Yellow Birds ends up being all too nonjudgmental and restricts itself for the most part to little more than immediate emotional realities.

Full Review | Aug 7, 2020

Alden Ehrenreich and Ty Sheridan were both great and the cinematography is stunning.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Mar 13, 2019

Although the cinematography is beautiful and the film has a lot of potential, it's far too slowly paced and doesn't have enough depth for the heavy material it takes on.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 14, 2018

The Yellow Birds doesn't say much of anything outside of the mundane. The trio of young men at its center are compelling enough, but the entire ordeal feels like a mash-up of countless other movies.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 10, 2018

Talent on both sides of the camera can't quite pull together this cerebral, introspective examination of the psychological trauma of military combat.

Full Review | Jul 6, 2018

War is hell and we know that, but The Yellow Birds wants to show how war lingers. That gives The Yellow Birds an emotional edge.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 2, 2018

The Yellow Birds does make the most of a murky river or a smoldering battleground, but there is little depth behind its reliable imagery.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jun 25, 2018

It's received a fair amount of negative response for its allegiance to the cinematic canon, but The Yellow Birds is more than the sum of other films' parts and makes for a worthwhile adventure.

Full Review | Jun 22, 2018

Somehow the film provides a uniquely realistic look at the effects of war while the plot does its best to cloud our view.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jun 21, 2018

As "war is hell" movies go, this one is better than usual.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 15, 2018

War violence, language, shocking moments in mature drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 15, 2018

The story's varied elements of urban combat, back-home recovery and mystery ultimately get away from [director Alexandre] Moors.

Full Review | Jun 15, 2018

Even [the soure material's] boldest and most searing examinations are somehow distilled into safe, inoffensive and palatable antiwar movie fluff.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Jun 15, 2018

A rather dispiriting slog of a movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 15, 2018

"The Yellow Birds" is a difficult film that hammers home its point that war is a living hell that extends far beyond the battlefield.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jun 15, 2018

The familiarity of this story ... certainly doesn't help in combination with Lowery, Porto, and director Alexandre Moors' non-specific approach to the material.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 15, 2018

Making a late appearance in the Iraq War movie cycle, the impressively acted "The Yellow Birds" manages to leave an affecting mark even as it constantly struggles to find a distinctive voice of its own.

Full Review | Jun 14, 2018

Watch it once, and you could come away a little underwhelmed; watch it twice, and you begin to suspect that its almost humdrum rhythms are exactly the point.

Full Review | Jun 14, 2018

Aims to be poetic and insular, but it's not a particularly compelling feature, slogging through the same old sights and sounds without inspiration to be anything more than disappointingly predictable.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jun 14, 2018

What you see and hear will haunt you. Despite all the strong elements, a somber mood is what you will take away.

Full Review | Jun 11, 2018