There are three types of montage cliches that should be banned from all movies henceforth: 1) The “Falling in Love” montage, 2) the “Trying on Clothes” to “Find the Perfect Outfit” montage, and most irritating of all, 3) the “Reminiscing about a Lost Love” montage. Since God knows there are plenty of break-up songs on Top 40 radio stations, why did director Moses Mugu feel compelled to make a short film about breaking up, particularly as it violated the ban against Montage #3?
Tommy (D’Wayne Gardner) is the unlucky victim in “What About Us?” After receiving a phone call from his girlfriend Mary (T’Erica Jinks), the unsuspecting and utterly oblivious young man walks right into Mary’s ambush at a nearby park. He then spends the rest of this video short sulking with his best friend Rock (William L. Johnson) and reminiscing about the recently defunct relationship (see Montage #3 above). That is, until he coincidentally meets a sexy young thing — referred to in the film’s credits only as the “Woman” (Yvette Ward) — who quickly helps Tommy forget all about the ultimately repentant Mary.
Whatever. While not an offensively bad piece of work, there’s nothing remotely innovative or unique about “What About Us?” either. Instead, Mugu has given us nothing more than a simple, warmed over and cliche-ridden exploration of a break-up. That, friends and neighbors, is what Top 40 radio is supposed to do.
