Whiskey tango foxtrot

G

Gillvane

Veteran
The cinematography was adequate, nothing spectacular but nothing horrible either. I didn't really care for that sort of "in the moment " reality type style, the slowly moving camera for no particular reason, lack of professionals looking lighting, etc, you know the style, but it was well executed.

i was surprised the film didn't go for a far left liberal slant on the war in Iraq, but instead it stayed more or less focused on the life of a journalist, Tina fey, getting caught up in the action and adrenaline of being a combat reporter and losing her bearings, coming to grips with that. It was entertaining enough to watch the whole thing till the end and it was a complete story so I liked it well enough compared to some of the current movies out there but it's obviously not a blockbuster and not meant to be.
 
a small pix with a big name.

i thought it punched better than expected.

ymmv

be well.

rob
smalltalk.productions
 
I just can't Tina Fey. Her "oh, I'm such an insecure bumbler" shtick never works, because her nuclear-powered self-regard always cracks containment while she's doing it.
 
My girl and I have agreed we like her better as a writer than on-camera talent. I think on camera she needs reigning in by directors or she gets too cocky/cringe-inducing, see 30 Rock vs Kimmy Schmidt season 2.
 
Actors and performers have a welcome presence timer built in - and it doesn't have anything to do with acting abilities necessarily. It's just how you wear - you can take them for x amount of screen time, regardless of their acting chops. Some actors it seems you can take with almost no limit - those become A-list leads, you watch them with ease and interest even if they are in pretty much every scene in a movie or episode, and even if they are not technically particularly skilled actors (they can even be a bit wooden with a small range - like Humphrey Bogart, who is often quite wooden and awkward, but whom you can watch forever). B-listers, and character actors usually have a fairly contained presence. You can take them in short bursts only - and you have a hard time with them being the main focus for too long, even though they can be fantastically talented. For some reason their presence doesn't wear well. They can't carry a film alone. My feeling with Tina Fey is that she's put into material that is too long for her welcome presence timer. She wears out her welcome faster given what the material demands. I can take her in small doses, but I feel her celebrity/power/cultural cache leads her and the folks who cast her to overestimate how much the audience actually can take of her. Obviously, when you are a writer, or prime creator who also happens to do acting, you are given or can take roles outside of what you may be a natural fit for - with sometimes poor results. That's what happened with Kimmy Schmidt, which I had to stop watching.
 
I enjoyed this movie. I don't think they marketed it very effectively, it's a bit more black comedy and somber than it came across in trailers and tv commercials. It probably could have been even better with a less well-known cast or actors that could disappear into their characters a bit more. Sort of reminded me of the old foreign dispatches P.J. O'Rourke wrote in the 80's.
 
The movie went places I didn't expect, but that's because the tone was all over the place. I did rent it on Blu-ray at Redbox just to see how the Blackmagic Pocket held up though. They used it for most of the internal driving scenes and some other things. A7s also used for some night exteriors in moonlight. Held up pretty well.
 
I enjoyed this as well. Tina Fey played it almost straight, never over the top. I enjoyed some of the revelations about the thoughts and needs of the native people in this military occupied land.

SPOILER ALERT!:

The village well keeps getting blown up. The soldiers keep rebuilding it. It get's blown up again. Turns out the Village Women LIKE going to the river. It's their only chance to socialize with each other and gossip. They're setting vintage Russian landmines against it, and throwing rocks until it goes off. The reporter tells the Colonel, who agrees not to rebuild the well.
 
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