Review of Last Flag Flying (2017) by Tal G — 08 Apr 2018

A solid Linklater movie.

Linklater really knows how to direct people and how to write conversations. He gets really down to earth and creates something truly believable and organic. The amazing cast was a treat to watch. Brilliant trio. The young marine was also pretty good, and even the military big wig really caught me off guard.

It was a thought provoking and macabre road trip, although at times it was straight up funny despite the heavy subject matters. A really respectful and honest exploration of camaraderie, duty, patriotism, what it means to be a soldier what what it does to you afterwards, as well as a variety of other trailing issues. It was all tackled really well, and managed to show different honest perspectives on these issues. I really enjoyed seeing this dialogue play out. The conversation didn't outright villainize any one side of this conversation as much as you'd think. It was very level headed.

I thought the movie was at its strongest up to about halfway through. The turning point for me was the journey back home on the train with the young marine. After that point on, it felt like the movie lost a bit of its emotional intensity and its brilliance. It was still fine, but something was gone. I suppose one could argue that it wasn't mean to give us another peak after the father got to his son's casket, but I still wish the movie kept building up to something more special. In the end it was as if the movie just fizzled out. Respectably, but still fizzled out.

At its core it was a very competent movie, but there were definitely some rough edges here and there regarding some of the dialogue, some of the scenes and their length. It's small things like that that kept this movie from being truly great.

I still enjoyed what I got, but Linklater still has overall better and more cohesive films than this. This is just to say that Linklater is one hell of a great director if this good movie is still shy of his other projects.

I respect the hell out of this movie and what it conveyed.