Packouz (Teller) and Diveroli (Hill) as ill prepared for their meeting as audiences were for what this movie would bring to the table. (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Studios)
Andrew Sciascia
Connector Staff
Ever ask yourself where tax dollars are spent by the federal government? Todd Phillip’s film ‘War Dogs’, the true story of how two pot smoking nobodies in their twenties were contracted with the biggest arms deal of the Iraq War, may just make you wish you’d never asked.
Based on Guy Lawson’s Rolling Stone article ‘The Stoner Arms Dealers’, which was later adapted into the novel ‘Arms and the Dudes’, this picture gives a dramatized take on the biography of David Packouz (Miles Teller), who joins childhood friend Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) in establishing a fraudulent arms dealing business with hopes of getting rich quick and abandoning his job massaging old men in Miami.
Get rich quick schemes? Someone getting in too deep with shady people and doing questionable deeds? Have we seen this before? ‘21’ or ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ are just two examples. This is one of the most classic plotlines ever put to film. The silver screen is oversaturated with good guys trying to get by and just happening upon relationships with dangerous people.
At the end of the day it’s two idiot young adults selling guns to the government. In Packouz’ own words from the film, “What could go wrong?” A whole heck of a lot. But, surprisingly enough, things only go poorly for the bonehead protagonists. The film itself holds up relatively well.
Before going into the positives, it’s important to address the elephant in the room when it comes to this movie: the marketing for this film was appallingly misleading. The trailers are chalk full of one-liners, hilarity and foolishness, the posters pokes fun at genre contemporaries like “Scarface”, and it stars Miles Teller from ‘Project X’ and Jonah Hill of “21 Jump Street” fame. And yet the movie itself barely qualifies as a comedy. Is that to say ‘War Dogs’ doesn’t have its moments? Absolutely not. Jonah Hill’s offbeat brand of comedy; the childish one-liners and stupid, downright rude remarks are still present. But these are fleeting moments in an otherwise intense film. At best the minimal amount of comedic material is there to lighten the mood during intense and nerve racking moments. The funniest part of ‘War Dogs’, for the most part, is its absurd premise. Not to mention the quirky signature laugh Hill developed for Diveroli.
Luckily for audiences, bad marketing doesn’t always result in a bad movie, and the poor decision to market the film as an outright comedy was certainly overcome by the final product.
‘War Dogs’ is a well done audiovisual production. Phillips does an excellent job of juxtaposing scenes of sunny Miami with the miserable rainy days in Albania. The camera work is passable. Above all else the music was very well selected. Fun, upbeat pop and rap tracks decorate the early scenes; the fun and games of working with a friend. Upbeat music is replaced with a more dark and serious orchestrated sound that beautifully builds the tension as Diveroli and Packouz’ friendship crumbles with every ounce of added political pressure as they attempt to fill their contract.
Hill and Teller’s chemistry throughout could not have been more believable. There was a legitimate feeling that these two were estranged best friends rekindling a relationship. Their witty back and forth was worthy of a few laughs, but it’s clear from the outset that their friendship is anything but healthy. Everyone has that one friend they love dearly who may mean well, but does unintelligent things that get everyone wrapped up in situations that could only go wrong. They showcase it brilliantly here. It is abundantly clear that the stress building from this work relationship is building into an unstoppable force to shatter them. The lack of trust and downright stress of working closely with a friend is not only believable, but allows the audience to empathize with their struggle.
Surrounded by excellent supporting actors such as Bradley Cooper, this dynamic duo seems to gain more dimension with each passing misfortune. As the events spiral out of control the tension builds and the audience is, quite frankly, left on the edge of their seats waiting to see what will befall the company next. The tension is infrequently cut short by a scene or two that drag towards the end. This has a very limited negative effect on the movie. In the end, the tension building and sticky situations are incredibly drawing, the acting is stellar and the movie jumps every hurdle in its path (even if said hurdles were laid by the creative and marketing teams).
In closing, ‘War Dogs’ is cliche, simple, not so true-to life and not the movie it was marketed to be. It was not a comedy by any stretch of the imagination; no matter what the trailers say. Yet, these are the most enjoyable parts to the movie. It was not what was expected, but for those very reasons exceeded all expectations. It has audiences walking into theaters expecting low brow comedy, but exiting theaters with their socks knocked off by a well acted commentary on government spending and US military arms dealings in Iraq. It will leave audiences happily saying, “We kinda liked it!” as Packouz does in the film.
Grade: B+
