Mediocre Movie Club Movie Reviews

Beasts of No Nation

12/9/2015

A-
3.52

A drama based on the experiences of Agu, a child soldier fighting in the civil war of an unnamed African country.

Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga

Initial Review by Bryan Hartman

“Oh man, I love these kids.” was the only thought running through my mind for the first 15 minutes of Beasts of No Nation. Very few times in cinematic history have I become so attached to a few characters in such a short amount of time. Beasts of No Nation blurred the line between documentary and full dramatic movie. It was as if the life of Agu was playing out through the eyes of documentarian in an incredibly gripping manner. The language, scenery, and acting were spot on.

When the Commandant shows up, I thought it was Idris, but I wasn’t 100% sure. I actually stopped the movie to check. Each of his soldiers also carried their own personality like they weren’t part of a movie. Once again the acting and language shone through more than any of the actors - a sign of a great work of art.

Maybe it’s the number of terribly sad movies I’ve seen, FIJI initiation (just kidding Joe Weist), or the economics blood running through my veins, but I was not overly emotional about Agu’s experiences as part of the child army. I felt sad for Agu and the others, but I never had the Schindler’s List feeling of gut wrenching sadness.

I’m struggling to come up with some negatives, but I feel like just a touch may have been missing. Talk me up or down from an A-. Great pick self.

14 Comments

Sean

12/9/2015 11:57:46 am

First I want to applaud Bryan's picture choice to attach to the review. I started Beasts during my lunch break on Monday and made it through the Imagination TV part and immediately nominated imagination TV as best scene on the Mediocrities page of the spreadsheet.

Something I loved about Beasts, it didn't completely choose sides. Is the government corrupt and in need of rebellion? They don't comment on that. Is the NDF taking advantage of these young children being lost and without parents, of course they are but if the cause is noble and the choice is starvation wandering alone in the jungle or fighting why not fight. And before someone explains the real life situations occuring with child armies please know in advance that I don't care, I'm commenting on its portrayal in a movie.

Idris is great as always as the inspiring, demanding head Commandant and will get some best supporting love from the MMC. My favorite member of the NDF had to be the guy who choose to fight naked so his dork could flop along during the fight.

I was torn on Striker's story, part of me loved the exchange with Agu complaining about him not talking, it was clear he couldn't speak- I'm glad someone didn't chime in to say he has no tongue, but I wish I would've known what he did to get his tongue cut out.

After the Supreme Commander insulted Idris with both the long wait and demotion you knew shit was really going to hit the fan. When the batallian ultimately abandoned Idris his performance of the mixture of his bravado power and his acknowledgement that it is over goes on his highlight reel.

Ending with the rehab beach resort shows how broken and fragile these kids become. Some of them rebel from the treatment theyre receiving and runaway to continue fighting. Agu's final speech describing himself as both a beast and a son is probably the saddest moment in a sad film that maybe tied the whole movie together a little too neatly.

Great movie, some of the battle to battle stuff dragged a bit, and the close was a little too clean and manipulative.

A-

Bryan

12/9/2015 12:50:02 pm

1. I watching everything in CC, it was "Strika"
2. "When the batallian ultimately abandoned Idris his performance of the mixture of his bravado power and his acknowledgement that it is over goes on his highlight reel." I would have been ok with a slightly longer rant.
3. "Agu's final speech describing himself as both a beast and a son is probably the saddest moment in a sad film that maybe tied the whole movie together a little too neatly." +1

12/9/2015 01:33:28 pm

"I watching ..." turns out I really absorbed the language in Beasts of No Nation.

12/10/2015 09:15:33 pm

Don't feel sad Bryan- next week half the group will be in Vegas and comments won't be much more active

12/10/2015 10:04:05 pm

What else can we chat about?

12/11/2015 03:26:39 pm

Some hot stove action?

12/11/2015 03:56:06 pm

Cap and trade :-/

Lane

12/11/2015 05:28:25 pm

I’ll be up front with this review: this is an excellent film. Technically, it’s stunning. The acting – from child actors through a very terrifying and charismatic Idris Elba – is superb. Some of the landscape shots were screensaver worthy, and I even went back and watched the two long-take shots of Agu walking through the foxhole bunkers towards Commandant twice, just to make sure I took it all in.

With “Beasts,” Cary Fukunaga now moves to the top of my list of favorite young directors. His “Jane Eyre” was kick-A a few years ago, recapturing the dark intensity of that novel, and of course Season 1 of True Detective was a revelatory burst of detective noir, jolting audiences awake from their CSI and NCIS Lethean slumber.

Some critics really didn’t like that the film chose to detach itself from historical roots, but I think it's what had to be done. The sad truth is that Agu’s story is the true story of hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of children over the last few decades in Africa, and to try and ground that story in Liberia or Rwanda or Congo would have simply made the film too heavy to handle (it was already almost too heavy to handle).

What Fukunaga does perfectly is take this horrible, tragic reality and turn it into a dreamscape – something like a dark fairytale. I think it's exceedingly difficult to film African continental wars in a Spielberg-esque cinema verite, because the tragedy of these wars is so outside the comprehension for most of us. I mean, these are children kicking other children to death for absolutely no reason - how do you depict that without sending half the audience home in a suicidal state?

This is why I really liked the way Fukunaga took the film; it was like the story was saying to the audience, “Hey, we know this is too much to take, so let’s make it abstract; play with color and light and you won’t be quite sure if you’re watching a dark fantasy or a real life story.” The opening “imagination television” scenes aren’t comic relief – they’re an invitation and a challenge. We know that what we’re watching isn’t “real;” it’s just a movie; and yet, it is real. It leaves us, the audience, in suspended tension the entire time.

With a lot of movies, I watch them, grade them high then fixate on their flaws and grade them lower. I’m doing the opposite here. There are flaws here (about 15 minutes too long, for sure), but after a day of sitting with this film, I’m bumping it up from an A- to an A. I think this is a solid movie and even worth a second watch somewhere down the road.

Liked:
- Excellent direction and cinematography
- Acting is off the charts – the kid deserves an award somewhere
- Solid full frontal warrior swinging dong action

Disliked:
- a little too long; could have used a little more editing
- soundtrack felt like a budget afterthought

Grade: A

Jon

12/12/2015 03:16:44 am

Beast of No Nation is Cary Fukunaga as auteur. It's his vision from start to finish. He produces, directs, writes, and shoots it, taking a level of control reserved for only the most single-minded filmmakers. The only other person I can think of that goes to this extreme is Steven Soderbergh, who also edits his movies in addition to the aforementioned roles. Fukunaga is in command of the visual aspect of Beasts of No Nation, with excellent cinematography and camerawork throughout, and he does great work with his actors through what must have been a difficult production. However, when it comes to the script, this is the danger of going it alone; a second opinion is often necessary. If the best thing he ever does is True Detective, it might be because he could leave the writing to someone else.

That said, tThe first thirty minutes are A+ character/world building, depicting a community that is living in a bubble, but living pretty well. Though I am immediately leery of the narration as a tell-don't-show crutch, and am ultimately not shown otherwise, Agu's friends and family completely bring me around. His friends are lively and charismatic, and his family dynamic is instantly recognizable and endearing. The scene where Agu's brother and best friend trade insults is masterful editing, something out of a 1930's screwball comedy. I expect Bryan or Joe to copy the teacher's shaming technique going forward. Even when Agu's parents are fighting heatedly in the next room about what to do next, the brothers still are able to make each other laugh. Couple the warm humor with the beautiful scenery, and we're in Terence Malick territory. We're talking about Dark Knight on the Games tab, a dour entry in the most dour superhero trilogy imaginable. Beasts of No Nation is a film about child soldiers that is packed with moments of levity and outright jokes.

This initial section blown out to feature length is the film I want to see. With the caveat of 'it can't have any white people in it,' I can't think of a movie that takes place in sub-Saharan Africa that doesn't contain major plot points about brutal conflict. Even Saudi Arabia had an in situ coming-of-age story last year. If Fukunaga wants to revisit this area for a lighter affair in the future, he very much should, because the rest of Beasts of No Nation is not breaking new ground. There's still plenty to recommend in the look of the film, in Elba's seductive performance, and in the child actors' performances, but as far as movies about war, or movies about war featuring children, I remained mostly unmoved.

Beasts of No Nation is packed with spectacular imagery, but I don't think the writing is as elevated. Agu follows an expected and straightforward lost-innocence path all the way down, before ending with an unearned sliver of hope. To his credit, Fukunaga keeps outright misery porn from getting too close to his film, probably through its appreciated sense of humor. I'm not fundamentally opposed to misery porn, as one of my most admired (favorite's the wrong word) war films is a singularly-harrowing Russian film about the Eastern Front in WWII. That film, Come and See, goes so far into hell that it comes out the other side. It, and another African child soldier film I recently watched, War Witch, have more art in their writing. The former is knocking down pillars of society one by one, and the latter has a more mystical bent that fits the over-the-top world. Beasts of No Nation just loosens its grip once it goes into the jungle.

My waning interest is not on the actors. I would imagine resting your film on the shoulders of a teenager is hugely unpredictable, but Abraham Attah comes through for Fukunaga. He's totally realistic across a broad range of emotions, from the angry despair at watching his mother drive away to the enthralled, pinched-nose face he makes when listening to the Commandant talk about brotherhood. I hope this kid continues acting, because he's a real talent. The same goes for Emmanuel Nii Adom Quaye, who played Strika. Quaye shares a lived-in rapport with Attah, evident despite Strika's wordlessness. Elba is, uh, commanding as the Commandant, and it's a bullet-proof performance, but honestly, I already knew he could do this. Leading the call-and-response psych-ups is more energetic than usual for him, but this is squarely in his wheelhouse. Maybe Elba has found something he does very well and can coast on that forever, but I'd like to see him go against type in something.

Beasts of No Nation flirts with greatness in its first section, but doesn't live up to that potential. The film's structure is well-trod, though well-executed, and narration so rarely helps. Fukunaga can pack a lot of action into a single shot, but the opening idyll raised my expectations to a high, possibly unattainable level. B

Drew

12/15/2015 03:20:28 pm

I am unsure a comment does this film any justice. It displayed the metamorphosis of Agu. Viewers saw his evolution from an innocent child to warrior and then to a young man with an understanding about the world.

Beasts of No Nation displayed another aspect that other war films rarely ever touch. That was the propaganda brainwash of leaders. Fukunaga showed this because in areas of Africa, revolutionary leaders - that turn into dictators - repeat the mantra to get soldiers and followers to do what they want. They are fooled by charisma and the idea of political change that they follow the orders when in truth, they achieved no change and the revolution was for naught. That sentiment was highlighted when the Lt. Commander was shot by his "lady friend" and told an onlooking Agu that everything they fought for was "for nothing."

While those were tremendous aspects of the film, more was expected. The air went out of the film when the mutiny began. The acting and all that was fine but it left the viewer wanting more of an explanation.

Grade: B

12/15/2015 11:42:20 pm

"... but it left the viewer wanting more of an explanation."

What do you mean?

Shane

12/21/2015 10:02:05 am

For the final 10 minutes of Beasts of No Nation, I just wanted one thing. I wanted Ugu to just jump into the water with the other boys. I just felt like if he could do that, he was going to be alright. The thought consumed me. We watched this little boy slowly die throughout the movie while being denied the chance to be a child. To enjoy some years unfettered by responsibility. I didn’t care that he didn’t talk to the counselor. I knew he wouldn’t run off with the other boys, feeling relief when he stayed.

Just get in the water. Cleanse yourself.

So when he sprinted in, so carelessly that he fell head first into the waves, a smile came across my face for the first time since we saw Ugu and his familial brother laughing in the dark like all young siblings do. I don’t know why the water was so important. Maybe its my background as a Christian with baptism. Maybe it’s just remembering seeing an ocean for the first time and sprinting into it for what seemed like ours as a 6 year old. Maybe it’s the fact that as I now look at the ocean as an adult, anonymous waves repeatedly crashing on the shore and pounding away at the sand, I tend to wonder who all came upon this very beach. Who walked these sands or threw these pebbles. Who rode the waves. I just sort of look at the ocean and its vastness and seeming eternalness and think about all the secrets and lives its seen that it will never share.

So when Ugu hit that water, we hope he was reborn. We hope he becomes a kid. We hope the unspeakable horrors wash away into the water. We hope for him.

Beasts of No Nation was draining and puts the viewer through an exhausting assault on her emotions and senses.

Emotionally, the depravity of war, not glorified and not judged, confronts the viewer in an exceedingly uncomfortable way. Beasts doesn’t give you an easy way out by telling you what to think. Beasts makes you make the moral judgment on whether or not a child should shoot a women who is assuredly about to be repeatedly raped.

Visually, the shots are stunning and beautiful. But those breathtaking shots are juxtaposed against scenes of misery, never allowing the viewer to completely relax. The joyous music, often in a different language, sounds sanguine, but also occurs upon the celebration of violent deaths and destruction. The sensory roller coaster made me uncomfortable, which is something I generally appreciate in a movie.

If I have any complaints, it’s that Beasts takes on an awful lot and I wanted more to be done, especially in the sexual abuse portions of the film. This is hardly damning praise as the area of sexual abuse is incredibly hard to navigate. That said, the unspoken bond between Stryka and Ugu was enough to satisfay me.

In the end, I got the scene I wanted. I don’t care that Commander is out there, perhaps gathering more to his side. I’m just happy Ugu gave himself a chance.

A-

12/21/2015 12:22:06 pm

Nice review for plane writing. I nominate for Best Review on this one.

12/22/2015 02:07:56 pm

"Ocean " by John Butler Trio is probably my favorite song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdYJf_ybyVo

Beasts of No Nation

A-
3.52

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Beasts of No Nation

A-3.52

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A-
3.52