Beasts of No Nation: "One of the most haunting films that I've ever seen..."

Rating: 8/10 (28 October 2015)

Beasts of No Nation is a bold, harrowing war story filled with incredible cinematography, excellent direction from True Detective director Cary Joji Fukunaga, and amazing performances from the film's incredibly talented cast.
Without a doubt, this is one of the best directed and shot movies of the entire year. Through his direction, writer-director Cary Fukunaga offers his audience an uncompromising look into not only the literal destruction of war, but brilliantly captures the psychological breakdown of the human spirit and its transformation from innocent to beast, hence the name of the film. Fukunaga isn't afraid to show this appalling process unfold, and the end result is magnificently haunting. Fukunaga also served as cinematographer on this film after his initial DP was injured, and the film is absolutely breathtaking to look at. It's incredibly atmospheric, and when combined with Dan Romer's engaging and moving score, the film is elevated to this sort of epic scale that you simply can't look away from.
Idris Elba does a fantastic job in this film as the Commandant of the army that the film centers around. His presence in the film is almost palpable, even when he isn't on screen. But while his influence on the film is absolutely magnetic, Abraham Attah, who plays a young boy taken into Elba's army, is an absolute revelation. This is his debut performance in a motion picture, and the way he symbolically captures the transition into a child soldier is absolutely extraordinary. Both deserve Oscar nominations for sure, but Abraham Attah gives what is, in my opinion, the most emotionally resonant performance of the year so far.
While this isn't an easy film to watch, Beasts of No Nation's is definitely a story that needed to be told. The way the story is told through following the perspective of a child soldier is a truly sobering experience, a horrific view of war that will stay with me for many years to come. That is the way this story needed to be told, and I thought it was very moving, very powerful, and one of the most haunting films that I've ever seen, and possibly will ever see, in my life.