Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016), R, ★★

Joe Alwyn as Billy Lynn. 

Ang Lee is one of the most versatile directors in the Hollywood industry. He's engaged in different films in different genres that edifies us into different subjects or entertaining and majestic artistry. In Sense & Sensibility, a movie that I liked but do not love as much as many, we see the journey of sisters going through financial strain in the late 1700s. In The Ice Storm, we witness different characters go through the exploration of politics, alcoholism, adultery and sexual orientation in the early 1970s. In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, we saw martial arts in the Qing Dynasty that has never been attempted before and it was awesome. In Brokeback Mountain, he explored an isolated but secretive, gay male relationship in the 1950s which the subject had not existed. And, in Life of Pi, we are on board with an Indian man with a tiger stranded in the Pacific Ocean. We explore the mind of a soldier coming back from a tour from an Iraq battle. Even though there are good ideas and somewhere along the line a heartfelt message, the movie is poorly executed with not much coherence and its visual display is too distracting for the material and does not justify the story.

Billy Lynn (Joe Alwyn) is on a Thanksgiving promotional tour with most of the squad, notably Sgt. David Dime (Garrett Hedlund) and Crack (Beau Knapp). They have been going on tour with their producer, Albert Brown (Chris Tucker). Albert says that he is in the middle of a movie deal that he is negotiating a deal to make a movie based on their heroics. The reason he was on tour was because his sister, Kathryn (Kristen Stewart), was hurt in a car accident and her fiancé dumped her, causing Billy to destroy her ex-fiancé's car and chase after him with an iron tire. He joined so the charges would be dropped.

The squad arrives at the football stadium for their show as a number of fans show their appreciation and gratitude for the soldiers for serving their country. They sit for a press conference and Billy spots one of the cheerleaders, Faison (Makenzie Leigh). Faison and Billy have a conversation and have optimism for each other before they go make love. The movie alternates with the present and the Iraq War as we witness how Billy is dealing with the past in his mind as he may be suffering with PTSD.

Billy Lynn with Steve Martin. 

This movie is artificially made because the editing is odd and its narrative is lost when Lee has a good idea and a good heart in the right place. Instead, he focuses on the thematic messages of courage and camaraderie, which was the best part of the message as we see Billy Lynn and his comrades get along with one another on the battlefield and during the football game. However, the story is lost as it is mostly focused on his PTSD as a filmmaking style and does not insert much substance as to why he is suffering or how he is coping with the aftermath. It is mostly in close-ups and flashbacks that allows itself to tell the story more than let the characters express it themselves like in American Sniper, where it did a much better job of displaying that mental disorder.

I thought Joe Alwyn gave a superb performance and I hope that gets more work off of this movie because he has a natural presence on-screen. Kristen Stewart, again, gives another solid performance as a sister who is struggling with her life a little bit but her character is a bit underwritten. There are some small performances from Chris Tucker, Steve Martin, Garrett Hedlund, Vin Diesel and Tim Blake Nelson are noticeable at best but bring more star-power into this vehicle mainly for promotion but they do a good job in this movie.

This is a rare miss for Ang Lee because he captures more natural and human stories balancing with the visual artistry and he is one of the gifted directors out there. However, there are more natural and human themes and vignettes than a story that mainly engage us for a few moments but that take us out with experimental filmmaking that does not allow us to absorb the stuff that Billy Lynn is going through. I mean, there is a grim family drama but does not take off. There is a war movie which is fine and not as fully developed. And, the movie deal subplot does not quite work. This movie is a narrative mess because it mostly focuses on emotion and style rather than complete and human storytelling. This movie is a disappointment.

**