Beasts of No Nation-Idris Elba (Netflix)

[roundasapound]

Just added it to my list.


Will try and watch this over the weekend. Looks great!

[Drz]

I'm giving another shot at blogging, so I made a brand new blog
Beasts of No Nation - Movie Review:

October is the month when people return to watch zombies in the Walking Dead or scary movies of various different genres and sub-genres, but nothing is scarier than truth and that is why Beasts of No Nation is one of the harshest, emotionally draining movies you can watch this horror season.

Written for screen and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective, Season One) gives us a tale of a African child Agu (Abraham Attah), who in the story that eats you for 2 hours and 10 minutes provides an multi-faced perspective of transformation from an innocent youth to a guerrilla rebel fighting against the corrupt t under his Commandant (Idris Elba), who seeks revolution for his people, but the story doesn’t stop there. The movie gives explicit hints what happens behind the scenes of any war between Warlords as outside business men with suitcases come changing politics and agendas of war, but the fight must persist because there must be some cause for the war orphans to pillage, rape and slaughter in the name of revolution.

The movie might be fictional, but the story it tells is all very real in today’s world. We live in a world where little children have to rise up and fight against their own brothers on the sole purpose of lands being sold, gold mining and oil is drilled all for the sake of capitalism.

Children are born to die in a war. That is what you call horror.

Beasts of No Nation is available now on Netflix & is based off the novel by the same name by
Uzodinma Iweala.

[Holmes]

A stylish war film depicting the plight of a child soldier, Beasts of No Nation is very easy to admire, but considering the tragic nature of the story, I wish it hit harder. Set in an unidentified (fictional?) West African country torn asunder by civil conflict, the film turns on a wide-eyed adolescent (Abraham Attah) who is first separated from his mother and sister when they flee to the capital and then left entirely alone when his father and brother are shot dead. He is later found in the bush by a rebel squad, and their fiery "Commandant" (an electrifying Idris Elba) enlists him to fight, ushering him into an innocence-scorching inferno of murder and mayhem.

The film is crafted with focus and skill by Cary Joji Fukunaga, an ambitious director known for his lushly Gothic, compactly told adaptation of Jane Eyre and the iconic first season of the HBO anthology series True Detective. As a directorial exercise, the quality of Beasts of No Nation is hard to dispute. Several scenes of chaos and combat unfold in a single, serpentine shot without a cut (at least not a discernible one), and others achieve a rhapsodic, sweeping war-is-a-beautiful-nightmare quality reminiscent of Apocalypse Now or The Thin Red Line.

However, the decision to set the film in an anonymous African country falls a tad flat. This is a case in which well-researched specificity (or even fictional specificity) would trump universality, and I quietly wonder if it is not a shade ignorant for the film's creators to assume, "Oh, violent groups with acronyms for names perpetuating a never-ending cycle of violence and political unrest. Ha, this could be anywhere in Africa!" Also, the vivid sense of cinematic bravado and propulsion driving the film from one lavish, carnage-fueled set piece to the next undercuts a certain internal cohesion, particularly in regard to the protagonist's transformation from a scared child to a drug-abusing, hard-charging fighter. Clarity and character are outpaced by the search for spectacle as the plot almost becomes a series of disturbing vignettes. A close-but-no-cigar compensatory inclusion comes in the form of expository voice-over: literary musings to his mother and God presented in faux-guileless poor English. In general, in dramatizing this solemn and topical subject, I cannot help but believe a profound and journalistic humanism should reinforce the technical action-movie gusto. Beasts of No Nation, though well-acted and extremely captivating as a sensory experience, more than delivers the directorial flair, but rather feigns the conscience.

B

[Megalith]

I thought it was a waste of time. It's obvious what the film was trying to sell, but it did a terrible job of it. The first hour will literally put you to sleep because you can't relate to it in any way, and you only realize its purpose until it's all over and too late.

What I would have done in the editing room was start the film in the way that it ended, with the kid talking to his teacher, talking about why he's a beast, and then seguing into the story.

[Hucksta G]

Originally Posted by Megalith

I thought it was a waste of time. It's obvious what the film was trying to sell, but it did a terrible job of it. The first hour will literally put you to sleep because you can't relate to it in any way, and you only realize its purpose until it's all over and too late.

What I would have done in the editing room was start the film in the way that it ended, with the kid talking to his teacher, talking about why he's a beast, and then seguing into the story.

Banned eh? lol makes sense.

[jvince]

My review:

"This... This was all for nothing."

Damn. What a way to kick things off, Netflix. Mark this as a game-changer. In just one film, Netflix shows the present and becomes the future.

Visually ravishing and emotionally ravaging, with Beasts of No Nation, writer/producer/cinematographer/director (yes, he f***ing did it all) Cary Fukunaga demonstrates a certain poetic grace and deft assuredness reminiscent of the best. (Comparisons to Terrence Malick and The Thin Red Line is inevitable.) This man has undeniable greatness in him.

Idris Elba is outstanding as the vile and mad Commandant. But the real star here is first-time(!) actor Abraham Attah, who's just flat-out incredible as child soldier and main protagonist, Agu. The Academy better award one of the five Best Actor slots to Attah come February, because he sure as f*** deserves it. It would be a travesty if one of cinema's finest child performances doesn't get a nod in the upcoming Oscars.

"I saw terrible things and I did terrible things. So if I am talking to you, it will make me sad, and it will make you, too, sad. In this life, I just want to be happy in this life. If I’m telling this to you, you will think that I am some sort of beast or devil. I am all of these things, but I also have a mother, father, brother, and sister once. They loved me."

Brutal. Harrowing. Haunting.

Beasts of No Nation comes highly recommended.

The Scorecard:
Direction:
Acting:
Writing:
Editing: ½
Visuals:
Sound: ½
Entertainment: ½
Overall Rating: ½

[Foggy]

I think I'm going to save this for Wednesday when I have plenty of free time.

[SilentDawn]

Honestly, it's an "all-timer"

My review:

Akin to hundreds of thousands of souls dancing in the wind, and as tranquility distorts into screams of madness, discordant energy swirls within the air like sputtering flames. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, Beasts of No Nation is a cinematic firework show of blazing texture and calamitous horror, and it is one of the best war films you'll ever witness.

Structured as a narrow POV story surrounding the life and hardships of Agu, a young boy caught within the chaos of a civil war, Fukunaga's engrossing tapestry is a rare film that fully baptizes its focus in warm waters of empathy. The audience is Agu and Agu is the audience, and it is this unspoken bond between the screen and our perceptions of reality that drives every moment of Beasts of No Nation into a state of crazed suffering.

It's a narrative that requires extremely difficult and complex moments of reflection, ferocity, and misery, and the central performances tackle this instinctual vision with uncompromising ease. Abraham Attah as Agu is, to put it mildly, a revelation. As his story unfolds, pure magnetism oozes from Agu's observations, and he's simply an indescribable presence.

Idris Elba, playing a vigorous force titled "Commandant", also unleashes an exceptional performance, one that rambles and veers into many different aspects of character. Comprised out of humor, evil, jealousy, and fanatical rage; Elba is the rejuvenating center of a film that pulsates with fiery elegance.

In regards to the technical elements, this is basically Fukunaga running rampant with bloodthirsty grace and crumbling bursts of magic. Jane Eyre and the first season of True Detective, while as impeccably crafted as can be, feel like finely-tuned warm up runs. Fukunaga morphs, with both body and soul in pursuit, into a marathon runner of cinematic ruthlessness.

It's more of a physical ballet than a directorial effort, and that spark translates faultlessly to the images in sync. Beasts of No Nation is the kind of film that is made within the prime of everyone involved, and in that sense, It's an endurance test where the filmmaking vitality bleeds off the screen. In combination with Dan Romer's ethereal and gorgeously off-center score, Fukunaga's film is alive in the most exuberantly monstrous way.

And while most war films dive into structures that work around official missions or journeys of the body, Beasts of No Nation is a scorching experience of slyly linked set-pieces and shocking occurrences of growth. Agu's journey doesn't revolve around an end point or a singular event, but a clustered episode of savage deaths and ideological dead ends. By the film's end, its implications and cumulative trail of events mesh into a vibrant memory bank of the mystical.

5/5

[toddly6666]

very entertaining film - reminded me a bit of full metal jacket. I just wish it was more emotional with Agu's journey, especially with all the traumatic stuff happening to him from beginning to end. Elba was amazing as usual.

4/5

[Ultra_Violence]

Only finished watching this about an hour ago. Really tampering with the idea it's the best I've seen so far this year. Will mull it over a little more before actually deciding a rating for it. Elba was great as was the young boy played by a first time actor, you'd never believe it. Fukunaga wrote, directed and photographed this and it is a remarkable job.

[roundasapound]

Watched this last night.
Disappointed. I expected more from this movie.

A poor attempt at showing the real horrors of being a child soldier. Idris was a convincing commandant.

Johnny Mad Dog is a far better film in getting the message across. Much more of an impact.

[jabbercash]

Man that movie was a hard sit. I mean really good, but a hard sit. I honestly can't say I enjoyed it, but my eyes were glued to the screen. It was mesmerizing. It opens your eyes to the harsh reality of war. Idris Elba is incredible, and so is the kid. The cinematography is fantastic, and it's very well directed. Although, I will NEVER watch it again. Really hard to sit through. I'd give it a 7.5/10.

[BobbyMcGee]

Thought it was a very good film with excellent acting by all and especially by Idris Elba.

I would have preferred if the story were based on an actual event, perhaps something akin to the Netflix television series Narcos. That series hit me a lot harder than this film, especially because it used actual footage of the events that took place in Columbia inter-mixed with the fictional story.

But all in all a good film and worth watching. Glad Netflix picked it up.

[X400]

it was okay, the first hour was a bit all over...felt like it needed more focus, the second half really picks up, and i liked the ending. but all in all it wasn't a fantastic film

3/5

'johnny mad dog' is still the one to beat imo (for the topic/style of film), and that movie was panned due to the use of actual child soldiers for the actors, but it did a better job to convey the tragedy of it all and the fact that they used actual child soldiers is probably what helped that

[Moviefan1203]

Is this going to be getting a Bluray release?

[The Debts]

Originally Posted by Moviefan1203

Is this going to be getting a Bluray release?

I have no idea. I know Netflix has put their shows on Blu-Ray before but I don't know what they're going to do with their own films.

[sebaswerty]

Safe to say we aren't getting a blu-ray release by now? or does anyone have any info?

[Mandalorian]

Originally Posted by sebaswerty

Safe to say we aren't getting a blu-ray release by now? or does anyone have any info?

Doesn't look like it, but if I was Fukanaga, I would be advocating for one. It got the shaft by the Academy for being a streaming film, and now it's stuck in that format.

[sebaswerty]

Originally Posted by Mandalorian

Doesn't look like it, but if I was Fukanaga, I would be advocating for one. It got the shaft by the Academy for being a streaming film, and now it's stuck in that format.

A shame really, wether one likes the movie or not, it's a horrible precedent to set.

[Blu-Curry]

I never posted my take. The film started off really well to me, but at some point - I don't know where - it just became rather boring. I'm a big fan of Idris Elba and he did a good enough job, but I think the Academy was correct in not nominating him in Best Actor. The film did a good job of portraying child soldiers, I just didn't find the film as engrossing as other serious films I've seen, be it other dramas like The Last King of Scotland or Hotel Rwanda, a more "action-packed" drama like Blood Diamond, or even Fukunaga's own Sin Nombre.