An ‘American White Lady Story’
‘WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT’ TRAILER REVIEW BY METRO CREW
Based on Kim Barker’s true account of her time as a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot follows the fictionalized version of Barker (Tina Fey) as she navigates her way through Afghanistan alongside a wild, frat-house-like gathering of other Westerners. While we think this movie looks funny — and Fey has a way of winning audiences over — we worry that its emphasis on Fey’s journey could diminish the significance of the conflict she’s supposed to be covering. (As one of the characters says in the trailer, it’s an “American white lady story.”) We just hope that it can juggle comedy with a bit of reverence. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot opens in wide release March 4.
JAIMIE: I have mixed feelings about this movie. Would I like to watch a movie about a female journalist who steps out of her comfort zone and travels to Afghanistan and Pakistan of all places to do it? Of course. Does it help that Tina Fey is anchoring this movie? Duh. But I think I would like to read the book first, because was the real Kim Barker’s time spent overseas as comedic as they are making it out to be, or is this just a heavy-handed dose of Hollywood making things perfectly quaint?
PAIGE: I realized Martin Freeman is the guy she hooks up with and that’s just so weird to me. I can’t see him as a sexual entity. He’s just … Bilbo Baggins! Dr. Watson! He doesn’t have sex; he just frowns and teems with exasperation at the antics of dwarves and geniuses.
JAMES: In a fish-out-of-water story, it’s usually the setting that’s the punchline, with the character as the setup. Examples: A 13-year-old kid is suddenly thrust into corporate adulthood. A teenager in the ‘80s is shot back in time to the ‘50s. A pair of alcoholic drinking buddies is thrown into a zombie apocalypse. The character alone doesn’t elicit laughs. In this case, the set up is Afghanistan, and the punchline is Tina Fey. That’s the lens the trailer seems to be looking through. The country seems interchangeable.
CHRISTINA: I think this looks pretty good, but it could also border on problematic in that it possibly trivializes the whole situation in Afghanistan by making it a personal journey for this one woman. It’s almost like, there are people dying, but it’s chill because it was an epiphany for Tina Fey.
JAIMIE: I feel the same way. Everything going on around Tina Fey is very real and very important, but somehow, everything that Tina Fey seems to be experiencing borders on trivial. Maybe the movie as a whole will be more balanced?
NICOLE: Well, it is a personal journey of one woman. I think that’s why it works in my eyes. I can understand needing to let it all out, to vent and party really hard, try extreme things. That’s how I would deal with it. I mean, if I were in a volatile situation where I’m unfamiliar with the culture and I just left my comfort zone, etc.
PAIGE: This is Eat Pray Love: Afghanistan, with all that that implies.
JAMES: The satire doesn’t seem to involve the craziness of politics, religion and war. There are some perfunctory juxtapositions — an Afghan woman drives a car for the first time. But that’s about it. I’ve read that the book it’s based on is darker. But here in this trailer, it’s as if producers came up with a pitch and said, “Let’s take 30 Rock out of 30 Rock, and put it in Afghanistan. We could call it Zero Dark 30 Rock.”
