The Commandant's lieutenant, Two I-C, will take control of the battalion, and the Commandant will be made Deputy Chief of Security under the leader. Starring: Idris Elba, Abraham Attah, Kurt Egyiawan. Fukunaga shows us how the members of this tight-knit household comfort one another with laughterwhether its Agus brother making funny faces or the family competing for the biggest belch while eating dinnerin the full knowledge that their world is set to collapse around them. Consider how Goodbloods deputy receives foreigner visitors, there to speculate over the countrys resources, but leaves the perturbed Commandant and his soldiers waiting in the lobby. Agu suffers from drug withdrawal and is tormented by what has happened and has nightmares about it. Oct 16, 2015 In an unknown place in the world, and after the loss of his family, young Agu runs off only to find a clan of young ones lead by a Commandant. Follows Agu's journey as he's forced to join a group of soldiers. During that time, he also struggled to find backing for this deeply tragic and violent, child-focused project without a sympathetic white character. His wish to escape the army finally comes true when Rambo leads a successful revolt against the Commandant in a period of agonising lack of basic necessities. In-store pricing may vary. [13], On August 20, 2013, Idris Elba joined the cast of the film adaptation. The novel follows the journey of a young boy, Agu, who is forced to join a group of soldiers in an unnamed West African country. murders his father and brother, along with many others, all of which Agu His debut work takes its title from a 1989 album of the same name by the Nigerian musician, Fela Kuti. Amid an international crisis, a career diplomat juggles her new high-profile job as ambassador to the UK and her turbulent marriage to a political star. While nobody should expect a film on this topic to be bloodless, there are moments when the movie seems to lose its grip on sense, and shade away from carefully-calibrated violence into imagery that feels less horrific than horror-movie-likesuch as the way a child soldier's machete blade splits an innocent man's skull open in a close-up as he screams (like something out of a slasher film), and the way the camera follows Agu around a house while his colleagues bellow and bicker and kill and rape (while more restrained than anything in "True Detective," it still feels like an attempt to outdo that first season's showy one-take action scene). The Criterion Collection brings Cary Joji Fukunaga's Beasts of No Nation to Blu-ray on a dual-layer disc in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1 with a 1080p/24hz high-definition encode. Slightly taller than the pipsqueak other, the shrewd, sincere boy on the right evaluates the participants. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. The child-centered war dramain which a horrifically hostile environment strips away fragile innocence and creates chaotic killing machineshas given us a number of devastating young figures in cinematic history. Another film that's as powerful as it is important. Grief is also strewn across Beasts of No Nation. Down on his luck, Ariel longs for a different life. Rather than location, it is Agus interiority that lends specificity and authenticity to the feverish events. Strika, another of the Commandant's rape victims, comforts him. Then he comes upon some armed and dangerous boys about his age or slightly older, their hats and torsos bedecked with camouflaging vegetation (a very "Lord of the Flies" image, pushed maybe a bit too hard) and then we're into the main story, which finds Agu being protected and trained by a man known only as The Commandant (Idris Elba). would recommend. Bleecker Street Media, In this stunning debut novel, Agu, a young boy in an unnamed West African nation, is recruited into a unit of guerrilla fighters as civil war engulfs his country. He admits to being a devil, but says that his mother is loving him. In fact, out of 528 nominations in the Best Picture category, no film with an all-black. and tone, disarming in its honesty. Watch on. Balletic rage bursts out during a village raid: a hallucinating Agu sees the African bush in a freakish infrared tint, and with disturbing precision shoots down unarmed civilians. They spout slogans, but it's clear that the slogans are less a justification for horrific violence than a pretext that gives them permission to do what they might have done anyway, in their imaginations, or on dark stretches of road in whatever part of the country they originally hailed from. Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head: Season 2, Link to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 5, Link to Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Link to RT25: Celebrating 25 Years of Rotten Tomatoes, Link to Betty Gilpin & Co. on Deciphering, War, Shortly after, they are detained by UN troops. A vast community of chimpanzees thrives in a forest in Uganda, navigating complex social politics, family dynamics and dangerous territory disputes. Terms and Policies Netflix. Cinemark Now on the run from their own faction as well as their enemies, the battalion suffers heavy losses. Without school, Agu and his friends restlessly busy themselves with activities such as parading around that television shell. In the meantime, he crafted a couple of short films and wrote and directed his debut feature, Sin Nombre (2009), a ruthless road movie that intimately charts a journey across Mexico to the U.S. border through the eyes of a former gang member. Fukunaga works on these multiple levels of subtext with ease, taking familiar beats and deploying them to more sharply traumatic ends. Cocaine-fueled feral children rampage toward Monrovia during the Second Liberian Civil War in Jean-Stphane Sauvaires Johnny Mad Dog (2008). "Beasts of No Nation" was one of the best films of 2015, yet it didn't receive a single Oscar nomination. witnesses before escaping to the jungle. Downloads only available on ad-free plans. As they teach him to hold his own in the war and kill, the raw human emotion begins to leap off the screen. A new nurse at a hospital begins to suspect her colleague's desire for attention may be tied to a series of patient deaths. A pivotal early film from legendary Hong Kong director John Woo, this martial-arts classic explores the heroic ethos of youxia, Chinese warriors willing to sacrifice their lives to fight for justice and fulfill their promises. Its notable that Agu seems to pine only for his mom. Learn more about our use of cookies and information. , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes. Why, then, does it feel dubious in certain ways, and perhaps troubling for the wrong reasons? By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. All rights reserved. Idris Elba's turn as the fiery Commandant earned Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations and won an Independent Spirit Award. Im obsessed with his final scene, wherein, following his abandonment of the Commandant, he is living under UN protection. Just below that it reads "Ticket Confirmation#:" followed by a 10-digit number. Beasts of No Nation is a 2005 novel by Nigerian-American writer and physician, Uzodinma Iweala. Beasts of No Nation, A Netflix Original Film. The book had its roots in the author's creative writing thesis at Harvard. to a friend. He told Creative Screenwriting, "I read through the novel and I loved the elegant and concise way that Uzodinma Iweala told the story. We're telling stories." This 10-digit number is your confirmation number. [7][8] It premiered on Netflix on October 16, 2015.[9]. And in the the early stages of the movie, Fukunaga finds ways to suggest unimaginable horror without trying to actually imagine it (and risk making it too literal or too sensationalistic, or simply failing). The theme of child soldiers draws on the author's Harvard thesis. In an age of tediously prosaic direction that is mainly about capturing dialogue and action, often from as many angles as possible, this filmmaker makes bold choices. The film Beasts of No Nation follows the novel in not naming the country or conflict (hence the title); trying to decipher where the narrative takes place misses the point of the movies burnished patina and opening shotthat television shell. In fact, he is, at points, valiant. Luftenant is then replaced by a soldier named Rambo, thus named because of his bloodthirst. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga Writers Cary Joji Fukunaga Uzodinma Iweala Stars Abraham Attah Emmanuel Affadzi Cinemark that counts young boys among its numbersled by the charismatic [21], On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 92% based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 7.90/10. English, Director: and the After tragedy strikes, an unlikely young hero takes her rightful place among the Power Rangers to face off against the team's oldest archnemesis. [9][20] The film was also theatrically released in the UK on October 16, 2015, in Curzon Cinemas. I just want to be happy in this life. We wont be able to verify your ticket today, but its great to know for the future. Shot in Ghana and starring Idris Elba, Abraham Attah, Ama K. Abebrese, Grace Nortey, David Dontoh, and Opeyemi Fagbohungbe, the film is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala,[4] the book itself being named after a Fela Kuti album. A steely special ops agent finds his morality put to the test when he infiltrates a crime syndicate and unexpectedly bonds with the boss' young son. It is the worst sin, but am knowing, too, it is the right thing to be doing, Agu says fearfully to himself. Following a brutal initiation process where Agu hacks an innocent captive to death with a machete, Agu becomes a fully-fledged member of the militia. "A boy is a dangerous thing," says the Commandant, who leads an army of young soldiers fighting a . For much of America, if Africa exists anywhere, its on the news. A rounded square frame captures children playing soccer on a lush field. Barely any clothes to speak of. [17], Netflix bought the worldwide distribution rights for around $12 million. The final section of the film, which sees Agu witnessing the limits of The Commandant's power and starting to see through him, is probably the strongest; Elba, who has a magnificent glowering magnetism throughout "Beasts" but never relies on it exclusively, is never more fascinating than when The Commandant's seeming omnipotence is whisked away like the curtain which reveals that the great and powerful Oz is just a man. Newcomer Abraham Attah plays Agu, a nine-year-old boy whose village stands in a UN-regulated buffer zone adjoining a warring neighbouring state: his father, a teacher, has given some family-owned . Nielsen Casting By Harrison Nesbit Production Design by During this time of war Agu and the army have very little to eat, so they eat what they can: rats, small game, goats, and sometimes other people. Based on the same-titled novel by Uzodinma Iweala, a Nigerian doctor and sociologist who began the story as a thesis project at Harvard, the movie immediately puts us in the shoes (and sometimes bare feet) of its hero, eight year old Agu ( Abraham Attah ). Agu's father buys safe transport for his wife and two youngest children, but has to stay behind with Agu and his eldest son. Commandant's second in command, Luftenant, is stabbed by a prostitute. "Beasts of No Nation" wasn't just a high-stakes, death-defying production for its cast and crew. When civil war tears his family apart, a young West African boy is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters . Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Once you've gone down this skeptical road you keep noticing more and more things about "Beasts" that feel somehow untrustworthy, or at least not immediately defensible. 1 0. It is a very violent film, and therefore not for everybody, but it takes the viewer on a journey so compelling that it is not likely to be forgotten very soon. murderous work in the world.". Expand. There is magnificent use of shadow and silhouette throughout, and small details (such as the red clay on Agu's feet as he kneels in supplication, and the rhyming shots of boys carrying other boys on their backs) that seem poignant or mysteriously pitiful, in the manner of great photojournalism. In one captivating scene, the Commandant proclaims: We will take that fucking bridge. He works himself into a dripping sweat, chanting the children and other soldiers to ecstasy, leaning his head into their chests, willing them to invincibility. The boys adore The Commandant because they think he's teaching them to be men, specifically warrior-men, but he's really teaching them to be murderers, thieves, rapists and torturers who wrap their bloodlust and greed in ideology that seems half-understood when it's comprehensible at all. An art curator reunites with an old friend at an isolated villa, where they discover a cursed portrait concealing a malevolent spirit. As Agu is forced to leave his childhood behind, he reminisces about the past: his family, his love of reading and school, his dream of becoming an important doctor, and how he used to read the Bible every day. A drama based on the experiences of Agu, a child soldier fighting in the civil war of an unnamed African country. I have killed a man. In a bloody initiation, the commander forces him to kill an unarmed man. This chance meeting sends Agu on a harrowing, Iweala does not shy away from explicit, visceral detail and paints a complex, difficult picture of Agu as a child soldier. The novel is about a West African boy named Agu who is forced to become a child soldier. The film is an international production, shot on location in the jungles of Ghana. The Native Defense Forces (NDF), a rising rebel faction in the country, adopts Agu into their ranks. So if I'm talking to you, it will make me sad and it will make you too sad. 703K views 7 years ago Beasts of No Nation, A Netflix Original Film. As does Fukunagas prominent use of color. One of the other child soldiers drags the young girl with the woman and stomps the child to death. Fukunaga followed that grim saga with a vividly bleak 2011 adaptation of Jane Eyre, and in 2014 won further critical acclaim for helming the first season of True Detective, a mystical southern noir, as critic Jeremy Egner describes it. 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