In order to travel to Kandahar, Kim (Tina Fey) has to change her wardrobe from Western wear to what is described (and rightly so) as a giant IKEA bag. The montage of “Who’s that lady?” accompanied by gawks and stares is priceless. For however Whiskey Tango Foxtrot comes up shy in entertainment, message or civility, I’m going to reflect positively on that joke alone.
Kim begins the film as a newsroom desk jockey in Manhattan. The year is 2003 and war correspondents are needed for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The usual suspects [read: the childless & single employees] are rounded up and encouraged to head to the Middle East. I suppose this a “well, shoot, do you want to be a reporter or not?” moment. Because this is where news is happening. Her adjustment is predictable: she’s not happy about the quarters, the smells, the noises, and her boyfriend is months and miles away from her. Early on however, Kim refuses a military order to stay put and gets mobile camera footage of a firefight. Check it, Homes — street cred, Afghani style. General rule of thumb is even marines respect somebody who joins warring conflict armed only with a camera.
Upon getting her bearings, Kim runs into blonde bombshell reporter Tanya (Margot Robbie). Kim is intimidated at first, but relaxes when Tanya calls her a “Kabul 9,” i.e. while Kim’s sexual appeal would normally rate “much lower,” in Kabul she’s about as good as it gets. This is typical of the humor in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot – it’s kinda funny until you wonder if it’s racist.
I kept hearing about how this movie was bigoted. And I thought about that while I watched and thought at first that said evaluation was full of shit. And then I reflected upon it – hmmm, could detractors mean, perhaps, that aside from two Afghani men – one Silent Bob type and one guy into bestiality, all local Aghani men are portrayed as idiots or sexist religious fascists? Or did that perhaps refer to the part where the only Afghani women not dressed in head-to-toe burqa can’t wait to call Kim a whore? The detractors have a point.
WTF (yes, that’s the joke) drifts for a great bit of film from one kinda pointless scene to another kinda pointless scene — it finds danger, but only in the context of character development, not much in the way of plot resolution. Until act III, our
characters exist in this world as tour guides, not explicit forces of self-determination. This is what being a reporter in an ongoing war is like – the scene is frequently dull, but intermittently highlighted with with danger and revulsion. And before long, you get used to it; a day without gunfire seems wrong. The conditions aren’t ideal; the people aren’t ideal. The film itself has little in the way of real development; it is simply a series of events told in chronological order, with no structured story arc. My biggest takeaway other than the burqa joke is, “huh, Martin Freeman plays a convincing Scot.”
For the most part, this Whiskey is watered down. It plays a lot like Good Morning, Vietnam except for the fact that it isn’t as funny, poignant, or hard-hitting. And the key difference? In the Robin Williams film, one got the distinct impression that Vietnam would be a decent place to be if weren’t for war. In Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the impression is that Afghanistan is a hole no matter what you do. It is best left alone.
♪Reportin’ in a red zone
No bars on my cell phone
Need an armed chaperone
Kabul Bop
Trouble in Kandahar
Ugly Taliban war
Callin’ Western woman “whore”
Kabul Bop
Hey! Ho! Let’s split.
Secure employ ain’t worth it
What they want is all bullshit
The real stars are Iraq-in’ it♫
Rated R, 112 Minutes
D: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
W: Robert Carlock
Genre: Fast Times in Kabul
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Tina Fey fans
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Afghanis
♪ Parody inspired by “Blitzkrieg Bop”
