Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) review

Kim (Tina Fey), a journalist, is sent to Afghanistan to cover the U.S.' military involvement in the region - while embedded, she follows around the Marines (led by Billy Bob Thornton), meets a powerful Attorney General (Alfred Molina) and starts a relationship with Scottish photographer (and womanizer) Iain (Martin Freeman). Essentially, this has the same major, crippling flaw as Rock the Kasbah: it's more concerned with Kim's personal life and the drinking-and-fornicating aspects of the Westerners than it does with the actual political problems of the region (too much of a "bummer" to be "watchable," huh?), with only one 'redeemable' Afghan resident - family-oriented Fahim (Christopher Abbott ... who's an American) - in the entire movie. Ficarra and Requa made a name for themselves with the ribald script for Bad Santa, but little of this is funny: maybe it's because there's a massive conflict in the region costing people their lives? And Tina Fey is cute and all with her feminist ideals ... but she's not going to 'liberate' a place that treats women like property, covered up like colorful ghosts.