

As always, her expressions and character interpretation were sublime—she fully immersed herself. 

However, I noticed she seemed slightly off in some scenes; perhaps the burden of producing the movie took its toll. 

Overall, Bimbo felt natural, gave her best, and had a nice outing.

Eyiyemi Afolayan made a cameo appearance but using her as a younger Fola was a fantastic idea, based on their looks and transitioning from younger to older.

Uzor Arukwe, who played Rugged—a fellow inmate turned dependable friend to Tega—was another compelling addition to the plot. 

His performance felt like an encore, especially following his portrayal of Odogwu; movie fans clearly yearn for more of him, and this film was no exception.

Tersy Akpata was cast as Ini, a dependable and trusted staff of Tega's TG solutions company. 

Her inclusion was a good addition to the story.

It's my first time of seeing her in any production, but I loved her expressions, her delivery wasn't exceptional but still good.

Would really love to see her in more challenging roles in the future.

Story and Plot

Good storytelling, good plot though the repetitive storyline that portrays betrayal and predictable outcomes were a bit cliché.

I expected some twist in the plot, the end was satisfactory.

This gets an B.

Directing

The prison scenes were not quite reflective of the true state of affairs in Nigerian prisons.

Though Bimbo Ademoye who served a the executive producer of this flick cleared this during a recent IG live, affirming that the set was built from the scratch by the gaffers- Benjamin Paul and Olatunji Paul.

Kudos to them.

However the whole prison scheme thing was not impressionable but it did the job.

I loved the good representation of the cast from way before and now.

The scenes were logical, followed the right sequence especially for a plot of this nature.

The Directing gets an A.

Visuals and Cinematography

Amazing Visuals, good ambience, the few addition of aerial shots captured by drones were surrealistic and satisfying.

The camera angles were also good, though not so mobile because it stayed static and rudimentary like every other Nollywood camera shots and cuts.

Good camera work, this gets an A.

Soundtrack & Sound Design

Good sound design, no noisy and discordant music that's disruptive especially to the dialogue scenes.

Good score that blended evey well with the dialogue.

This gets an A.

Theme & Message

The bedrock of good friendship and partnership is built on trust and the ability to go the whole nine yards for those we love.

Again, building a nexus between your work life and family responsibilities is very important.

The further we fail to strike a balance, then we invite chaos and instability into our lives, Tega learned this lesson in a hard way.

Summary

To Be A Friend is a good movie, nice plot, good Visuals and acting, a pure cinematic statement that shows how much movies on YouTube are advancing.

The movie scores a 7.0 out of 10.

Conclusion

Have you seen To Be A Friend, TBAF for short by Bimbo Ademoye's A3 Studio? 

Let's know in the comments.