Beasts of No Nation

I think that you can find a better movie than this on a similar topic. The director Cary Joji Fukunaga used all the depression from a TV series True Detective and introduced a young boy as a main hero, who in the first 20 minutes plays with other boys and enjoys a normal life of an African kid in a bush who is happy for every football from the West he can get. Then suddenly, something happens, and the boy is under such pressure he can’t get out of that devasting situation. Cary is a master of these story twists. At the same time, he created this story without any restraints, so I wasn’t emotionally invested and didn’t get emotionally tired as a consequence. While watching this film, I felt like an empty shell, so watching the horrors happening in Africa didn’t really arouse any emotions in me. The filmmaking aspect, however, was perfect. The emotional detachment’s actually the only reason I don’t give this a five-star rating. Netflix made a great debut with its first feature film. (21.06.2017)

How much better it would have been if it had skipped the blind spots, being too literal too often and not having every emotion that the viewer should feel explained and what is even more important redundant voice over? Much better, but still not enough to hide the fact that despite of being impressive in many ways you will not remember this movie for long. Which, considering how this theme is interesting (“children’s like" Conrad's Heart of Darkness), is at least surprising, if not shocking. (18.10.2015)

The globalist intro turns into a bloody wartime odyssey about growing up. Elba is fantastic - the Commandant utilizes child potential to the full. The youngsters also act brilliantly, but this is mainly a concert by Fukunaga. Unfortunately it doesn’t have anything much new to say. Even so, Beasts of No Nation was a joy to watch. A decent storyline, visually captivating, work with characters is textbook standard. I’m upset that he isn’t making It. If you don’t answer me, then it’ll eat you. (18.10.2016)

This really isn't a subject that would interest everyone, on the other hand, it's always interesting to look into other parts of the world and find out how things actually work or don't work there. "Beasts of No Nation" are also a showcase of masterful acting, both in the case of child and adult roles. Well, we really don't know Africa much. (20.10.2015)