Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

Director Ang Lee has always enjoyed hopping across genres and taking weird left turns, but Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is as confusing a career pivot as 2009’s Taking Woodstock, and nearly as minor a film. First-timer Joe Alwyn stars as Billy Lynn, a fresh-faced Iraq War veteran whose caught-on-camera act of heroism becomes a nationwide sensation, even as he struggles with the first stages of PTSD. While an agent (Chris Tucker) tries to sell their movie rights to Hollywood, Billy and his fellow soldiers (including Garrett Hedlund, giving the best performance) are dubiously “honored” by a Dallas Cowboys-like team run by a Jerry Jones-like tyrant (Steve Martin) during the 2004 Thanksgiving Day game. It’s all as well-mounted and temperate as you would expect from Lee, but I can’t fathom why he thought this material was worth his time, as all the fuss adds up to war bad, soldiers good. D.B.