Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
TriStar Pictures | Release Date: November 11, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
27
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenNov 17, 2016
The acting and script are so strong that the picture is an outstanding achievement even in the 2D version that most people will see. Read full review
80
VarietyOwen GleibermanOct 15, 2016
There’s a grand paradox at work in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. The film isn’t simply a technological experiment; it’s also a highly original, heartfelt, and engrossing story. And part of the power of it lies in the way that those two things are connected. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 17, 2016
Taking place mostly over the course of a single day, it’s a smart and languorous film that finds time to luxuriate in conversations and to create a feeling for small-town American life. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerNov 9, 2016
This is an uncharacteristically unsubtle work from Lee — yet in the end, it’s not ineffective. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 17, 2016
It’s an interesting film, no question. But too much of the message gets lost in the medium. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 10, 2016
The satire may be a little too gentle, but there is something disarmingly tender about the way Mr. Lee dramatizes young Billy’s predicament. You may be surprised at how sweet this movie is and also, in retrospect, startled by how bleak its vision turns out to be. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyOct 15, 2016
An absorbing character study, even if it's ultimately not one that justifies its much-vaunted technological advances. Read full review
67
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonNov 27, 2016
No Iraq movie has better captured our country’s nationalistic nonsense, and the inner chaos of the men and women returning home to this noise. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 11, 2016
This is a technological breakthrough, all right, but a breakthrough to what? Read full review
67
The Film StageDan MeccaOct 18, 2016
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, proves both messy and inspiring. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnOct 15, 2016
So long as “Billy Lynn” remains focused on his ambiguous mindset, it remains an engaging, somewhat theatrical character study. But Lee’s ongoing need to complicate his approach yields a movie trapped between conventional narrative tropes and questionable attempts to deliver something that registers on a more visceral level. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 10, 2016
The film's technical achievements are indisputable (a military salute to camera wiz John Toll). But Billy Lynn comes off as artificial when we most need it to be natural, organic and whisper-close. Maybe there's a future film that will use size and sharpness to express an epic and intimate truth. Not this time. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayOct 17, 2016
It does astounding work animating the mind of its young soldier, but it runs into technical difficulties whenever it tries to grasp the bigger picture. Read full review
60
EmpireIan NathanFeb 9, 2017
A flawed work held together by Alwyn’s tender presence. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoNov 12, 2016
Ang Lee’s depiction of life after war (or on leave) is a respectful one not without derivative roadbumps, but honest in appeal. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangNov 10, 2016
The sharp satirical edge that earned Fountain’s novel comparisons to “Catch-22” feels duller and more sluggish on the screen as Lee strains to weave his story’s dissonant tones and subplots...into a movie that works as both a compelling psychological portrait and an astute political argument. Read full review
60
Screen DailyDavid D'ArcyOct 16, 2016
It’s a radiant debut for young newcomer Joe Alwyn, who plays a Texan war hero uneasy in his own land. It’s a shakier curtain-raising for Lee’s ambitious weaponising of new technologies. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 17, 2016
It's just another example of technology intruding upon storytelling, that's been happening since kinetoscopes cranked one frame at a time. Read full review
58
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezOct 15, 2016
Billy Lynn has its moments, but its critical and unexpected folly is that the cutting-edge technology diminishes the picture emotionally, its ungainly look trivializes the drama and indulges it with an undesirable air of superficiality. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 23, 2016
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is a hobbled parade. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 22, 2016
Plays more like a sermon than cinema, a sermon delivered by uninspired preachers. And everybody knows America gave up sermons and thinking about Big Questions on Sundays for football and mindless entertainment decades ago. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorNov 17, 2016
As a 21st-century account of the soldier’s enduring alienation from the home front, Billy Lynn is highly effective. It’s what surrounds that account that doesn’t work. Read full review
50
Village VoiceBilge EbiriNov 17, 2016
In 120 frames a second, both Alwyn and Stewart came off as hopelessly stilted; at 24 frames, they breathe with life. But lose the flicker, and you lose the spell. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephanie MerryNov 17, 2016
The film’s subtly observed moments are more powerful than any of its technical wizardry. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonNov 17, 2016
This halftime walk is more like a long slog. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniNov 17, 2016
Like Clint Eastwood’s masterful 2006 WWII drama "Flags of Our Fathers," Lee’s film is as much about how we spin war stories as it is about war itself. Both involve a group of heroic soldiers sent home by the Pentagon to help drum up popular support. Both are made by filmmakers keenly aware that stories have the power to justify a war or turn the public against it. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 17, 2016
Directing the film version, Lee gets lost in the grotesque pomp of the halftime spectacle and its lead-up. He gets fine performances from the actors playing the soldiers and a terrible one from Stewart, who flails her arms like an amateur. Martin’s role is beneath his talents, while Vin Diesel’s, as a Zen warrior of a sergeant, is almost beyond belief. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 17, 2016
An interesting misfire. It's also the victim of lousy timing. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezNov 16, 2016
In his debut, Alwyn comes off as a likable, sympathetic screen presence capable of handling more difficult material. He’ll have plenty more opportunities. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, though, will be forgotten in a month’s time. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 14, 2016
The main problem with Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is superficial, literally. Lee has opted for the rare 120-frames-per-second format, allegedly because he thought it would deepen our connection to the characters. He thought wrong. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireNov 11, 2016
Ang Lee is a great director whose last film, the Oscar-winning “Life of Pi,” made ingenious and very effective use of 3D technology. But that film had a much better story than Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernNov 10, 2016
The weirdest and rarest misfire in Lee’s illustrious career. Read full review
42
ConsequenceNina CorcoranOct 17, 2016
Don’t let Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk‘s technical achievements carry the full weight of its errors. The plot and its poor execution leave the camerawork struggling to find much to dazzle with. Read full review
40
TimeStephanie ZacharekNov 16, 2016
Everything in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk should work — and yet the picture falls flat. It’s a story enslaved by a director’s approach rather than served by it. His mannered placement of the camera is hard to ignore, and the actors suffer for it. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Nov 9, 2016
Real films breathe, alive with imperfections, accidents, with everything that Lee's worked so carefully to guard against. Billy Lynn's Long Half Time Walk is long, all right, but only half-alive — as careful as a diagram, as chilly as a statue. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 8, 2016
Irony can’t survive in Lee’s airless vacuum; he’s not an experimenter at heart, and as a result, his movie feels heartless. Read full review
40
SlateDaniel EngberOct 20, 2016
It just looks and feels too different from every other movie we’ve seen in the multiplex. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyOct 17, 2016
The movie gives us fragments of characters and rich flashbacks, but they’re not supported by a fully-formed narrative. Lee has boldly introduced a new technology, but that technology was a bad fit for this project. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeOct 15, 2016
It’s just a film that never really finds its footing, a problem that would have been noticeable with or without the increased frame rate. It’s just that at 120 frames a second, it’s so much more noticeable. Read full review
40
TheWrapDan CallahanOct 15, 2016
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk winds up being a wearying experience, not because of its emotional content but because of its lack of cohesion and its ultimate collapse into gross and unearned sentimentality. Read full review
38
USA TodayBrian TruittNov 10, 2016
A disappointing effort from a master filmmaker, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk trips in all the wrong places. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithNov 10, 2016
Dramatically inert, satirically inept and thematically insufferable, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is the most disappointing film of the year. Read full review
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