Slam-DUNK!

Rating: 9/10 (23 July 2017)

Ingeniously applying his cerebral skill-set to the mechanics of historical war dramas and factual portraitures — Nolan unleashes a meticulously crafted, suffocatingly suspenseful survival epic that bears his patented structural spin on its dirt-covered sleeve. He doesn't follow a set template but creates his own — radically cross-cutting between perspectives of variable time-frames, the narrative unravels simultaneously on land, water and in air, before converging in a breathtakingly volatile finale. The audacious split-narrative works brilliantly and possesses the urgency that would've otherwise been lost to a more conventional approach, instead we get 100 mins of sustained panic-inducing climax which is further intensified by Hans Zimmer's pulsating score resembling a ticking clock and surging tide.
Nolan isn't really concerned with telling a story, preferring to create an experience - and a supremely immersive one at that! Devoid of didactic monologues and cheap sentimentality, thrusting us headlong onto the Dunkirk sands we're given a glimpse into the crack of rifle-fire, the maelstrom of war, the frenzy of fear, the distinctive wailing siren of the Stukas, the muffled screaming of drowning men or the shell-shocked groans of the ones that temporarily made it. The exclusively Brit ensemble (featuring the likes of Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy etc) is uniformly excellent with a particularly impressive turn from newcomer Fionn Whitehead. Technically, DUNKIRK is as much a visual feast as aural bliss. Hoyte Van Hoytema's evocative lensing lends stylistic harmony to the proceedings through careful juxtaposition of nerve-wracking air-combat sequences, chaotic underwater stretches with the panoramic paranoia of the war-torn beach, propelled further by bone shattering sound design and some crisp editing.
Ultimately, DUNKIRK is a masterwork of understated terror grounded in brutal reality and in the very best tradition of great (spectacle) cinema — packs the power to transport the audiences into the very heart of the action, especially when experienced on the all-encompassing IMAX screen.