Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

First Hit:  Although uneven in its execution, I liked the resulting story as a whole.

WTF has an appeal in a couple of ways. The title was interesting because it is what Kim Baker (Tina Fey) felt about her life. She was in an uninspired relationship with her boyfriend, her news reporting job is as tenuous as it is monotonous and she realized that she was sleepwalking through life. She’s given a chance to go to Afghanistan to report on a fading war.

The news focus is on Iraq and the US has troops in Afghanistan and her network wants someone there to get and report on the best news nuggets available. Kim decides to take the leap and almost immediately she regrets the choice. However, as you’d expect, she finds her sea legs and starts to dig for stories and eventually lands an excellent one by being embedded in one of General Hollanek’s (Billy Bob Thornton) units.

Unfortunately, we see Kim fall into the partying ways of her peers with no understanding as to why. Her friendship with Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie), one of the few other women in compound, seemed shallow.

The script attempted to make these two be good friends, but there was something palpable missing. Labeled as a "Comedy", there was very little that is funny about this film which added to the unevenness.

The notable components for me were:  The outstanding performance of Christopher Abbott as Fahim Ahmadzai, who was Baker’s interpreter. He really embodied a sweetness and intelligence of the culture and his performance stayed with me long after the credits. When Kim spoke with a group of Afghani village women only to find out that they were destroying the wells was another really good scene. However, there seemed little depth to Baker and this did drag the film down and made for some scenes that could have been cut.

The ending scenes, however, brought the film back together. Her meeting with Specialist Coughlin (Evan Jonigkeit) at his ranch was very heartfelt as was her bringing Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman), a lover from Afghanistan, on to her Washington news program.

Fey was uneven in her performance and I never really bought that she bought into the character. There seemed to be a slight disconnect at times. Other times her interpretation of the character worked well enough. Abbott was phenomenal, I so loved his character. His eyes said it all. Robbie was OK, but almost out of place based on her character and the situation. Freeman was strong as the guy who found a home in being a photographer in a war torn country. Thornton was perfect as the Marine General who was a sarcastic, tough, and compassionate leader. Jonigkeit was excellent as the Marine who suffered and grew from the experience. Alfred Molina as Ali Massoud Sadiq was another bright spot in the film. Robert Carlock and Kim Barker wrote the screenplay based on Barker’s account of being in Afghanistan. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa directed the film and as I’ve learned; when there is more than one director the chances of unevenness are more available and pronounced.

Overall:  Through the unevenness the ending and a few other great scenes made it work well enough.

Focus

First Hit:  Despite the clichés, this film does have its surprises and overall was enjoyable.

I like con-films. One of my favorites, of course, is “The Sting”. This film does not have the acting that “The Sting” had, but it was very entertaining.

Will Smith as Nicky was raised by a con-man and has always lived the con-man life. He doesn’t allow anything to stick to him, personally, because that is the downside – stickiness leads to attachments and in his life attachments are not good. In walks Jess (Margot Robbie). She is also a con-artist but mostly focuses on picketing and tries to hustle Nicky.

He sees through the con, explains to her and her partner where they went wrong but see’s enough in her to have her audition to become part of a team that executes a set of cons and hustles in New Orleans during Super Bowl week. It was fun to watch the hustles and more fun to watch Smith intelligently swagger through this part. Although I suspected the ending, there was still enough of a twist that brought a level of humanity to it all.

Smith was perfect for this role, streetwise, smart, and having a level of humorous swagger to make it all work. This isn’t academy award type stuff, but it is enjoyable. Robbie is fun to watch and it appears that she probably had fun making this film – it showed. Adrian Martinez as Farhad, the computer nerd of the hustling group, was effective. Gerald McRaney was great as Owens. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa wrote and directed with film with enough humor and seriousness to make it fun to watch.

Overall:  I left the theater with a smile on my face, which is good enough.

Crazy, Stupid, Love.

First Hit: This film had some very funny, sad, thoughtful moments, but wasn’t memorable.

Cal (played by Steve Carell) is married to Emily (played by Julianne Moore) and they’ve been married for a long time. They were each other’s soul mates but they’ve grown apart.

Emily has an affair with David Lindhagen (played by Kevin Bacon) and it devastates Cal. He moves out. They have three children one is grown and gone while the other two are younger. The boy Robbie (played by Jonah Bobo) is smart, wise and in love with the babysitter Jessica (played by Analeigh Tipton) who is 5 years older than Robbie but she has a crush on Cal.

Cal goes to a singles bar to drown his sorrows and watches as Jacob (played by Ryan Gosling) picks up woman after woman each and every night. Jacob, in turn, watches Cal telling tales in the bar about how his wife did him wrong and decides to help him out. He invites Cal on a shopping trip and then lets him listen to how he picks up women. One night Cal picks up Kate (played by Marisa Tomei) who likes his honesty and charm. He learns that Kate is a “5 years sober” teacher.

In the meantime we watch Hannah (played by Emma Stone) get shut down by a guy who offers her a job when she thought she was going to be proposed to. In a fit of upset, she finds Jacob, whom she turned down on an earlier encounter and makes him take her to his house for sex.

However, they end up in a long conversation and begin to fall in love. As they fall in love, Cal is busy picking up a string of women but missing Emily. Emily dates David but misses Cal. Robbie is making Jessica feel uncomfortable with his ever present text messages outlining his undying love.

This is the setup for what I think was the funniest and most interesting scene in the film. I won’t spoil it, and it has to do with people meeting people and the police having to separate all the men fighting each other.

Carell is good as a heart broken man and good as the newly coiffed player. However the word I used was good, not great as I continued to feel separateness from and not an embodiment of of the character he was playing. Moore was very good as the woman who was searching for femininity and inner glow again. Bacon was perfect for the short but important part as the “other man”. Bobo was very good, although some of his lines and actions seemed more than what a 12 year old would say or do. Tipton was wonderful and perfect as the babysitter who is beautiful, doesn’t know it, and feeling the pressure of her first crush. Tomei was outstanding as the teacher who finds out she slept with, yet another man, who lied to her. Gosling was fully engaging as the guy with the photo-shopped body and used his charms to pick up women but then was able to meet someone whom he really cared about. Dan Fogelman wrote a strong and, at times, surprising script although I think the 12 year old lines were overly adult at times. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa directed the film with skill in many places including the little surprises that lead to a nice climax. However, it was longer than needed and there could have been some pruning of a number of scenes (including lawn raking and bar pickup bits).

Overall: The film was enjoyable and surprising moments that were really funny.