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'Beasts of No Nation' turns up the temperature too far on atrocities

( Unrated ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

'Nation' stars Abraham Attah as a preteen boy who becomes a soldier in a rebel faction of an unnamed African country. The faction is led by Commandant (Idris Elba).

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Shawn Greene/Netflix/AP
'Beasts of No Nation' stars Idris Elba (l.) and Abraham Attah (r.).
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

Based on the acclaimed novel by Nigerian-American author Uzodinma聽Iweala, 鈥淏easts of No Nation,鈥� the first theatrical release from Netflix, is an appropriately grueling movie about a聽preteen boy, Agu (Abraham Attah), who becomes a soldier in a rebel聽faction of an unnamed African country after his family is killed in a聽military junta. The faction is led by Commandant (a very scary Idris聽Elba), who trains the boys in his army to commit unspeakable acts of聽warfare and revenge. (He also commits unspeakable acts upon them.)

Writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga turns up the temperature on these聽atrocities 鈥� too much so, I think. Attah is an industrious little actor, but his聽fall from innocence is not delineated with the same force as the carnage. The film in the end seems more of an expertly orchestrated聽blood bath than a full-scale tragedy. Grade:聽B- (Unrated.)

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