Directing: B+
Acting: A-
Writing: B+
Cinematography: B
Editing: B+

Here is a movie I would not normally respond to, and to be honest, I have mixed feelings about how well I did respond to it. It works quite well as a movie for someone with zero background and nearly zero knowledge of military culture and protocol; I can't help but wonder how actual veterans I know would respond to it. How authentic is it, really, I wonder? I literally have no idea. It seems important to admit that up front. This is the kind of detail that can make or break a movie for people who have gone through the same kinds of things these guys went through.

That said, Last Flag Flying -- with its annoyingly tongue-twisty title -- may be a pretty male-centric movie, of which there is still no shortage, but when it comes to male relationships, and particularly friendship and loyalty among straight men, it really stands out. I'm a gay man who exists worlds apart from any character in this movie, and still I responded to it. This movie made me laugh, I cried just a little bit, it moved me.

The key there is Richard Linklater, the brilliant director and writer behind such films as Boyhood and Before Midnight. His name alone is what, like me, might attract viewers to a story like this when it could have been easily overlooked as a film by most other directors. Linklater has a knack for getting to the heart of characters; he specializes in dialogue, and doesn't distract with pointless action or snappy editing.

And the three main characters in Last Flag Flying are multi-dimensional, fully formed -- I may not know how authentic all the military content is, but these three certainly come across as authentic people. Steve Carell continues his work as an underrated actor of subtle precision as Larry "Doc" Shepherd, the Vietnam veteran whose son has just died in Iraq just two days before the story begins.

Doc finds two Vietnam War-era buddies not seen in decades, guys who could not be more different from him or from each other, but who were all bonded by the experience of serving in the war. Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston, only slightly over-the-top in obnoxiousness) is an alcoholic owner of a run-down bar; Reverend Richard Mueller (Lawrence Fishburne, suitably dignified most of the time) is now sober and working as the pastor of a church. Doc, recently widowed only months before the death of his son, is quiet and somber in his grief. His way to deal with it is to look up Sal and Richard and go to them to ask that they come with him to pick up his son's body.

Linklater infuses a surprising amount of humor into this otherwise downer of a story, which happens organically and is a welcome element. All three of these men come across as flawed people simply doing the best with what they have to work with.

The setting is 2003, giving Linklater a chance to draw plenty of comparisons between the pointlessness and wastefulness of both the Vietnam and the Iraq Wars. This plays pretty well and never feels too forced; however, he does rely a little too heavily on the supposed newfangled-ness of things like The Internet and mobile phones. 2003 may have been fourteen years ago, but these things had been pretty common for several years even then. It could be argued, perhaps, that the perceptions of much older men at the time changes things -- but one would think even someone their age in 2003 would not have been that surprised that they could be tracked down using the Internet.

So: Last Flag Flying lacks the seamlessness of some of Richard Linklater's other more recent output, but it's far from fatally flawed. This is a movie really worth a look, and I'm saying this as someone who typically has zero interest in a movie like this. The actors truly sell their characters, and make for a couple of hours with them very well spent.

*This movie is way more fun than this photo makes it look, I swear!*

Overall: B+