These days, we call it FOMO (Fear of missing out). Back when I was in high school, we simply referred to it as peer pressure. The influence of a group, particularly those your age, could push you into choices that define the rest of your life.
Some experimented with substances that drastically altered their paths. Others entered relationships that either facilitated their growth or left lasting damage.
The right peers could subtly shape your habits, work ethic, and values, just by being in your orbit.
In the streaming era, that same dynamic plays out differently. One minute you're ignoring a title; the next, you're watching it because everyone else is. That’s what happened with Inside Job. I’d planned to save it for the weekend, but FOMO got to me. I streamed it a day after it dropped.
On paper, it has everything: a bold, stylish poster, an engaging trailer, a compelling cast, and a seasoned director with a great track record.
What could possibly go wrong?
Inside Job is a Kenyan comedy film that premiered on Netflix on June 14, 2025. Directed by Tosh Gitonga and written by Angela Ruhinda, the film features a strong cast led by familiar faces, starting with Jacky Vike and Mammito Eunice, with Shiksha Arora making her acting debut.
The supporting cast includes Elyas Moshkwani, Irene Kariuki, Dominic Musyoka, Mehul Savani, Isaac Jemedari, Ronnie Kariuki, and Maryam Jawad.
Together, they bring humour and heart to this Nairobi-set heist comedy, delivering performances that blend satire, social commentary, Kenyan-Indian flair, and love.
Synopsis
When a heartless businessman fires his honest housekeeper without warning or a pension, her daughter and niece decide to take matters into their own hands. What follows is a chaotic heist as the two cousins team up to right a wrong and reclaim their aunt’s dignity.
What works
Jacky Vike’s portrayal of Wambui marks a noticeable shift from her typical performance style. Here, her delivery is more restrained, grounded in subtle facial expressions and controlled timing rather than exaggerated theatrics.
Her scenes with Elyas Moshkwani’s Ravi are some of the film’s most emotionally resonant, genuinely sweet and disarmingly intimate.
Positioned as the “straight character” in contrast to Mammito Eunice’s more animated Tracey, Vike serves as the emotional anchor of the narrative, bringing tonal balance to an otherwise chaotic story.
Her screen presence is calibrated for film, dropping her usual stage-forward energy for something more real. Still, the script underutilises her arc; by the end, I was left wishing her character had been given more dramatic or narrative weight.
Mammito delivers a few well-timed comedic lines, but Tracey feels like an extension of Mammito’s stand-up persona rather than a fully fleshed-out character.
There's one moment of authentic vulnerability between her and Wambui (Vike), particularly after the mission, in the bedroom scene where her wig comes off, that suggests what could’ve been if the writing had taken the character further.
Irene Kariuki’s Patricia stands out for her believability. Her character design, through performance, costume, and environment, translates convincingly both in the affluent setting of Mr. Karia’s house and in her domestic scenes.
Shiksha Arora and Elyas Moshkwani embody a calm, contemporary sibling dynamic, but the screenplay gives them limited screen time. Their characters, like many others in the movie, feel underserved by the direction and writing; present but narratively adrift.
The film subtly explores the gap between two economic and cultural classes. What stood out to me was its focus on the Indian community, a group that’s often overlooked in Kenyan pop culture.
Through costume, makeup, and a few well-placed Mammito moments, we get a light but noticeable glimpse into Indian culture. The dance scene, while brief, was a bold and unconventional touch that made the film feel truly distinct.
The use of location adds a strong visual layer to the story. Mr. Karia’s home reflects his social status, and the party sequence does a good job of keeping the plot contained within that space.
The story itself is messy and far from airtight, but buried in the chaos is a feel-good love story that just about holds everything together.
Visually, it draws strong class contrasts through set design and location choices. The movie features a wide array of drone shots, which help ground it in Nairobi’s urban sprawl, but begin to feel excessive by the halfway mark, possibly a pacing move to stretch the runtime.
That said, a few compositions stand out: scenes set in Kariokor and the interiors of Patricia’s house offer well-framed glimpses of lived-in realism.
Lighting is serviceable, leaning toward a bright look typical of the comedy genre. However, it occasionally tips into overexposure, especially in the party scene, where flashing coloured lights (they do look cool) disrupt rather than support one particular dialogue moment. A quieter lighting scheme might have better suited the intimacy of that particular moment.
The movie uses a handful of creative transitions; the overall camera work is fairly conventional and sometimes inconsistent. It occasionally lacks the visual storytelling precision that could’ve elevated the material.
Makeup and styling choices opt for naturalism. Characters like Patricia, Muli, Miano, and Charles are styled with realism in mind, which helps sell their socioeconomic context. Mammito’s visual presentation evolves across settings, with her makeup and wardrobe subtly signalling shifts in tone and character mood.
The costume and props teams succeed in distinguishing class visually, from the big cars and gold in Mr. Karia’s home to the humble domestic set-up in Patricia's home.
What didn’t work
The title sequence, visually uninspired and seemingly slapped together in post. While the typeface choice is really good, the sequence itself doesn’t work.
I understand they were going for simplicity, but it lacks a creative ambition to set it apart. It neither sets the tone nor introduces us to the world we’re about to enter effectively.
Tonally, the film is a blend of many genres, a bit of Ocean’s Eleven, a Cinderella story, a touch of Bollywood, and a 75-minute TikTok video.
Unfortunately, the writing doesn't have the structural clarity or tonal control to support such an ambitious mix. Each genre nod feels underdeveloped.
While the narrative is technically coherent, the plot progression is disjointed, and the film unfolds more like a series of loosely connected vignettes than a unified story with proper narrative momentum.
Pacing-wise, the overall tempo is fast, but the editing, particularly in dialogue-heavy scenes, is clunky. There are noticeable timing gaps between lines, which flatten comedic beats and kill conversational rhythm.
The result is a jagged scene flow that undermines the natural escalation of the three-act structure. The sense of escalation feels forced rather than earned.
Several characters are underwritten or abandoned altogether. Miano (Ronnie Mugendi Kariuki) presents a potentially interesting dynamic with both Ravi and Wambui, but the script does little with it.
The handling of his arc with Priyanka borders on tasteless, and she vanishes from the story with no narrative payoff. Muli (Isaac Jemedari) serves a functional role in the plot, but his potential as part of a rival subplot is squandered.
Imagine if Muli, Miano, and Priyanka had formed a deliberate opposition to Ravi and Wambui’s budding romance, it would have added tension and dimension to the overall story.
Mr. Karia (Mehul Savani) is cast well as the archetypal serious and strict man of the house, but his performance is boxed in by a one-dimensional script.
The film could’ve either leaned into the stereotype with satire or flipped it entirely, subverting the character altogether. And the “mystery” subplot is a wasted device, misleading the audience with Muli’s antagonism, only to reveal Charles the watchman as the actual thief, could have been deeply rewarding.
Ravi’s arc is flat. He returns from abroad, and… that’s it. There’s no backstory to invest in, no internal conflict, no transformation. Even a simple layer, like a family heir forced back to Nairobi who is reluctant to inherit the family business, could have gone a long way in anchoring his motivations and making him a compelling character to follow.
Tracey (Mammito) and Wambui’s (Jackie) relationship has hints of depth, particularly during the planning scene and the post-heist moment when the wig comes off.
But those moments are islands. We never see the evolution of their bond, their history, or any emotional stakes beyond the mission itself. They're functionally co-leads but lack fully developed arcs. The writing keeps them surface-level primarily to serve the plot’s pace.
As for Tracey’s exaggerated American accent, it’s cringey and unnecessary. It doesn’t serve the character or the comedy, and it frequently breaks immersion.
The staging and blocking in some scenes are painfully obvious. Scenes with more than three characters often feel like a rehearsal, everyone facing front, no sense of spatial realism.
The kitchen sequence with Tracey preparing a meal and the aftermath of Miano’s table-smashing moment are prime examples of forced choreography with little attention to naturalism.
Sound design is passable, but just barely. There’s a functional mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sound, but nothing particularly expressive or purposeful. What’s more distracting are the transition sound effects, dated whooshes and swipes that feel lifted from early 2000s action montages. The intention may have been to inject energy or levity, but the result is a tonal whiplash.
There’s a Bollywood dance number buried in the second act. It’s brief, playful, and feels like a tease. Had the film leaned into it, gone full music video with synchronised choreography, vocals, and stylised visuals, it could’ve created a standout set piece.
Not a big-budget number like Tune Maari Entriyaan from Gunday or First Class from Kalank, but even a scaled-down sequence through Nairobi’s streets, with Ravi and Wambui narrating their love story through music, would have elevated the film’s ambition and memorability.
The biggest let-down is how average the film feels, especially in a cultural moment when Kenyan cinema is producing bold, original big works like Sketchy African or smaller ones like Sayari. As the credits rolled, I found myself wondering how Inside Job made it to Netflix… and why those other titles haven’t.
Conclusion
Going back to the conversation around peers, compared to the quality of work coming from his peers and his own past work, Inside Job has to be, without a doubt, the worst production from Tosh Gitonga in terms of direction.
The story is a very good concept. The idea of two people from two different cultures coming together like a Cinderella story, but in Nairobi, is pretty cool. But it all got drowned by the shifting tone, plot holes, overly staged compositions, poor sound choices, awkward dialogue editing, wasted characters, mediocre writing, and unclear sense of direction.
Jackie Vike is surprisingly great in this film, and her dynamic with Mammito is the best part about this movie.
For people who can stand mediocrity, this works. For those who had higher expectations, this is a big let-down. A let-down that left me with two major questions: Why did the movie feel so rushed? And why did it have a 75-minute runtime instead of the standard 90, when that extra time was clearly needed to flesh out these characters?
