By Roger Costa
Award-winning director Ang Lee has always been a visionary master of filmmaking, and he continues to surprise audiences with his crafted choices and engagement to new technology. His latest project is an epic journey of imagery design and sound and effects that proves his talented determination to create spectacle cinema: a contagiously blend of American pop culture ready to enchant audiences with its glamorous and exhilarating visual splendor.
Based on the acclaimed novel by Ben Fountain, it follows a young soldier overwhelmed with his welcoming war hero status, director Lee gives exactly what audience likes the most: being seduced with an intriguing and compassionate story told through the freshness of the latest and highest technology available for cinema. As he returns home, Private Lynn (Joe Alwyn) is faced with a moral dilemma exposed by his ill sister (Kristen Stewart), and he will examine it, as well as other topics of his life, and the period he spent fighting in war while attending the Thanksgiving All-Star Football Game where he and his colleagues, called the Bravo Squad, will participate on the half-time musical show being honored as heroes. The amazingly sharp editing cuts back and forth to exciting and bloody war zone battles, as Lynn tries to figure out his future, falls in love for a Christian cheerleader, gets into lots of trouble and fights alongside his lunatics buddies and is continuously pressured by his Captain (a hillarious rude Garrett Hedlund), the media, the fans and an upsetting movie deal.
On the same fantastical field, so much explored by Spielberg and Zemeckys, but on a different level of audacity and artistry, Ang Lee is a wonderful creator of fantasy. He digs deeply in every element of the narrative- the war, the family gathering, faith, gratitude, the sparkle between the lovebirds, the thrill on the arena, the running around- exploring the new technology with the enchantment of a child playing with a toy for the first time. This magical chemistry appears throughout the film, especially when Lynn is carefully watching his love interest dancing on the field, and oh yes, the Halftime show, just utterly exuberant and hypnotically magnificent. The result reminds us the kind of experience we always expect from a movie: to take us somewhere else through its expansiveness and creativeness. Ang Lee created a festive, celebratory instant American classic, lovable and fashionably well produced, funny, touching and realistic to the point of depicting situations both pro and against war. An adventurous accomplishment, BILLY LYNN is the not-to-be-missed feel good movie of the Holiday. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
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