Political
As Teller says, this movie is essentially a case study in Bush era administration arms dealing
Foreshadowing
Small chapter titles foreshadow the upcoming section while also raising the tension and the stakes.
True Story
This is real, something like this actually happened.
Perfect Preformance
Jonah Hill as Efriam gives a chilling preformance, one part brilliant and one part unhinged
Rotten Tomatoes 61% Cinemascore: B
While not as funny as the trailers let on, War Dogs is still a well constructed story about two guys who get into the world of back door arms dealing and ultimately get in over their head. It's not an exceptionally deep film, most of it's commentary is placed out in the open for discussion, but it's strengths are aligned with its protagonist David (Teller) and Efriam (Hill). Over the course of the narrative their 'friendship' slowly evolves into something ugly, which parallels the nature of the world their exploiting. Each section of the film opens with a quote that one of the characters says later in that same section. While a little off putting at first, Phillips (the director) uses this as an effective means to building tension and subtle foreshadowing. It's a little Tarantino-like in design but ultimately just as effective. The script is one that I could easily see a director like Scorsese tackling with its gritty underbelly yet dramatic climb to sucess, Phillips does an admirable job where he can and the circumstance of the material is only a compliment. All in all, War Dogs is an effective political drama which frames the sins of yesterday into a quality character piece discussing exploitation and corruption.
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