The Need for a Revolutionary Cinema in the Belly of the Empire

WAR DOGS (2016)

Greetings, faithful readers! I realize I am a little late to the party with this review, but I have been preparing for college for the past few days. So, with that said, let’s get started with my opinion on War Dogs!

I was actually pretty intrigued when I first heard about this project. I mean, it was Todd Philips, the director of comedies like the Hangover movies, handling a biographical comedy about two young international arms dealers. How could I not be hooked? So, how did the final product turn out? Reasonably well, actually. Not much to write home about, but still pretty interesting.

In fact, that’s something else I should bring up before I get into it. This review is gonna be a little on the light side, because the season of highly-anticipated films kind of ended with Suicide Squad. So until late September/early October when the film studios releasing their Oscar-bait material, we are in the era of films that are kind of interesting, but not life-changing.

Story: In the early 2000s, David Packouz (Miles Teller) is a young college dropout who makes his living as a massage therapist in Miami and lives with his girlfriend Iz (Ana de Armas). However, his life changes when his old friend Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) comes into town and offers him a job as partner in an arms-dealing company known as AEY Inc. (the letters do not stand for anything, by the way). The two quickly gain success, gaining government contracts that are worth millions of dollars, allowing David to buy a bigger house for Iz and their soon-to-be-born child. But as Efraim and David get deeper and deeper into the arms business, they get involved with some very shady people and deals that are not so on-the-level. It’s only a matter of time before their actions start to have dire consequences.

Filmed and edited in the same style as films like GoodFellas, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Big Short (i.e. voiceover narration, freeze-frames on certain characters, explanatory/narrative text across the screen), the film is based VERY loosely on real events. Almost to the point where I was wondering why they didn’t just take the American Hustle approach where they changed the names but kept the events close enough to real life. And that’s one thing to keep in mind when viewing this film. If you’re thinking about reading the Guy Lawson article on which the film is based, it’s really not necessary. The film takes a lot of liberties (the scene in Fallujah where Efraim and David are trying to escape from al-Qaeda members didn’t really happen) and edits the identities of some characters for legal purposes. Now, as to whether or not this is good, I really don’t know. It’s just something I thought I’d bring up.

But in terms of the actual movie itself, I was thoroughly entertained. Jonah Hill is the reason to see this movie. He’s great at playing this slimy, amoral businessman who will do literally anything to get a deal. Complete with a deranged laugh, Hill is a revelation as a downright villainous character. And the good thing about it is he keeps you guessing. Just when you think that Diveroli is about to break character and show some real compassion, he goes back on it, revealing that it was all just an act. This is a really good performance. Miles Teller acquits himself well as the straight man who is constantly being surprised at the brutality/underhandedness of the arms business. All the other actors – Ana de Armas, Kevin Pollak, and Bradley Cooper – do fine and get the job done as well.

All the technical elements are there too. I like how this film was shot. It would seem that DP Lawrence Sher is going for more of a documentary-style take with this film. And considering that this film is trying to illustrate a point-of-view that is not too well known around the country, that style would seem like the most logical choice.

I’d say that the only real problem with the movie is that it moves by at a pretty fast pace. For example, the relationship between David and Iz seems a little rushed. When we first meet them, they seem to be living together as boyfriend and girlfriend. And they seem to remain at that status, even when their daughter is born. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, we see a ring on David’s left finger. So, are we to assume that Iz and David just got married in between all these other deals? Maybe this is just a product of scenes being left on the cutting room floor, but we won’t know until the DVD comes out.

The other problem for me, and this is more preference related, I wish this film went a little more into the area of black comedy/satire. I mean, it would have been a very relevant decision, considering that war in the Middle East is still a big issue. Maybe something along the line of Dr. Strangelove would have been more of my taste. Besides, they’ve already changed around the real story so much that making it a satirical allegory probably would have been the smarter move. Not only that, but it would have allowed for the cast to be more colorful instead of just having a live-wire performance by Jonah Hill while the rest of the cast operates at an even keel.

So, all in all, the movie is good. Not great, but definitely worth a matinee at most. It will be sure to please both comedy fans and movie fans alike. 

And that's kind of it. Told ya this was gonna be a short one, folks! But this weekend, I'll be covering Ben-Hur, so I'll probably be a lot more verbose. Stay tuned until then!