Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot


Ever since I saw the trailer for this movie, I was really interested in seeing it. It’s starring Tina Fey. Its about war correspondents. It’s about war correspondents in Afghanistan. The title is incredibly military oriented. The cast from Fey to Martin Freeman, from Margot Robbie to Billy Bob Thornton, just looked really good. This movie just looked good.

The problem is this movie has the feeling of a lot of movies that come out throughout the year. There’s nothing incredibly sexy about it. It’s not a comic book movie, it’s not a big budget film. It’s not a rip roaring comedy. It’s just a film. A dramedy. And as much as I love those, I just don’t go out of my way to see those kinds of movies. Dramedies, straight up dramas, etc. It’s what happened with Straight Outta Compton. I know I still need to see that movie but I had all the intentions to go and see it but there wasn’t anything that really drew me to it.

However, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot to me seemed like a really interesting film that I was incredibly interested in checking out. So I did.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot follows the story of Kim Baker (played by Tina Fey). She is a low level reporter at a television news station and she is dissatisfied with her job. She is given the opportunity to become a war correspondent on a short assignment to Afghanistan. This takes place in 2003, at the beginning of the War in Iraq and the focus diverts from Afghanistan to Iraq. They need to have reporters on the ground to keep the support for the War in Afghanistan up.

So Baker packs up and goes to Afghanistan. There she meets a host of characters involved in the international war correspondent world. She meets a famous war reporter in Tanya (played by Margot Robbie), her Afghan “fixer” Fahim Ahmadzai (played by Christopher Abbott), a cocky Scottish reporter Iain (played by Martin Freeman), and a Marine General (played by Billy Bob Thornton).

Baker is embedded with Marine platoons during fights with the Taliban, she has interviews with high ranking Afghan officials, (including one played by Alfred Molina), all the while having quite the experience in Kabul.

This story is based off a true memoir of Kim Barker, an international reporter. I don’t really know how much of it is true and how much of it isn’t. My philosophy when it comes to “True Stories” is that I always take them with a grain of salt. I’m sure there is a thread of truth throughout the story, but the more important thing to think about is, is this movie portraying a good story? Is it compelling enough and is it keeping me interested? If the answer to that question is yes, it really shouldn’t matter the validity of the story. I mean unless they are saying things that are just outlandish and slanderous, I don’t really care if a story is true or not because most of the time when it says Based on a True Story, there are good chances that there are a lot of liberties taken.

But what did I think of the movie. I really liked it. I think we all know Tina Fey as a comedic actor, especially from her work on SNL and television like 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. However, I can’t really think of a lot of dramatic roles that she has taken on in the past. Sure there have been dramatic moments in a lot of the comedies she has done, but I think this is the first time that I’ve really seen her do something that is not entirely comedic in nature. While there are a lot of funny moments in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, its about war correspondents in Afghanistan. There’s a lot of serious moments to it.

Now I don’t think dramatic acting is really Fey’s strong suit. I don’t think it was an Oscar caliber performance, but it was still really good and great to see out of an actress that I think we’ve all known to be pretty straight forward as a comedic actress. She did a good job.

One thing I guess I could say that works against Fey in this performance is that she is so well known as a comedic actress. She's freaking Tina Fey. While I liked her performance and I thought it brought out a really great dramatic side of Tina Fey, I could see how this could be seen as Fey just playing herself. Especially with the added comedy, it doesn't necessarily feel like she's playing a different character, she's just playing Tina Fey going out to Afghanistan. A more serious Tina Fey then we are used to, but at the time time, its not a very different character than we've seen from her before and I just hope this opens up some doors for her to become an actor with a more diverse variety of performances. 

Other performances worth mentioning are Martin Freeman as Iain MacKelpie. As per usual, Martin Freeman is just down right charming in everything he does and I really enjoyed his character, especially as his relationship with Fey's character evolves in the story. But what's more is that, sorry if this is a spoiler, even though they eventually begin a romantic relationship, he is not the center of her story when that happens. She still has her story that she needs to go through and he is a supporting character. There's a hint at the end that he remains apart of the story, but again, this is not a love story, at least not first and foremost. First and foremost, this is a story about a woman becoming a war correspondent in Afghanistan. 

The other great thing about this movie is the story. I was really invested in this woman’s story and the experiences she goes through. I was also interested in the characters she meets along the way. They had their own personality and they were all interesting and essential to the story.

I also thought the mixture of comedy and drama was done very well. As much as you could have played this movie off as a full on drama, the fact of the matter is, some of the situations these reporters are in are so serious they’re almost funny. It’s the kind of stuff that is hard to make up, which makes me think that the funniest moments of the movie were actually the most true. Don’t hold me to that because again, I don’t know what was true and what wasn’t, but I thought the mixture of comedy and drama was very good throughout.

The one thing I have to say against the story was some of the conflict created. There’s a certain point in the movie where there’s a lot of tension between characters and it really makes this world of war correspondence really cutthroat. Again, I don’t know the validity of that, maybe it is that cutthroat. But a part of me thought that a lot of the conflict near the end was to give a little bit of drama to the last act of the movie and felt a little bit forced overall. It wasn’t horrible, I just thought it was a little bit out of character at some points and could have been left out.

It doesn’t really take away from the fact that I really enjoyed this movie.

The movie also touched on a lot of issues regarding the war in Afghanistan and I think its topics that are incredibly relevant given our current circumstances in that country. Afghanistan was really a forgotten war in the shadow of the war in Iraq. Furthermore, the movie really puts a human face on the people of Afghanistan and focuses on the culture and people, rather than the faceless terrorists that I’ve seen in recent movies about the wars in Iraq and Afganistan like 13 Hours, (I know Libya not Afghanistan or Iraq) American Sniper, and the Hurt Locker. I’m not saying those movies are bad or offensive, but it is good to see Afghanistan as a place where actual humans live.

On a more personal note, the movie really is a supportive of the military and if you’re in the military like I am, you’ll get a lot of the jokes presented in the film. I was in the theater with only about 8 other people and there were some jokes that only I was getting and nobody else was laughing at. But don’t let that turn you away from this movie. It is a great look into both the military and war correspondence in Afghanistan and if you’re interested in that, it’s definitely a movie worth checking out.

As you can tell, I have a lot of good things to say about this movie. While I don’t think it’s a movie that is going to be in contention for an Oscar next year, I do think it’s a hidden gem out there and it’s a very good movie.

But have you seen Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? What did you think of it? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I’ll leave you with this. Here's Tina Fey on Jimmy Fallon talking about the film. I swear she is just a gem Enjoy!


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