When one sees the ads for the new Tina Fey film Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, they would assume that the film is yet another motion picture like her previous efforts such as Baby Mama and Sisters. The commercials make it out to be another raunchy and suggestive laugh fest full of crazy and fanciful situations… but those expecting such a cinematic diversion will be quite surprised by the end result.
The story starts in the latter days of the first decade of this century. There is a wild party going on with drugs and drinking. While it looks like a traditional frat bacchanal, in the background there is an explosion. Everyone scrambles to get out the door. Soon we find that they are reporters covering the war in Afghanistan. Kim Barker (Tina Fey) is one of those embedded correspondents in the danger. Soon we see that she is a hardened journalist who can spew out swear words in a multitude of languages. Then the film goes back to the beginning. It is 2002 and Kim is a writer on a major network. She knows the news but has never been on assignment. When the war breaks out, the higher-ups gather together all the single people who can be sent into harms way. At 40-something and not married, she is the senior person who can be spared, and sent to the Middle East war zone.
Once there, she is exposed to a very different life. Almost instantly an admired female reporter Tanya (Margot Robbie) asks Kim is she can sleep with Kim’s security detail. Kim finds out that in Afghanistan she can pass for a perfect 10, as men are desperate for non-Muslim women. She also meets General Hollanek (Billy Bob Thornton), who teaches the green journalist some of the more serious ideas of being a combat reporter and being a Marine. Tanya also warns Kim about photojournalist Iain (Martin Freeman), who is just as foul-mouthed as he is charming. Kim has never met a guy as seasoned and as salty as Iain and is repulsed by his every utterance. But he is also very savvy about both the local customs and local people – a good person to be in good graces with during the three months she is to be stationed. It turns in to over three years.
Eventually, Kim befriends Ali Massoud Saadiq (Alfred Molina), the local Muslim who is working his way up in the government. Kim and Ali have a very uneven truce where Kim is trying to get information and Ali is trying to bed down a Western woman. The more powerful Ali becomes, the more dangerous he is to her safety. The film also deals with Kim’s romantic life and her struggle to stay faithful to her long-distance boyfriend. As the war and the reporting drag on, the relationship suffers. After a while, the war becomes commonplace and NYC becomes the foreign land.
The production is helmed by two directors, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. It feels as if it is directed by two different individuals and not by a team, with sequences of dark humor and even darker violence. As Kim tries to make sense of her world, we try and make sense of just what kind of a film is being presented. While all of the funny and clean moments are in the commercials, there are a multitude of parts that are very adult. In the end it definitely earns its R rating. The directors also show an Afghanistan that is equally beautiful and at times ugly. The cinematography is breathtaking. There are swooping vistas of desert land that people are able to survive on and at the same time the cities are broken and revolting, showing a side of life that is unforgiving in both tone and testament. It is a great palate for a mediocre film.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is produced by Lorne Michaels, the head of Saturday Night Live for almost all of its seasons. He has made a stream of comedies mostly based on SNL characters or performers on that show, so it would make sense that he would be the one in charge of this film. But this big screen adventure is a much different animal from all those silly comedies. There are more than a couple of deadly moments and some on the verge of being something out of a horror flick. Tina Fey could not be more beautiful in this film, and there is a certain degree of charm in her every smile. Time and time again, someone in Afghanistan mentions that she is so pretty and (in a very homo-erotic moment) that she looks like a young boy. After a while, the audience begins to see her in such a term that is off-putting at least. The director of photography made sure that every single frame showcases Tina Fey’s small face in perfect light. This is not the greatest film of 2016 nor is it the worst. It seems like a very true telling of how journalists have to both report during war and live in a war zone, with the end product feeling real. Parts are stunning and parts are horrific, but in the end is does not leave a strong impression.
