Beasts of No Nation

Beasts of No Nation

This week, I watched Cary Joji Fukanaga's Beasts of No Nation, a visceral, brutal movie about a child soldier in Africa. This movie was based upon the critically-acclaimed novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala. This novel is unique because it is told completely from the main character's perspective in the choppy, imperfect English that a pre-adolescent African boy would have. The movie attempts to bring this aspect of the book in by having occasional voice-overs by Agu, the main character. This helps make the film unique from other war films because it is told entirely from a child's perspective, a perspective typically unseen in war films. While these voice-overs are few and far between, I enjoyed these because they helped us connect with Agu on a more deeper level. While some have said that some of the violence is over-the-top, I believe that it was necessary for the story. Fukanaga realizes how much his audience can stand and even excluded a scene where Agu is raped by the Commandant--wonderfully played by SAG winner Idris Elba--that is in the novel. The stars of this movie, Abraham Attah and Idris Elba, hold this film together. The story is kind of derivative but these performances held my attention. Attah, in his first film role, helps us really feel for him at the beginning and how he is a great kid who doesn't deserve what will happen to him, which only highlights how horrific his life will become. Elba has a great turn as the Commandant, a manipulative, abusive leader of a band of rebels. As the film goes on, we see more and more of his flaws and this larger than life military leader becomes a shell of a man. The ending of this film felt a little weak but helped highlight the film's main message: the loss of innocence can happen quickly and easily, but redemption is not impossible.