We’ve seen the trailer; reporter Kim Baker (played by Tina Fey) takes a job in Afghanistan when she feels her life needs something more. While she’s in Kabul trying to “shake it all up” by covering the war, she finds the strength she never knew she had. Of course, there are several moments in the path of reconnecting with herself, in which she fumbles, later taking the mistakes she makes and turning them into lessons.
While in Kabul, she meets Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie), a decorated war reporter who shows Kim how to survive in a male-dominated culture, job, and military. Together they bring a lot of female empowerment to the mix, and prove that women are as strong as they want to be. The cast also includes Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Sheila Vand, Stephen Peacocke, Christopher Abbott and Alfred Molina.
Here’s why you should go see it:
1) First of all, it’s not just a comedy like the trailer portrays it. The movie touches on a much deeper subject of war from a perspective that hasn’t been told yet: the journalist’s perspective. It shows how realities can shift with time and how you can get carried away and somewhat addicted to living in fear, on the edge, craving more drama, bombings, and anything extreme just so that you get “a win” with your network. But don’t worry, it does have cleverly placed comedic moments that make the movie easier to digest and understand.
“With Spotlight winning the Academy Award and nicely highlighting the work of journalism and how important is what they do, I hope this film piggybacks on top of that and shows that sometimes it’s also about the folks they send out to cover the war. It’s always about the soldiers, and we need to give them more support, but sometimes it’s also about those who are there beside them, helping to tell their stories.” – Scott Takeda, who plays Baker’s boss, Ed Faber.
2) The chemistry between the cast is unbelievable, probably because directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa made it a fun environment to work in. Stephen Peacoke, who plays Tina Fey’s security Nic in the movie explained to Latin Times: “Every day was a lot of fun. I keep saying this, not to disrespect the studio or the directors, but it was kinda like making a big student film in that it was such a relaxed, cool vibe on set, the directors set the best place to work. My days were a lot of fun. Every time that Tina was there, Martin Freeman and Margot Robbie, it was great, it was awesome.”
3) It’s a movie where Tina Fey not only shows her comedic side we all know, but she goes beyond that, and exposes a whole arc of emotions and seriousness we don’t get to see very often. Sheila Vand, who plays Shakira Khar said it best: “She is just the best. She’s just a wonderful, down to earth person and I feel like I’ve always looked up to her, so it was a real honor to work with her. And she was just as awesome as I thought she would be.”
4) Alfred Molina is in the movie. Even though “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” has been facing criticism for the fact that they used American and British actors to play at least two Afghan characters, especially after the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, we have to admit that Molina’s performance (of one of the aforementioned Afghan characters) was exceptional. To see this man, half Spanish, half Italian, born and raised in England transform into rising Afghan official Ali Massoud Sadiq left us in awe, as did Christopher Abbott who played Fahim Ahmadzan, Kim Baker’s local producer. Let's be honest, although yes, the movie could've given the parts to Afghan actors, no one can take away the outstanding job these gentlemen did.
5) The movie will leave you wanting to read the book. In case you didn’t know, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” was based on the book “The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days In Afghanistan And Pakistan” by Kim Barker and although some scenes had us on the edge of our seats, we felt we wanted even more! It was such a compelling story showcased in the movie, that now we want to know more about it. Plus, the movie added a lot more fiction to the story and now we’re curious to see how much of it was actually real.
As the same Kim Barker told Latin Times, “Hollywood takes your book and Hollywood does what they want to your book. But I’m happy with the outcome. There’s a lot of fictional stuff in it, so it takes you a while, being a non-fiction journalist to sort of adapt to it, but it’s Hollywood, man! And it’s got the same sort of narrative arc that I had in the book, sells the same message that I was selling in the book, it’s funny, it’s sad, it’s got strong female characters in it… who wouldn’t be happy with that?”
“Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” is in theaters now!
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