Directed by : Glenn Ficarra, and John Requa
Written by : Robert Carlock
Starring : Tina Fey, Martin Freeman, Margot Robbie, Christopher Abbott
Release Date : March 4, 2016
Based on "The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan;" which is a memoir by American international journalist Kim Barker, "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" is not your typical movie about the war in the middle east. Despite the fact that this is a loosely based adaptation of a true story, there are still some familiar character archetypes and movie plot points that does show up here. What sets this story apart is that tonally this is a "dramedy," and isn't afraid to have lighthearted takes on the war in Afghanistan and some cultural aspects about it's people.
Tina Fey as Kim Baker; which is a slight name change from the real Kim Barker, is fantastic in the role as someone who starts the movie off as a fish out of water facing some culture shock. Her comedic timing and how she interacts with the other characters is quite entertaining to watch. The story itself kept my attention, juggling between scenes of journalists having parties in between lulls in the war, and scenes of attacks by insurgents. I thought the film however did feel a little bit rocky at times balancing between the comedic and serious moments, but I thought it more or less got it's points across.
The writing itself also had to play around balancing the unconventional aspects of the story with the conventional. There are some unique moments that I thought were fun elements that were included in the story, like a small plot point about a certain child beggar, to a village well that always gets destroyed. On the flip side, the very familiar story points, that involve the tragedies of war, to the romantic subplots, kinda bogs down the uniqueness of the film's premise to something a bit more average in nature.
Besides the strong performance by Tina Fey, the other aspect I really liked about "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" is how it portrays war correspondents like they are somewhat on vacation at summer camp, even if their lives are in danger on a daily basis. I also appreciated how frank it can get during the conversational scenes. It's not necessarily a must-see movie, but it has it's good merits.
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