Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
Tymon Sutton
The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
Rexanne
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
Gareth Crook
A film about political and civil unrest in Africa (the specific country is never named) and as heartbreaking and terrifying as you'd imagine. Wonderfully made, the camera work puts you right in the centre alongside these people having their already tough worlds torn apart. It's not easy to watch, the depiction of callous disregard for life, especially seen through the eyes of a child is often too much to bare. As if that's not harrowing enough, what follows is beyond horrific. Incessant killing, exploitation of children, power hungry people with complete disregard for life and any moral standard. In all the confusion it's not always obvious who the real monsters are. As the film goes on though, is seems everyone is and as things escalate, it's hard to except that despite this being dramatised, it's no doubt based on a sad harsh reality. Elba is frighteningly good, so much so, you wonder if you were able to reach into that world, would you kill him and become a monster too. Abraham Attah, who plays Agu, the child who leads us through this brutal world is amazing. This is his first outing and it's quite incredible, I've no doubt he'll go on to even greater things (although he's signed up for a Spider-Man film). The music is the only true positive element of the film itself, be it the traditional stuff or the ethereal score, it's outstanding, but never masks the turmoil of the characters and their existence.
Michael Ledo
Agu (Abraham Attah) is a young lad growing up in impoverished western Africa. He lives a somewhat idyllic life under the circumstances. The film builds his family life in the background involving a war zone between the army and rebels. Through a series of circumstances, the army kills his kinsmen and Agu manages to escape and reluctantly joins forces with the rebels and vows revenge. Agu has some first person narrative. He struggles with cultic aspects of the rebel army and battalion leader. He discovers they have no respect for life, but he has no alternative and curses the sun for shining on him. He realizes with death all around him, he has been robbed of his childhood, perhaps with thoughts and language well beyond his years. This is not a story of hope or despair. It is a drama about life, a life that doesn't have a Hollywood ending or twist. Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity. English subtitles in places. I would recommend watching the film with the subtitles as the English is difficult to understand at times.
maxfeldman
Good piece of storytelling, good cinematography, good character development, overall solid movie. One of my gripes about this movie involved Abu not finding his mother at the end, although the end contains something of equal importance, Abu's ability to be free despite living a traumatic life.
wplatt-73340
The film Beast of No Nation is a movie about how a civil war in Africa can be very brutal and inhumane. The film follows a young African child whose village was invaded by an unnamed army, and whose dad and brother are killed by this army. He runs away and stumbles into a rebel army that trains him to be a child soldier. The movie follows all of the struggles and horrors that the boy, Agu, goes through, and his mission to get revenge for his father and brother, and get back to his mother and sister. The movie goes through all aspects of being a soldier, like the cruel commandant and the killings that a kid has to do. The movie is very sad and emotional and is a very good movie for learning about what happens in some African countries, and the brutality that happens there. The movie is not based on real events that happened, but it is a fictional story based on real life accounts of the civil wars across Africa. Since it is fictional, the filmmakers took a few artistic liberties with the film. One of these things is the fact that Agu sold a TV to a soldier in the beginning of the film, and he found the same soldier some time later in the film. Also, the commandant disobeyed his orders and left the supreme commander, which caused them to run out of supplies and eventually surrender. This mostly did not happen in reality, and they likely would have stayed together with the rest of the army. This probably happened to advance the plot, and add another internal story line. The theme of family was very prominent in this movie. Agu being separated from his family and trying to get back to his mother, the entire squadron being one big family, and even the brotherhood between Agu and Strika all show how family is very important in the movie. God and Christianity is also very important. Agu is always speaking to God, and the soldiers all pray to God when someone dies. God is a very prominent figure especially to Agu, and he feels bad about all of the sin he commits, and eventually even feels that he can't speak to God because of all the wrongs he has done. Overall, I thought the movie was very interesting and well-made. It keeps the viewer watching and builds so much emotion that it seems impossible that this kind of thing could even be happening somewhere in the world.
