the centre of all the fuss is 19-year-old Billy Lynn (Joe Alwyn). He only signed up for the army after getting in a scrape that involved his sister’s ex-boyfriend. However, in Iraq, he was filmed trying to rescue a fallen comrade and fighting at close quarters with enemy insurgents. He is regarded as an all-American hero but is clearly still traumatised by the events that made him famous. As he puts it at one stage, “It is sort of weird being honoured for the worst day of your life.”

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk - Trailer

The film is based on Ben Fountain’s novel of the same name. Lee provides a cinematic equivalent to the stream of consciousness narrative style of modernist novels. Billy is continually reminded by the flaresand noise at the American football match of events he witnessed in Iraq. Thanks to his training, he is hyper-observant – and the high frame rate ensures that we notice everything that is going on in the background too.

For all his flitting between genres and storytelling styles over his career, Lee has always been a superb director of actors. Here, under his coaxing, the cast members playing the young soldiers all manage to capture the contradictions in their characters. On the one hand, they’re macho, trash-talking jocks, out to seduce the cheerleaders, drink as much free booze as possible and enjoy the spotlight.

On the other, they’re young, vulnerable, probably suffering from PTSD, and all are painfully aware that once the media’s attention turns elsewhere, they will quickly be