Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016)
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Review #1,370 |
THE SCOOP
Director: Lee Ang
Cast: Joe Alwyn, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Steve Martin, Chris Tucker, Vin Diesel
Plot: 19-year-old Billy Lynn is brought home for a victory tour after a harrowing Iraq battle. Through flashbacks the film shows what really happened to his squad - contrasting the realities of war with America's perceptions.
Genre: Drama / War
Awards: -
Runtime: 110min
Rating: M18 for language throughout, some war violence, sexual content, and brief drug use.
Distributor: Sony Pictures
IN RETROSPECT (Spoilers: NO)
“Your
story Billy, no longer belongs to you. It's
America story now.”
Meant to be a showcase of the technological
breakthrough that is the 120 frames-per-second 3D projection for both
eyes, Lee Ang's latest work may have been gimmicky and distracting to some audiences,
though others have proclaimed it to be a bold step forward for cinema.
The film has largely received average reviews,
with many critics lamenting its paper-thin characters and weak script, but a
little bit more digging may reveal if these critics saw it in high frame rate
or normal 3D, or standard 2D. I caught
it in no-frills 2D, and I think I saw a different movie. It is a pretty decent film, highly refreshing
in its treatment of war, psychology and spectacle, and certainly an experience
that works the senses.
Billy Lynn, played by newcomer Joe Alwyn in an
assured performance, is a war hero after preventing the capture of his sergeant
by insurgents in the heat of the battlefield.
The act was captured on camera, and later, reported in the news, bringing
the realities of the Iraq war closer to the American public.
Back temporarily in the States, his ‘Bravo’
comrades and himself are honoured and made to perform as extras in Destiny
Child’s halftime gig at the Super Bowl. The
ignominy of being part of a rapturous celebration, and especially for Billy,
who is still haunted by the trauma of war, opens a psychological wound to which
Lee tries to express cinematically.
Featuring some of the most stunning sound work
this year, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime
Walk has two big set-pieces designed to be spectacular—the aforementioned
Super Bowl performance and the skirmish in Iraq. Lee uses sounds and ample flashbacks to bring
this psychological wound to life, often intercutting scenes of the Super Bowl
with Iraq. While this can be
disorienting and such a technique does add some clunkiness to the storytelling,
the film comes across as unusually stimulating as it tackles the essence of a
character study without resorting to tried-and-tested conventions.
The title of the movie not only refers to
Billy’s Super Bowl walk, but more tellingly, of his contemplation and
ambivalence toward wanting to trust his sister (Kristen Stewart), his emotional
support at home who insists on him getting a honourable discharge from the
army, or his ‘brothers’ whom he has grown to love. The whole film essentially tries to grasp his
conflicted psyche, presented by Lee as a confluence of the inwardly
hallucinatory and the outwardly sensorial.
Not quite one of the director’s most
accomplished or coherent works, but Billy
Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is not the major blip that most critics have made
it out to be. It’s in my books a
consistent follow-up to Life of Pi (2012),
but go judge it for yourself.
Verdict: Not quite one of Lee Ang's most accomplished
or coherent works, but it is certainly refreshing in its treatment of war,
psychology and spectacle.
GRADE: B+
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