Love & New Notes

Released just in time for Valentine’s season, Love & New Notes is the kind of Nollywood romantic drama that you watch with someone you like and leave feeling quietly good about the world. Director Kayode Kasum and lead Timini Egbuson, who previously collaborated on several crowd-pleasers, bring an easy, lived-in energy to a film that knows exactly what it wants to be.

Timini plays Kolade, a Lagos music producer in creative crisis, who meets Zara (Bisola Aiyeola), a music teacher navigating her own quiet heartbreak. Their connection builds through shared playlists, studio sessions, and late-night drives on the Third Mainland Bridge. The Lagos backdrop is used beautifully — Kasum’s camera loves the city without romanticising its chaos.

Bisola Aiyeola is the film’s true revelation. Her Zara has a lived-in sadness that Timini’s easy charisma keeps from tipping into melodrama. Uzor Arukwe provides sharp comic relief as the best friend who sees everything before the protagonists do.

The third act rushes what the first two built with patience, and the resolution arrives too conveniently. But for a Valentine’s release, Love & New Notes delivers comfort, chemistry, and a genuinely lovely original soundtrack.

Verdict: Uncomplicated and warm. Not Kasum’s best, but exactly what a February cinema needs to be.