Billy Lynn’s Half-Ass Walk
The only format that would make Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk good would be 0 frames per second. What a total crap fest and shocking embarrassment for Ang Lee, who previously used innovation brilliantly in Life of Pi. But his latest film, which he shot in 3-D and 120 fps, is almost a total failure of acting, writing, pacing and editing. I give the version I saw (in 2-D and 24 fps) just 1 star (on my 0-5 scale). Perhaps the 120fps, 3-D version might hold some interest, but if we’ve learned anything about technological innovations throughout the history of cinema, it’s that whether you’re introducing sound, color, camera movement, new aspect ratios or CGI, you must still focus on the fundamentals of storytelling and filmmaking.