War Dogs

By all accounts, War Dogs should not work, but it does.  The movie heavily lifts style and filmmaking choices from other movies, particularly the works of Martin Scorsese.  It's also basically a movie with no likable characters, who are basically doing terrible things to each other.  And yet, director Todd Phillips (The Hangover films) finds a way to turn this "truth is stranger than fiction" story into fairly light and workable entertainment.

This is a case of the story that was being told fascinating me, even if I was put off by some of the distracting choices Phillips makes during the film, such as frequently pausing the film for an unnecessary narration, and using power point-style graphics.  I think a more straight forward approach would have helped sell this as a true story, rather than an overly stylized one.  Still, I cannot deny that the plot grabbed my attention early, and never let go.  It's the often strange story of how two twenty-something stoners from Miami Beach wound up with a government contract to supply arms for the U.S. military.   At the very least, it made me want to actually look into the actual event.  It also features two fine lead performances by Miles Teller and Jonah Hill, who know how to make these characters watchable, despite some of the terrible things they do during the course of the film.

Teller serves as our narrator, and also the closest thing the movie has to a moral compass.  He is David Packouz, a young man working in Miami as a massage therapist, and struggling to support his wife Iz (Ana de Armas), who becomes pregnant early in the film.  David wants to build a better life for his new family, so he at first tries to sell high quality blankets to nursing homes, which doesn't go anywhere.  Then he has a chance encounter with his former best friend from Middle School, Efraim Diveroll (Hill), who has a confident swagger, and is decked out in gold chains and slicked back hair.  He drives a big car, and seems to have found his way to financial success.  His secret?  He recently started to dip his toe into the highly profitable world of arms trading.  During their many meet ups and encounters, Efraim talks about the perks and ins and outs of the business.  Now he's ready to dive in and get some bigger arms contracts with the government, and he wants to take David along with him.

The journey these two friends take would be unbelievable if we didn't know it actually happened.  At one point, they actually travel to the Middle East in order to pick up some ammo they were selling to the US military, which gets stranded in Jordan, so they can personally deliver it to their buyer.  This leads to them making a name for themselves in the gun running business, even though they are not an actual company at this point, and it even leads to a multi-million dollar deal with the Pentagon.  How these two guys got to this point, and how they managed to lose it all, makes up a majority of the film, and it really is riveting.  What sells it are the two lead performances.  Teller is the guy who gets in over his head, even though he realizes it too late, while Hill is memorable as the charming sociopath who is not below manipulating his best friend as well as his clients to get what he wants.  As his character becomes increasingly hungry for money and power, Hill's performance becomes all the more fascinating.  We can see his character trying to hold onto his charming facade, but it is growing weaker by the minute, and his true nature shows through.  It's a surprisingly complicated performance.

I actually would have liked more details into the process these two guys used to run and sell the guns, but War Dogs is a slick Hollywood production with non-stop music cues, montages and stealing from other films such as The Big Short and The Wolf of Wall Street (which also starred Jonah Hill).  The movie also feels the need to constantly stop and explain what is happening with Teller's narration, as if we somehow can't figure it out on our own.  This is what holds the film back from being as good as it could have been.  It's still tremendously enjoyable, but Phillips doesn't seem to trust the intelligence of his audience.  It's like he wants to make a movie for adults, but for some reason, he still feels the need to dumb it down to a certain level.  Not to the point where it is insulting, but still dumber than it needs to be. 

And yet, despite its obvious failings, I was still entertained, and the story grabbed me.  With a different and smarter approach, this could have been really something great.  In a way, the movie is a lot like Hill's character.  It has a certain charm and confidence, but when you peel back the surface, it's not as smart as it thinks it is.  However, you still managed to get sucked in.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at amazon.com!

0 comments