YMMV / Beasts of No Nation

• Award Snub:
  • Many people believe Idris Elba deserved a Supporting Actor Oscar Nomination. Although it's generally agreed that the film's digital distribution played a key factor in the Academy's snub. Not that the digital distribution stopped SAG and Independent Spirit from awarding Idris, mind you.
  • The film was completely ignored by the Oscars in all categories.
• Awesome Music: The trailer is set to M83's ambient epic "By the Kiss".
• Complete Monster: Commandant is a commander of a rebel battalion fighting in a civil war in an unnamed African country, and has no qualms about using children to achieve his aims. When Agu, a 12-year-old boy, sees his father and brother killed by government forces, he runs off into the jungle. Commandant finds Agu and forces him to join his battalion, in which he has several Child Soldiers. Commandant puts Agu and other children through harsh training before being allowed on the battlefield; any child who fails this training is killed. Commandant forces Agu to kill an unarmed man to prove his loyalty to the battalion. Later in the film, Commandant rapes Agu; it is heavily implied he has raped other children under his command. When attacking a town, Commandant's battalion commits many atrocities, including mass murder and rape. When the leader of the rebel group demotes Commandant and has his lieutenant promoted as leader of the battalion, Commandant has the lieutenant killed. Commandant then leads his battalion in an attack against the rest of the rebel group, being willing to throw the lives of his men in a pointless suicide mission, just for the sake of his pride.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • It's not the first time Idris Elba leads the rebels as one of their higher officials.
• Moral Event Horizon: Any remote sympathy for the Commandant is lost when he rapes Agu.
• Questionable Casting: While Idris Elba's performance was very well-received, there was some backlash since the film gave the role of Agu to an aspiring West African actor but then went on to just hand the main antagonist role to an established British actor. Some would have preferred an unknown African to get the same chance Abraham Attah received.