An intense, immersive and thrilling experience.

Rating: 7/10 (22 July 2017)

This is a very different film from the rest of Christopher Nolan's filmography thus far in that it is based on historical events namely the evacuation of Dunkirk in WW2. Nevertheless, he still finds an effective way to use his signature non-linear story structure and here divides it into three time periods; one week, one day and one hour. Each corresponding to the perspectives of land, sea and air respectively.
On land we have two soldiers played by newcomers Fionn Whitehead and Harry Styles along with a whole host of other soldiers trying to escape the beach and moving from ship to ship as they are attacked in doing so. At sea we have three civilians lead by Mark Rylance on a small pleasure boat trying to save as many stranded soldiers as possible. In the air we have two RAF pilots in spitfires played by Tom Hardy and Jack Lowden dog-fighting with German planes.
The technical achievements in this film are astonishing from the stunning cinematography to the brutally realistic sound design to the harrowing score. Hans Zimmer will most definitely be nominated by the Academy for his work here and will most likely win.
Nolan decided to shoot as much of this film in camera as possible and it is very telling given the impressive practical effects present in the film from the real ships to the real RAF spitfires to the real pleasure boats from that era to actually shooting on location in Dunkirk.
The action scenes are incredibly intense and visceral and very well directed. The aerial dogfights are often shown from the viewer's POV making them subjective and immersive. This leads to a thrilling and goose-bump inducing experience throughout.
The actors give fine performances all round despite the fact that none of them have many lines. This film is very much about the event of Dunkirk, which is appropriate given the title, and not so much about individual characters per se. But this is where the film falters for me. There is no emotional anchor. No memorable characters and it is rather jarring.
Other than that, it is a superbly effective survival thriller and I can see it getting an abundance of nominations and wins come awards season.