I would never claim to be even moderately informed about African countries at war. But if someone were to hire me to write a script about violent uprisings and villages destroyed—which, again, would be absolutely moronic to hire me for—I’d probably write a story about a child whose mom is taken away and whose father and older brother are killed, resulting in the child being taken under the wing of the leader of a group of rebels. Sounds pretty generic.
That’s why the Netflix original movie “Beasts of No Nation,” starring Idris Elba as the aforementioned rebel leader and adapted by writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga (the far superior “Sin Nombre,” “True Detective”) from Uzodinma Iweala’s novel, feels hollow no matter how well-delivered its action or convincing its performances. After the government army of a never-defined country kills the other members of his family who weren’t able to flee, Agu (Abraham Attah) finds himself alone in the woods, puking from eating items off the ground. Then he’s taken in by the Commandant (Elba), who doesn’t do a lot of fighting himself but bosses around people younger than him and motivates them to murder. Cue the inevitable scene of the Commandant handing Agu a machete and telling him to kill, the sort of thing recently seen in “Fury” and countless other movies in which a newbie is initiated into a war zone.
There’s no denying the urgent brutality of “Beasts of No Nation,” in which the fighting has no end in sight and the omnipresence of war discourages even those winning the battles. But recognizing that child soldiers are just kids isn’t enough of a point to make; Fukunaga never gets close enough to the situation to make the cliché setup feel specific. Worse, Agu’s voiceover pulls you out of the horror and back into thinking it’s only a movie, especially when he says something about how his grandfather’s lights are on but nobody’s home, which I’d argue doesn’t seem like something someone in this place and time would say, although since the movie declines to identify the location (like the much more offensive “No Escape”) or time period, who knows. It doesn’t, however, do anything to suggest Western expressions have made their way east.
Based on the buzz about this movie from the Toronto International Film Festival, you’d think you’d finish watching “Beasts of No Nation” with a lot to talk about and remember. Instead, you’re like, “Did you see that guy going to war without any pants on, just letting it all swing?”
Streaming on Netflix and playing at Landmark Century Centre Cinema (2828 N. Clark St. 773-248-7759).
2 stars (out of four)
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