Brilliant... but not in everything

Rating: 7/10 (3 August 2018)

Christopher Nolan was one of my favorite directors, I can say that my love for films got stronger with one of his films: "Inception" (2010). I was fascinated with that movie, I knew I hadn't seen something like that in my life so then I thought Nolan was one of the best directors of current cinema. Then I realized that I had seen another Nolan film, and it was another one with I was fascinated, based on my favorite superhero: Batman. The movie was "The Dark Knight" (2008). Knowing this I started to see his other films and I think the two movies that I mentioned along with "Interstellar" (2014) and one of his first ones "Memento" (2000) are the best of his filmography. Now he made "Dunkirk" and in my opinion this film represents how much he has learned when making movies but also how much he has to learn.
I mentioned my best films from Nolan and my personal experience with these because many people actually think that Christopher Nolan is the best director of our times... but I don't blame them, not because they are right but because the current crisis in cinema has made them think like that, I explain. The movie theaters of today are full (We could also say INFECTED) of superhero movies; the whole universe of Marvel and the recent, and bad, universe of DC dominate cinema listings of every year. Now, the people who see this superhero movies go to see "the best superhero movie" that is "The Dark Knight" (2008) directed by Nolan and then they go to see his other films and so they begin to idolize him, like a Messiah.
I admit that something similar happened to me but it wasn't because of the superhero movies, I "fell in love" with his movies with "Inception", in 2010, when Marvel had only premiered three films, I went to see "Transcendence" (Wally Pfister, 2014) because Nolan was the producer and in that year I had great expectation for "Interstellar", I went to see this film and the movie theater was empty but three years later I see "Dunkirk" and it was full as if it were a superhero movie and it seems like everyone liked it but I think there are some aspects in which Nolan fails and I will analyze this.
There's something I criticized from Nolan after seen "Dunkirk" and is that he is too true to his "style" and when I heard he was going to do a war film I expected him to do a different movie and in this point is were I was very disappointed. The aspect is the management of time in the film. It's totally unnecessary and he does it just to brag, to show off he can do a complicated movie, something we already knew after see "Inception" and "Interstellar" and also "The Prestige" (2006). The use of time in "Dunkirk" with his different stories told in a disorderly way doesn't have any narrative function or even cinematographic, is use only as an visual effect. You also get confused sometimes, no matter how intelligent you are. The concepts of time in films studied in the 20's by the russians are misused by Nolan.
The other aspect that is a little wrong are the characters, maybe we could say that as is a war movie it doesn't about a person or a group of persons but of a "situation", an historic event: the evacuation from Dunkirk. But sadly Nolan tries that you feel empathy for some characters and you don't, because they are bad developed for that.
Maybe the movie would be perfect for me without those aspects because except for these everything is incredible, the sound, the cinematography of Hoyte Van Hoytema, the music of Hans Zimmer, all the technical aspects are amazing as Nolan does it always, a very well cared production. The use of silence and no so much dialogue help to create a great experience of suspense and tension.
Despite the problems it has is a very good movie that of course it worth to see. For me, is maybe the best movie of Nolan filmography behind "The Dark Knight" and maybe "Inception" and shows us that Nolan has learned a lot, his strong is how to tell a story, now he has to learn how to put aside his style and dazzle us with pure cinematographic art.