HELL AND BACK AGAIN (Danfung Dennis, UK/U.S.). 88 minutes. Rating: NNNN
Winner of two prizes at Sundance, this harrowing study of the human cost of the Afghanistan war plays out in two discrete timelines. In one, a platoon of U.S. Marines clashes with Taliban guerrillas in the other, a few months later, Sgt. Nathan Harris struggles through the gruelling rehabilitation process after he’s shot in an ambush.
Director Danfung Dennis is best known as a war photographer, and he has a terrific eye this is one of the best-looking docs I’ve seen in years. But it’s also emotionally immediate and formally accomplished, with confident transitions between the two time frames that bring us closer and closer to the struggling Harris. It turns out there was somewhere to take the boots-on-the-ground doc after Restrepo and Armadillo after all.
