smeary

“Love Me JeJe,” up for the African music performance Grammy, is a magic-hour riff on Seyi Sodimu’s beloved late ’90s track of the same name, conjuring the warmest vibes imaginable and a great reason to dig into the history of Nigerian R&B. The hit “Me & U” is dreamy guitar devotional, bolstered by crisp kicks and incantatory chants; “Ready” conjures Sade’s quiet storm while “Wickedest” edges into smeary Atlanta rap.

Other paintings deepen the idea of “dungeon”: One smeary figure eight is the board for a Hannah Montana-branded version of the tabletop game Mall Madness.

Revenge is a dish served as too many smeary, overcooked courses in “God Is a Bullet,” an exploitation slog about a cult kidnapping and a good man’s tumble into hell that at 2½ hours doesn’t quite comport with the expeditious promise of its title’s last word.

But Sonny has a gift for spotting talent, and he’s aiming high: Jordan, the 21-year-old who’s left college early and whose moves he studies on smeary tape.

But these faces have character, personality, history, as does this vision of New York and its crowded byways and sagging buildings, with their faded grandeur, smeary windows, fragile pipes and impastos of paint lacquering the halls.