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Pop culture dispatches from the Great Lakes

Africa

Paved With Good Intentions: Beasts of No Nation

October 26, 2015 by Travis J. Cook Leave a Comment

Image of Beasts of No Nation Poster

Last week, Alex wrote an enlightening article about the traditional portrayal of Africa in Western Cinema here. The impetus of the piece was the arrival of the film Beasts of No Nation, adapted and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga from the novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala. It’d be a lie to say that many of Alex’s thoughts and observations about the Africa of Western cinema didn’t color my reading of the film, but as with all good writing, it helped me to take notice of several things that might have been missed.

What was unmistakable to me, however, is the fact that Beasts of No Nation, in spite of its ambitions, fails to succeed on several different fronts. It is not without merit – but there’s a great deal missing that could have made this a great movie instead of another mediocre portrayal of an often-overlooked region of the world.

[Read more…]

Posted in: Arts, Films, Reviews Tagged: Africa, Beasts of No Nation, child soldiers, Idris Elba, Netflix

Beasts of No Nation and How Western Cinema Sees Africa

October 20, 2015 by Alex Bean Leave a Comment

Screen Shot 2015-10-20 at 3.25.32 PM

Editor’s Notes: Beasts of No Nation is currently available to watch on Netflix. 

Netflix’s first foray into the feature film market, Beasts of No Nation, has attracted a sizable amount of acclaim and anticipation this Fall. Directed by Cary Joji Fukungawa, who lent True Detective‘s first season its visual panache, and head-lined by rising international star Idris Elba, its recent release will be a test run for how much popular and awards attention Netflix can attract as a nascent movie distributor.

Beasts of No Nation is also being released in the midst of an on-going social and political maelstorm about identity politics. I’m not here to bury or praise the film as a part of that on-going discussion, that’s the purview of our reviewer. But I did think it was worth noting that Beasts fits into the long-standing Western perspective that Africa and its inhabitants as being unusually uncivilized and barbaric. [Read more…]

Posted in: Awards Season, Films Tagged: Africa, Beasts of No Nation, Idris Elba

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