Da 5 Bloods

Four ageing Vietnam veterans return to the country looking for two things: the remains of Stormin' Norman, their fallen squad leader, and the gold they buried during the war. Spike Lee directed. It began as a spec script, which Lee rewrote around the Black experience of the war and tied to the present argument about racial justice. Chadwick Boseman plays Stormin' Norman. It was the last of his films released during his lifetime. Delroy Lindo stands at the centre as Paul, and that is where the critical argument came from. Richard Roeper called him an instant contender for best actor; several critics' circles gave him awards and the Oscar nomination never came. Lee used four different aspect ratios: 1.33:1 on 16mm for the sixties flashbacks, for a newsreel feel; 2.39:1 for the modern city; 1.85:1 for the jungle. The decisive choice is that no de-ageing was used in the flashbacks, so the actors play their younger selves with today's faces, showing men still trapped in their wartime memory. Netflix released it on 12 June 2020 and it was the platform's most-watched title that opening weekend. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 92 percent and the National Board of Review named it the best film of 2020. Who it is for: viewers who like Lee's political register and stories of reckoning after a war. Who it is not for: anyone expecting one tone across two and a half hours. It moves from treasure hunt to documentary to tragedy without warning.