Beasts of No Nation

Nigerian-American author Uzodinma Iweala’s novel Beasts of No Nation is brought to the screen by the brilliant, young American filmmaker Cary Joji Fukunaga (director of such diverse fare as Sin Nombre, Jane Eyre, and the first season of HBO’s True Detective). The film tells the story of Agu (Abraham Attah), a young boy who becomes a child soldier in order to survive the horrific war his country is engaged in. Idris Elba (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Pacific Rim, Prometheus) plays the Commandant in charge of Agu’s battalion. The film is undeniably powerful. It confronts the audience with harsh truths about Central African conflicts. But Fukunaga—who also wrote the screenplay and shot the picture—doesn’t focus the narrative into an especially clear or layered story. The film’s episodic nature helps drive home the understanding of war's terrible human cost, but it also keeps us at somewhat of a removed distance. Elba delivers the type of performance we expect from his TV work (HBO’s The Wire, and the BBC’s Luther). Surprisingly this is the first film Elba's appeared in to fully utilize his powerful and charismatic screen presence. But the real knock-out here is the teenage Attah, who delivers the best male lead performance of 2015.