I had just seen Ang Lee‘s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, and “as I walked through Times Square station on my way to the Brooklyn-bound R train, I told a colleague that ‘it’s not an audaciously original, blow-your-socks-off thing but a modestly good film…the material is the material (i.e., Ben Fountain’s 2012 novel), and the delivery is understated and effective. The story, acting and plain-dealing emotion bring things to a mid-level boil. Not so much from the easy-lay observations about hollow patriotism and pageantry and the atmosphere of official delusion but from the general feeling of bonding and, yes, fraternal love between combatants. The transitions between American celebration and Iraqi desperation grow in intensity, and the peripherals recede as the fundamentals apply. Your brothers in arms are all you can count on. I’ve felt this current in dozens of war films before, but it got me again.'” — from my 10.15.16 NYFF review.