By Travis Johnson
Hey, David Michod’s back! It’s been three years since The Rover, his not-too-shabby follow up to the incredible Animal Kingdom, and we’d been wondering what he was up to. Turns out he’s been making a Netflix movie just like everybody else, pointing his camera at Brad Pitt for War Machine.
Riffing on The Operators: The Wild & Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan by Michael Hastings, War Machine is apparently an “absurdist war story for our times”, a claim which puts us in mind of Catch-22 – and that’s potentially some hubris right there. Pitt is “rock star” General Glenn McMahon, whose rise and fall is, according to the presser, “…part reality, part savage parody – raising the specter of just where the line between them lies today. His is an exploration of a born leader’s ultra-confident march right into the dark heart of folly. At the story’s core is Brad Pitt’s sly take on a successful, charismatic four-star general who leapt in like a rock star to command NATO forces in Afghanistan, only to be taken down by a journalist’s no-holds-barred exposé.”
Tilda Swinton, Sir Ben Kingsley, Anthony Michael Hall, Topher Grace, Will Poulter, Lakeith Stanfield, Emory Cohen, John Magaro, RJ Cyler, Alan Ruck, Scoot McNairy and Meg Tilly co-star – plus Aussies Anthony Hayes and Justin Rosniak are also along for the ride – in what could be a savage satire on the military-industrial complex and the intersection between public interest and operational security – we hope.
War Machine hits the ‘Flix on May 26, 2017.
