Beasts of No Nation features another ho-hum, lights-the-screen-up-every-time-he’s-on-it performance from Idris Elba. If he isn’t the next Bond, I’m going to riot. Photos courtesy Bleeker Street.
It’s Halloween weekend. There’s nothing new releasing, as studios are afraid of competition during their highest-leverage time slots — and no, Bradley Cooper and Sandra Bullock Oscarbating don’t count. With no reason to go to a theater, you sit at home with your bag of candy and… what’s this? A Netflix original movie?
Maybe they could have cut their teeth with something a little less grim. Like, a documentary on how to make your own coffin lining, for instance.
Beasts of No Nation follows Agu (Abraham Attah), a 10-year old living in an unnamed West African country mired in a brutal, three-way civil war. Agu lives in a safe zone at the start of the film, but the army soon rolls through. His mother is shipped further behind the lines, but his father and brother are killed and he only survives by escaping into the wilderness. There, he is found by a Native Defense Force battalion that uses child soldiers. The battalion commandant (Idris Elba) singles Agu out as a potential leader and takes him under his wing, walking him through the horrors of war.
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