Wow. Double wow. Thrice wow. La La Land, The Handmaiden, and now Dunkirk, the third great film I’ve seen at the cinema this year (and I’ve seen a lot). Great with a capital G. This is like the summation of all Christopher Nolan’s films to date, combining both style and substance, the epic and the intimate. And the SOUND, the sound is astonishing (I saw it at the IMAX), not just the sounds of war but also Hans Zimmer’s score which is relentless and acts as counterpoint to the images. My overall impression of the film is its impressionism (couldn’t resist that), a collage of sights and sounds with cross-cutting between different locations and continuing Nolan’s interest in playing with time. It doesn’t have the visceral realism of Saving Private Ryan but instead it has a heightened intensity and kind of hyper-realism. This is Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece so far, the film in which he reaches the pantheon of great film-makers.
Anf finally, it’s so good to see a film that doesn’t go on too long (it’s under two hours), much like the brevity of my review.