This is How Movies Should Be Made

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

E-Team is a documentary about workers for Human Rights Watch who travel to go hands on to investigate abuses and atrocities of governments inside the countries of Syria and Libya (and in the past Bosnia) and report back to the world what they have seen. There are a number people who undertake work who we see at various stages in the process, highlighting of course the most important and potentially dangerous on-the-ground interviews and collection of data. One of the people featured, Anna Neistat, the only woman of those of the four or five major character we follow, gets clearly the most presence in the film (with her being from Russia a factor given how it's Russian president Putin as the biggest backer of Syrian dictator Assad), but if anyone was to be a central kind of character it was good it was her, and generally we get to see the other rights workers in the different facets of what they're doing, both presently and a little about what they've done in the past.Do not expect an in depth documentary about any of these brutal and often complex overseas crises. You see snippets about what's going on, but it gives far from a clear picture. The point isn't these events in themselves but how an organization may go about trying to piece together potential criminal violations within them so they can disseminate that information. On that latter basis it's a very well done, if not perfect, documentary.One thing however I must say, though it's not a major blot on the film, is how it's sort of a missed opportunity. The wars they show here have been huge stories that have gotten much media attention. HRW has been involved all over the world, and the film could have given some welcomed attention to a place that hasn't gotten as much coverage: South Sudan or The Congo for instance. However that doesn't take away anything that is done well, and it's well worth checking out for anyone who believes ruthless dictators and war criminals need to someway and somehow be held accountable for their actions. It's about pessimism and also hope for a more just world.

When atrocities are committed in countries held hostage by ruthless dictators, Human Rights Watch sends in the E-Team (Emergencies Team), a collection of fiercely intelligent individuals hired to document war crimes and report them to the rest of the world.Many people, perhaps even most people, have heard of Human Rights Watch, but few probably know what they do. You might think they just compile data and report on violations of human rights. That would be partially right. They also go into the danger zones that few others would go to, and actually see the shallow graves left behind from nasty dictators.Although not perfect, this documentary really opens up the inner workings of Human Rights Watch, and puts a light on Assad that seems to be lacking. (Ever since the rise of the Islamic State, Assad is no longer the biggest bad guy of the Middle East.) He is no saint, and this shows us that.