THE ONE SHOT TO END ALL OTHER ONE SHOTS...!

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2020)

This year's Best Picture Oscar nominee is a one shot (cuts hidden digitally) journey of a pair of soldiers during WWI trying to get a message to a unit about to engage in an attack which is actually a trap laying in wait. Sam Mendes (Spectre/American Beauty) has co-scripted an ambitious meditation on duty & sacrifice plunging the viewer into the horrors of trench warfare by solely focusing on these 2 comrade in arms (George Mackay, Dean Charles-Chapman) who take on this suicide mission (Chapman's brother is part of the unit they're heading to) when the odds aren't especially great. This visceral quest is felt in almost every frame as the dirt, blood & weirdly flowers engulf the screen making the experience a singular event. Yes one could argue that the sheer propensity of episodes (an enemy plane crash near one of the pair's stops, meeting up w/a French woman caring for an orphaned baby, a sniper attack which needs to be dealt with) may cause some audience members to decry 'come on!' but this may be the most intimate of epics put to screen so relish it while you can. Co-starring some Brit heavy hitters like Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Andrew Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch & Richard Madden.