Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) Review!!!

Synopsis – A journalist recounts her wartime coverage in Afghanistan.

My Take – Sometimes I really don’t understand the audience’s taste. Bad films continue make money & good films end up earning less. For example this excellent film made only $24.9 million on a budget of $35 million. I am guessing one of the reasons why this Tina Fey film ended up under performing, was due to its a satirical view of the conflict in Afghanistan, and I guess people are just not into watching War based films for now, even though this is much more than that. The undercurrent here is a reflection of the media and government who were initially so enthusiastic to fight the Taliban yet lose interest and become apathetic as their focus is directed to a new war in Iraq. Agreed! the film is no where close to a blockbuster, with names such as Tina Fey, Margot Robbie & Martin Freeman attached to it, the film is with a doubt highly entertaining and enjoyable. Unlike the feel of the previews, this is not really a comedy–not in the traditional sense anyway. There certainly are moments throughout the film that are funny and will cause you to chuckle, but it is definitely more of a drama. Based on actual events, the film takes you behind the camera and behind enemy lines to depict what it is like for television news foreign correspondents in a war zone. Although the movie was not what I expected at all, I was very pleased with the plot line, all be it, slow burning. Beyond the self-reflexive subplot in the movie is the foreground story of self- discovery.

Here, Tina Fey represents so many of us who just feel like we are spinning our wheels, treading water, or even moving backwards. The inspirational elements of the movie come from her willingness to take chances, make mistakes, and get dirty. Based on the book “The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan” by real-life TV reporter Kim Barker, the story follows Kim Baker (Tina Fey), a simple scriptwriter for Television news, who gets the opportunity to prove herself when she takes a job as a war correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2003 during America’s “Operation Enduring Freedom” mission. Assigned low-budget living quarters with other international journalists, she begins friendships with noted Australian correspondent Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie) and openly lecherous Scottish freelance photographer Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman). After a period of adjustment aided by her Afghan “fixer” Fahim Ahmadzai (Christopher Abbott), she begins taking well to the assignment, eliciting frank remarks on camera from soldiers questioning the value of their assignment there, and putting herself in harm’s way to capture combat incidents on video. American Marines commander General Hollanek (Billy Bob Thornton) takes a dim view of her, as an inexperienced nuisance. Although her status as a woman presents challenges in a society which places restrictive roles on women, she also uses it to her advantage. She also walks a tightrope, taking advantage of the thinly-veiled sexual interest of Afghan government figure Ali Massoud Sadiq (Alfred Molina) to use him as a source. Even though the assignment was supposed to last for only three months, Kim makes Kabul her home and slowly becomes an adrenaline junkie. After spending years in action, Kim finds it difficult to survive when the attention of the news channels & the viewing public shifts from Afghanistan to Iraq, with her news becoming one of those follow up pieces that are put onto television when nothing all that interesting is coming out of Iraq. Here, what starts out as a funny and corny “fish out of water” movie, slowly morphs into a more serious film about the addictive nature of constantly being in a war zone situation. Like many movies about reporters this one is about the reporter chasing the big story, however it is somewhat more than that because it is about how Baker slowly becomes an adrenaline junkie. Right from her first assignment, when she leaps out of the Humvee in the middle of a fire fight simply get to footage for the television station, we see her becoming ever more reckless with the desire to get airtime. This almost culminates when, dressed in traditional Afghan garb, she wanders into a male only meeting and is almost killed – yet this doesn’t set her back, she continues to look for the next big scoop, despite being warned otherwise. More so, it isn’t a question of the adrenaline, and living the action, but rather the thrill of having her story, and her footage, up on national television, a desire that is fed by the ratings, which means that when ratings drop, her desire to get into even more danger increases. There are really two stories here: the foreground story of self-discovery and the background self- reflexive plot. Both are seamlessly married together in order to accurately tell both without sacrificing the other.

Although we all know that there are foreign correspondents in war zones, we don’t always get to see what it’s really like to uncover stories, pitch to executives back in the states, and maintain sanity and safety; but through this film, we witness just how hard it really is to be a foreign television news correspondent. From networking, to interviewing, to shooting B-roll and stand-ups, Barker takes us on the journey from concept to delivery of producing news int he middle of a battle zone. Beyond the battle field, Barker is coping with her own personal and professional battles. If it isn’t the cheating boyfriend, it is the network who put her on the hourly plan and gives her no screen time. But, through it all, Barker never gives up and refuses to sit idly by and allow herself to be walked over. Fortunately, Barker does get her big break during the climax of the movie, but you’ll have to watch the movie to see what that is. The directing team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love, Focus) have made a very confronting movie about how our life can be transformed even when we remove ourselves from the comforts of home, and find ourselves being transformed to a point where we have fallen in love with a place that at first we could never have imagined doing so. As they say, home is where your heart lies. Despite all the positives, here is the one thing I had a problem with: The portrayal, or lack thereof, of Afghan women. This probably reflects the book, which I haven’t read. At the same time, they added other aspects that weren’t in the book. A real missed opportunity comes when Kim is asked into a room full of village women. They take off their veils. The camera stands behind them. We never see their faces. This could have humanized these women in one shot and we miss it. She comes out later to report what they told her, but we never hear them speak. It was a real disappointment. If any group of people needed a voice in this story, it was the women of Afghanistan. Tina Fey is perfectly cast here as the central character! This is by far her best performance, but as with anything Tina Fey is attached to, you’ll see nothing but excellence. She is stunningly brilliant in her journey from utterly green, sheltered, cube farming news writer to seasoned, battered, weary war correspondent. The brilliance of Fey‘s acting in this movie is truly showcased by her ability to display that she can do serious just as well as funny. But, this movie is more than just Fey. She has a very strong supporting cast around her. Martin Freeman is always a delight to watch. Alfred Molina is completely unrecognizable. Margot Robbie, an actress known to bring life into anything looks and does an incredible job. Christopher Abbott does a stand out job of an Afghan man honorably attempting to cross the cultural/gender abyss using English as his second language. Ironically the relationship of Baker and Ahmadzai is one of the few poignant elements of the film and something of a retreat from the gloomier moments. Despite fewer scenes, Billy Bob Thornton fits well in the film. On the whole, ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’ is an extraordinary portrayal of life as a war correspondent, with both intelligent humor and moments of terror sprinkled in to hit our very nerve.