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‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ Trailer: Ang Lee’s War Drama Pushes The Boundaries Of Cinema To Polarizing New Limits

Ang Lee pushes the boundaries of cinema to new limits in this Oscar-contending war drama/coming-of-age film.
"Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk"
"Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk"

It’s been over three years since Ang Lee won his second Best Director Oscar for the eye-popping 3D adventure “Life Of Pi,” and he returns this year with an even more ambitious project that could very well change the way movies are shot, exhibited and experienced. “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” adapted from the 2012 book by Ben Fountain, follows a 19-year-old private (played by newcomer Joe Alwyn) as he spends the day preparing to appear at the halftime show of a Thanksgiving Day football game. It’s a simple premise, sure, but it’s not the experience you’r expecting, trust us.

READ MORE: ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ from Ang Lee Is a Game Changer

Struggling from PTSD, his horrific wartime experiences continue to haunt him, and Lee brings the viewer into his world with a “hyper-realism” created by shooting in an ultra-high frame rate of 120fps. No filmmaker has ever attempted to utilize this kind of technology. The standard frame rate for movies is 24fps, although Peter Jackson tried out 48fps on his first “The Hobbit” adventure. Critics complained about Jackson’s use of the technology, citing it made the film look like a video game, and reviews out of NYFF aren’t completely sold either.

“The filmmaker’s decision to shoot the entire movie with the ambitious trifecta of 3D, 4k resolution and 120 frames-per-second technology produces hyperreal images out of whack with the routine events that dominate the screen,” wrote IndieWire Chief Film Critic Eric Kohn in his review.

The ensemble of “Billy Lynn” includes Kristen Stewart, Chris Tucker, Steve Martin and Vin Diesel. The war drama opens in theaters November 11. Watch the new official U.S. trailer below, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.

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