Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

In 2002, a New York TV news producer (Tina Fey) grabs an opportunity to shake up her life a little by signing on as a war correspondent in Afghanistan, only to find it more than she bargained for—and less, in a sense, as the Afghan War becomes a sideline when things heat up in Iraq. Written by Robert Carlock (loosely based on journalist Kim Barker’s memoir The Taliban Shuffle) and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the movie has a lot going for it—an almost documentary realism tempered and leavened by mordant black humor, as if the filmmakers were channeling the Vonnegut of Slaughterhouse-Five and the Heller of Catch-22. The fog of war sometimes dissolves into muddled moviemaking, but the picture’s biggest asset—Fey’s resourceful, wry and witty performance—pulls us through time and again. J.L.