Intense film with excellent performances, but not his best

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2017)

Dunkirk: Based on real life events in Dunkirk France in 1940, 300,000 English soldiers were stranded on the beach awaiting help. Meanwhile, the French army (allies) blocks Nazi advancements and both the English and the French soldiers are running out of time and must get out of the beach, or be "sitting ducks".
In terms of story, there's nothing to spoil, really, but in the case you don't like reading up about movies at any cost, well.. there would be some minor spoiler ahead.
Dunkirk is a war movie. But more that that, it is a survival movie. There isn't much plot twist or clever reveals like the typical Nolan film. It is simply about men trying to survive, help, or fight the enemy. It's a short and efficient film (only 78 pages of script). There isn't any excessive blood or gore or blown up body parts, no soldiers praying or crying in vain. There is just surviving and escaping death. And death did not come in the form of evil German soldiers. I mean, fact dictates that the German soldiers were trying to kill them, but you see them as planes, unseen bullets, bombs, torpedoes. You don't actually see an actual German soldier.
That is not to say that this film is not clever. Nolan's storytelling technique is still there with intertwining stories that meshes at the end. With little dialogue, the film expects you to pay attention and understand what is happening without too much exposition.
If you think that Nolan films are sterile or devoid of emotions, in this film the choice is made on purpose. Not because there aren't any emotion, but because the emotions stirred in the audience is not manipulated by actors emoting sadness with tears or using sad music. You feel it as you see the things happening on screen. You worry, you fear, you find hope, lose hope, together with the characters. This is not a melodramatic film trying to make you cry.
This movie was filmed in IMAX and if you're not watching it on IMAX at least watch it in a big screen. Aerial shots looked amazing, especially when your eyes are set on the plane body chasing and shooting down enemy bomber planes.
I saw this in an IMAX cinema, and again the visuals looks amazing, but the score needs a mention. Hans Zimmer is again composing for Nolan, and this time there's no melody that you hum to by the end. But the tension is built by this pulsing music that feels like either bombs falling or loud heartbeats of the soldiers when enemy planes are passing.. honestly I can't quite tell them apart anymore, and also because the bass in my cinema is too loud. The screen actually jittered on loud tones. So the loud sound works well in most cases, but in a few cases the over bearing bass kind of ruined the visuals. However I think on a better calibrated cinema you won't see this happen.
Another note was also the fact that I was looking forward to seeing Harry Styles in this film ðŸ˜† I'm not a particularly big fan of his or One Direction, I just thought he has a good expressive actor face and I wanted to see him in a movie. I expected him to die within two minutes (coz cameo roles work like that) but he got more screen time than I expected and his character reveal is unexpected too.
The main character, well.. the first character we root for anyway, I don't know what his name is but he's beautiful! I mean, his facial features are so prominent and just.. gorgeous. Hope to see this young actor in more movies.
And Tom Hardy as a pilot.... my gosh there was one shot where I could feel everything through his eyes only, at one point he changed his face from comfort to worry, through micro expression of his eyes.....! because the rest of his face was covered with his pilot mask. That's how good he was ðŸ˜±
The other pilot is played by a lad named Jack Lowden, a younger and handsomer version of Simon Pegg ðŸ˜‚ sorry
My only complaint: (MAJOR SPOILER)
it's a bit too nice a bow tied at the end. I guess I was expecting a Saving Private Ryan-sort of film where everybody is dirty and downtrodden and hopeless and dying.
(END SPOILER)
Conclusion: enjoyable movie, thrilling and filled with tension. Not my favourite Nolan film, but a good film nevertheless. Everybody was clapping by the end. 8/10