WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT
***
Directors: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
Screenwriter: Robert Carlock based on the book by Kim Barker – The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Principal cast:
Tina Fey
Martin Freeman
Billy Bob Thornton
Margot Robbie
Alfred Molina
Country: USA
Classification: MA
Runtime: 112 mins.
Australian release date: 12 May 2016
Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is based on the memoir The Taliban Shuffle: Strange days In Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s a chaotic and wry vision of the coverage of the war in Afghanistan and, by extrapolation, war in general. We meet Baker (Tina Fey) as she is being singled out from her journalist colleagues in Chicago as a childless, unmarried member of staff who has, therefore, the credentials to head off to Kabul.
She leaves behind a half-hearted relationship with a boyfriend who’s under the impression she’ll only be away three months; however, before too long, the seduction of the ‘scoop’ and the heightened atmosphere of life in a war zone gets under her skin and she’s seduced by the hyper situation she finds herself in. Her journo gal-pal Tanya (Margot Robbie) introduces her to the rules of engagement, sexual engagement that is, and she hooks up with Scottish photographer Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman), while being wooed by a prominent Afghani politician (Alfred Molina) and managing to win over US Marine General Hollanek (Billy Bob Thornton), all good ‘sources’ who fuel her increasing addiction to war reporting.
Fey is superb as someone who’s in the middle of a situation she doesn’t fully understand, at least initially; Robbie is terrific as a reporter who’s full of ambition and prepared to go to any lengths to achieve her goals; Freeman is just right as Baker’s war-time love interest; Molina is suitably sleazy and Billy Bob works well in his role as the seasoned officer who’s seen it all before. There are gags galore in Robert Carlock’s script, at least in the first half before the film takes a darker, less amplified turn. Together they succeed in delivering what could have been a disaster into a believable and watchable film that takes you to unexpected places.
Screenwriter: Robert Carlock based on the book by Kim Barker – The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Principal cast:
Tina Fey
Martin Freeman
Billy Bob Thornton
Margot Robbie
Alfred Molina
Country: USA
Classification: MA
Runtime: 112 mins.
Australian release date: 12 May 2016
Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is based on the memoir The Taliban Shuffle: Strange days In Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s a chaotic and wry vision of the coverage of the war in Afghanistan and, by extrapolation, war in general. We meet Baker (Tina Fey) as she is being singled out from her journalist colleagues in Chicago as a childless, unmarried member of staff who has, therefore, the credentials to head off to Kabul.
She leaves behind a half-hearted relationship with a boyfriend who’s under the impression she’ll only be away three months; however, before too long, the seduction of the ‘scoop’ and the heightened atmosphere of life in a war zone gets under her skin and she’s seduced by the hyper situation she finds herself in. Her journo gal-pal Tanya (Margot Robbie) introduces her to the rules of engagement, sexual engagement that is, and she hooks up with Scottish photographer Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman), while being wooed by a prominent Afghani politician (Alfred Molina) and managing to win over US Marine General Hollanek (Billy Bob Thornton), all good ‘sources’ who fuel her increasing addiction to war reporting.
Fey is superb as someone who’s in the middle of a situation she doesn’t fully understand, at least initially; Robbie is terrific as a reporter who’s full of ambition and prepared to go to any lengths to achieve her goals; Freeman is just right as Baker’s war-time love interest; Molina is suitably sleazy and Billy Bob works well in his role as the seasoned officer who’s seen it all before. There are gags galore in Robert Carlock’s script, at least in the first half before the film takes a darker, less amplified turn. Together they succeed in delivering what could have been a disaster into a believable and watchable film that takes you to unexpected places.