Sand Castle

Iraq during the fall of Saddam in 2003 is the setting for this Netflix war drama from director Fernando Coimbra (Narcos). Nicholas Hoult is convincingly fresh-faced as college boy-turned-reluctant recruit Matt Ocre, who survives the taking of Baghdad, only to be posted with his testosterone-filled buddies to repair a bombed-out water station crucial to the desert town of Baqubah. But the seemingly simple task of winning over the hearts and minds of locals is swiftly undermined by a lack of co-operation and brutal intervention from those on either side of the Sunni/Shia divide. Logan Marshall-Green gives solid support as Ocre's protective sergeant, whereas Henry Cavill (in a virtual cameo role) shows off little else but his Man of Steel physique as a could-care-less captain. Scriptwriter (and Iraq War veteran) Chris Roessner has fashioned a watchable slice-of-strife snapshot of an often bewildering conflict far, far away, but as a profound, visceral grunt's-eye view of war, it's not quite in the class of Platoon or The Hurt Locker.