Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016)

[blurayfriend]

I liked it very much. Ang Lee is operating on just an entirely different level from most other filmmakers, who often go for the lowest common denominator... his films are intellectually challenging and also technically proficient. I can see why it wasn't popular, but I think I got what he was trying to say. There is a kind of ironic correlation between fighting for a war you may not agree with and doing your duty as a soldier, juxtaposed against the utter artificiality of sports games spectacles and useless money-wasting halftime shows. The halftime show was somehow more sickening than anything else in the movie, but we are conditioned to "like" that kind of thing and rail against the realities of war. It was a very complicated message but a very engaging and artistically rewarding movie.