"WTF" was a rather fruitless exercise in storytelling--it had no real message it wanted to get out there, virtually no character development, and probably no target audience.
First, it portrayed the reporters and other foreigners as sociopaths and wholly debauch, juxtaposing the suffering of the Afghan people with the extravagant parties of the unapologetic Westerners and those aligned with them. I kept waiting for an arc that "Hey, maybe these people will change their ways and genuinely be sympathetic to the natives' issues," but that arc never came. In the end, I don't think I walked away from the movie any more sympathetic to anyone, I even ended up disliking virtually every character by sheer inability to relate to them.
Who was the target demographic? It had many lines in the movie solely in Dari/Farsi, which I do speak, with subtitles only appearing sporadically. Its main message seemed to be "Afghanistan sure isn't fun, am I right guys?" but, who can relate to this? We can all imagine how bad a war torn third world country is, and save 1.5 hrs.
It also portrays itself as a black comedy, using the Afghans as a crutch. That's not to say that's not OK--it simply was so wildly unoriginal that it didn't even register as humor. For example, comparing the burka to a Ziploc bag has been circulating Facebook for nearly a decade, but that didn't stop a lazy writer from plugging that into their already bloated, dry film. Another example of the comedic crutch is that some Afghan thinks a black Marine is Russian, because heaven knows Afghans don't know where black people come from, despite many Afghans making yearly pilgrimages to Mecca, where they run into many black Africans. And the only real "comedy" that comes to mind which is not wholly reliant on mocking Afghans, is when Fey's character really needs to pee badly, and it's funny because she has to stop the whole platoon, and it's seriously funny no seriously you guys I swear (actually, I forgot it does end with an Afghan crutch, with Fey's character snidely reminding her translator that girls actually pee too, since he--a damned doctor--and his culture oppress women so much they don't even let them pee or realize they pee). I suggest you go out and actually converse with an Afghan instead, instead of mocking people you know nothing about (they literally had an Afghan watching goat porn, what in the goddamn)
I can only recommend it if you want to reinforce your belief that all Afghans are complete idiots/perverts and something something journalism is hell.
I give it a 2/10 because I actually sat through the entire thing, if only to see what poor excuse for comedy or biopics Hollywood still spits out in this day and age; plus, the performances were fine, but the script is such a travesty that I couldn't even forgive it. But, I will be avoiding films with performances by any of these cast members, which is a shame, because I liked Molina and that Hobbit fella. Oh well.
First, it portrayed the reporters and other foreigners as sociopaths and wholly debauch, juxtaposing the suffering of the Afghan people with the extravagant parties of the unapologetic Westerners and those aligned with them. I kept waiting for an arc that "Hey, maybe these people will change their ways and genuinely be sympathetic to the natives' issues," but that arc never came. In the end, I don't think I walked away from the movie any more sympathetic to anyone, I even ended up disliking virtually every character by sheer inability to relate to them.
Who was the target demographic? It had many lines in the movie solely in Dari/Farsi, which I do speak, with subtitles only appearing sporadically. Its main message seemed to be "Afghanistan sure isn't fun, am I right guys?" but, who can relate to this? We can all imagine how bad a war torn third world country is, and save 1.5 hrs.
It also portrays itself as a black comedy, using the Afghans as a crutch. That's not to say that's not OK--it simply was so wildly unoriginal that it didn't even register as humor. For example, comparing the burka to a Ziploc bag has been circulating Facebook for nearly a decade, but that didn't stop a lazy writer from plugging that into their already bloated, dry film. Another example of the comedic crutch is that some Afghan thinks a black Marine is Russian, because heaven knows Afghans don't know where black people come from, despite many Afghans making yearly pilgrimages to Mecca, where they run into many black Africans. And the only real "comedy" that comes to mind which is not wholly reliant on mocking Afghans, is when Fey's character really needs to pee badly, and it's funny because she has to stop the whole platoon, and it's seriously funny no seriously you guys I swear (actually, I forgot it does end with an Afghan crutch, with Fey's character snidely reminding her translator that girls actually pee too, since he--a damned doctor--and his culture oppress women so much they don't even let them pee or realize they pee). I suggest you go out and actually converse with an Afghan instead, instead of mocking people you know nothing about (they literally had an Afghan watching goat porn, what in the goddamn)
I can only recommend it if you want to reinforce your belief that all Afghans are complete idiots/perverts and something something journalism is hell.
I give it a 2/10 because I actually sat through the entire thing, if only to see what poor excuse for comedy or biopics Hollywood still spits out in this day and age; plus, the performances were fine, but the script is such a travesty that I couldn't even forgive it. But, I will be avoiding films with performances by any of these cast members, which is a shame, because I liked Molina and that Hobbit fella. Oh well.