Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: March 4, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
16
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
85
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeFeb 29, 2016
The acting is universally excellent, particularly Fey, who’s shrewdly fulfilling our expectations while playing off them. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekMar 5, 2016
Boldly entertaining. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMar 4, 2016
Robustly entertaining. Read full review
80
The GuardianJordan HoffmanMar 3, 2016
Ficara and Requa have an irreverent streak, one that even might strike some as a little flippant against the gravity of the war. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 16, 2016
Fey is such a likable and funny screen presence, but she’s no lightweight when it comes to playing subtle, honest drama. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerMolly EichelMar 4, 2016
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot isn't a great movie, but it is something rare and important: a woman's story of self-discovery - having nothing to do with her finding a husband - that has gotten room on the big screen. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithMar 3, 2016
There aren’t enough movies in which Tina Fey fires an AK-47 while grinning maniacally. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot turns out to make excellent use of her established skills while revealing new ones: It’s “30 Rock Me to the Casbah.” Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedMar 3, 2016
I found it flawed but fascinating, and a no-fail showcase for Tina Fey’s real talents as a serious actress. Best of all, this movie is never boring for a single minute. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 3, 2016
Margot Robbie plays Tanya, Kim’s best friend and professional rival, and it’s a real asset to have someone with that kind of a star wattage in a supporting role. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianMar 3, 2016
Its feminist perspective checkmates the frat-boy misogyny and machismo that too often mar films set in combat zones. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 3, 2016
Certainly this could've been a bolder, angrier movie than what it became. After so much grimness in movies about U.S. military actions in the Middle East, it's good finding one dedicated to the kind of humor getting a lot of folks through over there. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittMar 3, 2016
Even with the occasional misfire in the plot, Fey’s strong performance throughout the film lets Whiskey go down in smooth and satisfying fashion. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 3, 2016
There's a lot going on here. Maybe too much. The filmmakers can't draw coherence out of chaos. But Fey does. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 2, 2016
Tina Fey gives her finest, funniest big screen performance by essentially doing in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot what she did so well on TV’s “30 Rock.” Read full review
73
The VergeTasha RobinsonMar 9, 2016
It's a frequently funny film that comes packed with the thrills of real combat, with real consequences for the characters. But the basic premise does make one question its priorities. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirMar 3, 2016
There’s a freshness and an unjaded quality to almost every scene that makes you want to keep watching. Read full review
67
HitfixDrew McWeenyApr 3, 2016
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is a film of modest pleasures, but what I liked about it, I liked a lot. I hope more filmmakers figure out how to write to Fey's strengths, because she's really engaging here. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMar 9, 2016
WTF is on the right track, even if it never pulls all the way in to the station. Read full review
67
ConsequenceBlake GobleMar 5, 2016
Fey delivers the performance like the super-capable talent she is, with range and authenticity. She’s a character with a fully expressed arc, foibles and all. She’s the dramedy’s best weapon. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMar 1, 2016
What work better in the movie are mostly smaller moments: the jokes that land, the rapport between the reporters, and all the weirdly ordinary ways people manage to find a new normal, even in the most WTF circumstances. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 4, 2016
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot has surprisingly dull fangs. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie OgleMar 3, 2016
Fey is a good fit with the material, and her co-stars are all solid, including Billy Bob Thornton as a laconic general; Martin Freeman as a boozy, charming Scottish journalist; Alfred Molina as a local politician with a crush on Kim; and Christopher Abbott (Girls) as Kim’s fixer and translator (he tries to keep her out of trouble). Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 3, 2016
True to its title, as well as its flawed but sympathetic protagonist, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is more confused than cynical or opportunistic. Its bewilderment is contagious, and ultimately endearing. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaMar 3, 2016
Is Whiskey Tango Foxtrot a horrible movie about a white outsider plopped in the middle of Afghanistan? No, that would be last year’s “Rock the Kasbah.” But neither does Whiskey Tango Foxtrot fulfill its assigned duty to provide evidence of Fey’s versatility. Read full review
60
EmpireJimi Famurewa Apr 4, 2016
Comedy for grown-ups that sometimes struggles with its ambitious brief, but always remembers that the best laughs contain the odd shard of shrapnel. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Mar 4, 2016
It's tasty at times, but feels like a very special episode of "30 Rock." Halfway in, you're still expecting Kenneth the Page to show up. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 3, 2016
Ficarra and Requa never quite strike a successful balance between comedy and drama, making the whole thing feel a bit off. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushBritt HayesMar 3, 2016
For all its failings (of which there are many), Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is still a rather enjoyable and mostly pleasant viewing experience, the kind of movie that’s easy to watch and digest when taken at its glossy face value. Read full review
60
The New YorkerRichard BrodyFeb 29, 2016
The filmmakers keep to the surface of the bluntly rowdy story while conveying apolitical layers of regret and exasperation, in wanly comic and affectingly melodramatic action alike. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerMar 2, 2016
A movie like this doesn’t require 30 Rock’s joke density or silly streak, but it’s surprising that Fey and Carlock’s satirical eyes aren’t a little more alert. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 3, 2016
As for Ms. Fey, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot doesn’t serve her fully, but this is her best work yet on the feature screen. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 3, 2016
It’s not so much bad as dismayingly bland. It’s WTF for all the wrong reasons. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldMar 3, 2016
As written by the TV veteran Robert Carlock, Kim’s rise-and-fade arc is sympathetically rendered, with humor and the urgency of an underhand pitch. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonMar 3, 2016
There’s a sharp comedy to be made about America’s misadventures in Afghanistan. This isn’t it. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 3, 2016
While it's no disaster, it's oddly indistinct and uncertain. Read full review
50
The PlaylistRuss FischerMar 3, 2016
Fey's work is strong, yet it's difficult to squash the impression that this could be a more powerful movie, and an even more significant showcase for Tina Fey. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenMar 3, 2016
Strange movie. And despite the presence of Tina Fey playing its lead character, a cable-TV reporter named Kim Baker, it’s not a funny one. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonFeb 29, 2016
It’s to Ficarra and Requa’s credit that they try to juggle romance and political commentary, daring to make a studio movie that doesn’t fall into cookie-cutter genre rules. But the overriding problem is that Whiskey doesn’t go far enough in its risk-taking, settling for a story that gets more predictable as it rolls along. Read full review
42
The Film StageMichael SnydelMar 3, 2016
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is a galling, casually offensive, and deeply unsatisfying film. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 29, 2016
As in their previous films (I Love You Phillip Morris; Crazy, Stupid, Love; Focus), directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa enjoy just scattershot success in hitting their seriocomic targets, scoring from time to time with their more coarse and outlandish gambits but rarely inducing one to take what they're watching very seriously. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Simon HouptMar 5, 2016
The dialogue is sour, the politics problematic (Broadway veterans as Afghan locals? Why not?!), and the sentiments sometimes eye-rolling. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, indeed. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 3, 2016
The movie plays like a global-political farce made by people who’ve never left the Upper West Side. Read full review
30
VarietyJustin ChangFeb 29, 2016
Despite the script’s direct acknowledgment that it’s telling a “white-American-lady story,” the movie never quite shakes off a glib, incurious outsider’s perspective that can tilt into outright cluelessness, particularly where some of its more egregious casting choices are concerned. Read full review
10
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonMar 1, 2016
The mild Islamophobia and highly questionable casting choices in the film call to mind other texting abbreviations, namely AYFKMWTS and GTFOOH. In the end, though, it's an armed-forces acronym dating back to World War II that best describes this dismal project: FUBAR. Read full review
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