Strong work from a director at the top of his craft.

Rating: 8/10 (30 July 2017)

Dunkirk is tense, sparse, and unsettling. Nolan makes many interesting choices, starting with the 1 week/1 day/1 hour non-sequential action structure, which is effective and yet disorienting. He creates a film about the fate of hundreds of thousands of men, crowded into a small pocket of land and into tightly-packed ships, that feels open, empty, and nearly deserted. Similarly, a film that conveys a constant sense of danger and dread features actors who remain withdrawn and almost unresponsive in nearly every scene. Mark Rylance unsurprisingly provides a standout performance; Hans Zimmer's score is unsettling and dangerous in perfect parallel with the on screen action, and Hoyte Van Hoytema's cinematography is spare, beautiful, and evocative. Creating such a beautiful yet unsentimental war film is a bold move, and personally I felt a bit less invested in its arc than I might have expected. In this it's almost a counter-argument to Saving Private Ryan. But while I can't say that I fell in love with the film, I definitely recognize the mastery of craft and art, all in service to the director's vision. It's impressive and makes for a quite worthy film.