Delayed Reaction: Beasts of No Nation

The Pitch: A child is taken in by a guerilla army in Africa after his family is killed or lost.

Idris Elba and this film were often referenced during this last year's wave of Oscar diversity criticisms. Elba became, I think, the first SAG winner to not even get an Oscar nomination. While, obviously, this is a larger issue, I still think in Beast's case, this was probably as much about it being a Netflix release and the voters not wanting to recognize that as it was a race issue. That said, I wanted to see if the movie was worth all the fuss.

It's good, not great. Idris Elba's is definitely the strongest performance. In a year where lack of diversity wasn't a hot-button issue among the nominees, I would be fine with his snub though (if you want to bring it back to the Oscars). It didn't blow me away. It's hard to gauge Abraham Attah's performance. Like most young, inexperienced actors, he seems pretty directed. It's hard to ask more from him because, well, he's young and acting is a craft that takes time. A lot of dramatic heavy-lifting was being asked from him, too much for many much more experienced actors. I think he can grow to be pretty great though.

This is a pretty brutal film. Cary Joji Fukunaga doesn't hold back at all. The murder, rape, and decadence are raw and unsettling. The craft is impressive. This is a very specific and less seen movie about "War is hell". My big pull-back is that there wasn't a lot else to it. It reminded my of something like The Passion of the Christ. Yeah, it's brutal, but is that all it's aiming for? I think United 93 is an impeccably made movie, but I have no intention to revisit it, because I'm not sure what I'm supposed to get from it a second time. OK, I've seen how bad that situation was. What's the message? Beasts of No Nation offers some hope at the end that Agu may not be damaged beyond repair, so there's that.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend