Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  5 / 10

  Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk boasts impressive technical direction but suffers from dullness. It's sad to say, in my opinion, this was a misfire from Ang Lee. He is one of my favourite directors when it comes to metaphorical storytelling. So it's a real shame that this had none of that and instead was a boring pointless war drama. Billy Lynn returns home with the rest of his squad after a courageous attempt at rescuing a fallen comrade in war. Now made famous, him and his team look for support by his seemingly patriotic country. But really what it comes down to is money. Film rights, headlines, halftime shows...just people exploiting heroism for greed. Aside from that aspect, everything about this narrative has been told before and far better executed. Technically, Ang Lee's masterful touch enhances the psychological perspective of Billy Lynn. The heightened frame rate, direct address to the camera, muting background noise. We view the story from his perspective, and that also includes the flashback montages of the battle scenes. They are explosive and intense, problem is it's far too minimal. The focus is purely on this Halftime show at a Texas football match, to which I just was not interested. Only two moments caught my intrigue. Firstly: "oh my god, is that Chris Tucker? I miss him in films!". Secondly: "no way! Is that Steve Martin!? Please let him say "Blueeee Monkehhh"...please!". The rest of the cast were standard, monotonous and had no real impact. The script was tediously dull. The pacing was extortionately slow. The biggest gripe though? That was not the real Destiny's Child! I feel cheated. Ang Lee can do much better, not sure why he wanted to do this but he was not the right director. Just another post-war drama that struggles to highlight the psychological effects of conflict.

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