First of the biggies of the year and it didn't let me down.

Rating: 8/10 (13 June 2020)

I loved the first half. The first half it's calmer than what comes after it. In the first half the dialogue it is solid, it is slow paced, it requires you to put some effort into holding on to it, but it was interesting because Spike knows how to write rich characters, so even though slow I didn't found it boring at the slightest. I liked the way the film is structured. Spike wanted to make something special, and he has made something special, it's just that the way that some scenes are presented in the second half really disappointed me.
The second half, and my problem with the film, it could have been so much better. Some scenes are so naive, they stand out from the overall tone of the film and the worst part yet is that I think that those scenes could have been handled in a better way with so ease, and I'm mad at Spike for not seeing that. I'll put it like this, the first half it has the seriousness of let say Apocalypse Now (minus the eerie tone) and in the second half you find scenes to the level of dullness you would find in a movie like Tropical Thunder. It's not to make such a big deal of, because the film works fine, but I really would have liked for those scenes to have been executed in a different way.
The strongest aspect of the film it's the writing. Here is another proof that Spike is a better writer than he is a director. It felt so comfortable watching this war veterans talk and interact with each other and that's because Spike and his buddies knew how to write them and make everything look natural and organic. Both the score and the songs work perfectly for the tone of the film, they are the best part of the film next to the writing.
This is easily the best film so far this year, even though that's not saying much taking into account the low amount of films that have been released this year so far.