Da 5 Bloods Review

Lee's Vietnam film is four movies stacked on top of each other, and the seams are deliberate. Four veterans return to find a fallen squad leader's remains and a crate of gold, which gives Lee a treasure hunt to hang archival footage, direct address, aspect ratio changes and a genuine history lesson on. The boldest choice is the flashbacks: the older actors play their younger selves with no de-aging at all, in grainy 16mm and boxed framing, so memory looks like exactly what it is.

Delroy Lindo is the reason to watch. Paul is paranoid, grief-poisoned and permanently braced for betrayal, and his monologue delivered straight to camera in the jungle is the best acting in any American film of the year, and it is not close. Chadwick Boseman plays Norman as a myth the others need rather than as a character, which is the right call. The third act turns into a firefight and loses some of the argument in the noise, and across two and a half hours the tonal swings do wear. A messy, angry, generous film, and the mess is the point.