Causeway

Lynsey is a U.S. soldier who comes home to New Orleans after a bomb in Afghanistan hurts her brain. Simple tasks are hard. She wants to get well and go back to the army. She meets James, a local mechanic who is also hurt and grieving. The film is quiet and sad, and it focuses on their careful friendship.

The clearest identity note is that Lynsey is a lesbian. She says so out loud when a man at a bar hits on her and when she sets clear lines with James. That detail is easy to notice, but the movie does not turn into a story about coming out, pride, or anti-gay hate. The big story is trauma, family strain, guilt, and two broken people helping each other heal. Lynsey is a woman veteran and James is a black man with a missing leg, and their bond sits at the center. There is little activist speech or anti-America lecturing. Some queer writers called it a queer military movie; many viewers still saw it mainly as a soft drama about recovery.