"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" is Tina Fey's latest big screen effort. Fey plays a journalist named Kim Baker. She wants to escape her monotonous life in New York, so she decides to take a job as a foreign correspondent. Beginning in 2002, Baker moves right into the heart of the War on Terror in Afghanistan.
Overall, "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" was a good film. Fey's performance was wonderful and charming, as to be expected, and Margo Robbie did a great job alongside her as a fellow broadcast journalist. Martin Freeman also made an appearance as Fey's love interest and freelance photojournalist, and didn't shy away from giving his all just because of the laid back nature of the film.
The writing for this film was also almost spot on. It was funny when it wanted to be and most of the jokes landed really well. It was also very serious and tugged at your heart strings when it needed to. The film also did a great job of being surprisingly tasteful about the subject matter. Not that I was expecting a ton of offensive jokes; I was just pleasantly surprised at how well the writing and acting were able to be funny, but still bring light to a very serious situation.
Though "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" was a good film overall, for every few steps it took forward, it seemed to take a giant step back.
The film did do a solid job of being tasteful when it came to the sensitive subject matter. However, for some reason, they did choose to cast white people in a couple of roles that were supposed to be Middle Eastern. Whitewashing in Hollywood is nothing new, it's just so disappointing to see, and it takes away from some viewer's experience.
Another thing that was bothersome was a scene toward the end of the film. Kim eventually finds out another character, who happens to be female, is going after her job. They get into a bit of a verbal fight, and the other female character isn't heard from again. Tina Fey is such a strong advocate for feminism and women in the film industry. You would think that she wouldn't want her films to promote girl on girl hate, especially in such a trivial and predictable way.
"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" wanted to be, and could have been, a much better film than it was. But that's not to say that it wasn't a solid, feel-good comedy movie.
