Backstabbing for Beginners

Name: Backstabbing for Beginners
Genre: Drama, History, Thriller
Released: April 27, 2018
Duration: 108 min
Rating: 48
Cast: Aidan Devine, Belçim Bilgin, Ben Kingsley, Brian Markinson, Daniela Lavender

2018

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Mixed or average reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews

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Mixed or average reviews based on 8 Ratings

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5.0	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 8 Ratings

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Backstabbing For Beginners

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Movie Details & Credits

A24 | Release Date: April 27, 2018 | R

Starring: Aidan Devine, Belçim Bilgin, Ben Kingsley, Brian Markinson, Daniela Lavender, Jacqueline Bisset, Rachel Wilson, Rossif Sutherland, Shauna MacDonald, Theo James

Summary: Based on a true story, an idealistic young employee (Theo James) working at the UN investigates the grisly murder of his predecessor and uncovers a vast global conspiracy, that may even involve his own boss (Ben Kingsley).

Director: Per Fly

Genre(s): Drama, History, Thriller

Rating: R

Runtime: 108 min

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Critic Reviews

Jessica Kiang

Apr 25, 2018

It’s to the film’s credit that it creates a sense of high-stakes peril despite us knowing the rough outcome from the get-go, and largely without simplifying its moral dilemmas into straightforward choices between heroism and villainy. Read full review

Michael Rechtshaffen

Apr 26, 2018

Although James' muted performance comes across as a bit lifeless alongside Kingsley's more colorful, masterfully modulated turn, the characterizations nevertheless allow for satisfyingly complex, real-world renderings of conventional heroes and villains. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Apr 13, 2018

"Backstabbing” makes an interesting run at painting the many shades of grey in this corner of diplomacy. Read full review

Rex Reed

May 1, 2018

There are so many ideas rattling around in Backstabbing for Beginners that are never resolved, and so many duplicitous characters that are never satisfactorily explained, that the end result is a muddle of confusion and violence that could end the future of tourism in Baghdad forever. Read full review

Alan Scherstuhl

Apr 25, 2018

The film is less a distillation of the real Soussan’s memoir than a radical simplification of it. Read full review

Derek Smith

Apr 24, 2018

It fills the screen with a series of explicative conversations set in offices, hotels, and cars throughout which people don’t so much talk to each other as indirectly to the audience. Read full review

Chandler Levack

May 3, 2018

Poor genre efforts like Backstabbing for Beginners hurt cinema’s chance to survive and thrive as the greatest medium for storytelling. Read full review

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User Reviews

JLuis_001

Aug 15, 2018

Inert is the most appropriate word for this drama that tries too hard to charge towards the suspense but fails as a result of the cliches that abound in the plot.

Ben Kingsley doesn't even try and is more than enough. Theo James still has a long way to go if he will continue in this game.

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