Whisky Tango Foxtrot

Afghanistan unsurprisingly has been 'done' a fair bit on screen over the decade or more, but this movie doesn't do the big badda boom badge of honour action, but focuses on the lives, interactions, and mindsets of war correspondents and the people around them, within a context of light drama with (for me at least) laugh out loud moments, and does it rather well, despite the director team of  Glen Ficarra and John Requa having previously given us the soul numbing ‘Bad Grandpa’ There is a sensitive balance in tension between the seriousness and ridiculousness of reporting on armed conflict without it turning into Boo Ra!  or ‘War Inc’ pastiche, and it has something serious to say about major news services treating conflicts as fashionable commodity. It also shows, and I know ‘cos I’ve met a couple, what an utterly bonkers lot conflict journo’s are.

The storyline? Well jaundiced copy editor chucks herself into the void to escape the walls closing in, wonders briefly what the fuck she’s done, and then chases the big story. Big story nailed, she hangs in and racks up some scare miles until eventually realizing that no one in the big comfy news media offices gives a flying Taliban anymore unless it’s a biiii………iiiiiiiiiiig story. Throw in a bit of romance, some mad soldiery, droolly politicians, and warlordiness… and that’s your Kofta’s served.
Tina Fey? Well I've seen her in a few light comedies that have not exactly set my synapses on fire, but .with her particular brand of wide eyed neurosis she carries the lead in this one well enough. Margo Robbie is solid. Billy Bob Thornton continues his 'second wind' as a serious actor and gives superb sarky military in this one, and

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Martin Freeman surprises in a relatively un-type loose limbed performance, even if his Scots accent was a bit…erm…odd. The stand out for me though is Christopher Abbott (who I must confess I know little about) as Afghan guide/security man Fahim, in a remarkably nuanced performance. An actor to watch out for I reckon. The only casting blip is the choice of Alfred Molina as an Afghan minister. Seen him do some fine work previously but so miscast here it almost seems he is in a different movie to everyone else.
Where this movie really wins out is scripting and pace. There is no fat here, and I found myself engaged throughout. All in all maybe not a must see, but if you do come across it? It’s worth a punt 

The Program

Well Lance Armstrong did say they would make a movie about him one day, but I suspect he anticipated just a wee bit more creative control over its content and tone at the time. What we get here is Lance becoming a Wewy wewy bad boy, apparently because he was the wrong shape to be a wewy wewy good boy, and all of this while battling cancer, and being determined to be dressed in a very unflattering shade of yellow. To be honest I don't think it would have bothered the distributors either way, but this flick sure didn’t do the cause any favours. Interesting story cobbled by rather lacklustre and uneven tele-movie scripting, and cinematography that simply doesn’t do the subject justice. Now I’m no cycling nut, but I have seen live coverage and docu footage of Tour that is absolutely thrilling. These shots are so flat they almost level the sneckin’ Alps. There are a whole bunch of Stephen Frears directed movies I like bigly, and his name on top was a reason I picked this up. Boy does he mislay a testicle on this one.

 There are a few deviations from the Armstrong story we may have picked up through some kind of tabloid cultural osmosis, even if we thought a peloton was a slightly comedic lookin’ bird   For example Cheryl Crow fans might be disappointed that she has been washed out of the tale, though I’m pretty damned sure the lady herself ensured she wasn’t mortified on celluloid. Every day might be a winding road, but who the hell needs to build their own chicanes?

Ben Foster plays speedy speedo Lance, but despite the promo’s hailing the performance as ‘gripping’ the only things being gripped in this is the occasional handlebar and syringe.  Chris O’Dowd is up as doggedly persistent journo nemesis David Walsh, but despite his best efforts I don’t feel he was the best casting for the role, while why Dustin Hoffman agreed to be in this initially baffled me, but then I remembered that Mr. Mumbles agreed to be in 'The Cobbler' and 'The Fokkers' movies, and realized that he can do all this stuff in second gear

This movie kinda sucks. Not in a big shouty way, but in that way that sneaks up on you about 15 minutes in, just long enough to resent the shit out of it for not being so bad that someone warned you…