The Kill Team (2019)

(On Cable TV, June 2020) Young men in wars have the potential to perform horrifying actions, and it’s not because they are on “our” side that they’re necessarily virtuous. The Kill Team goes back to a true story of the Afghanistan War, circa 2009, to have a credible look at ethics and violence in wartime. It’s a war movie that mulls on the freedom given to very young soldiers to kill and be rewarded for it. Nat Wolff stars as a young soldier who grows a conscience when a senior officer (Alexander Skarsgård, in the film’s standout performance) starts framing civilians with deadly results. The Kill Team is absolutely not a feel-good war-is-an-adventure kind of film—it’s a look at bad options when teammates single out someone with moral scruples, when authority itself is corrupt and culture doesn’t lend itself to ethical choices. As such, it’s a respectable film that isn’t particularly good—and its very glum subject matter makes it less than entertaining by design.