Dunkirk

While Dunkirk is different from every other Christopher Nolan film, it also somehow manages to include many Christopher Nolan tropes that make his films special. although the film includes the same usual cast (minus Michael Caine), and includes a similar visual style, the structure and story of Dunkirk is what sets it apart. In some ways, this is good for Nolan, however, in a few more ways, it doesn’t. As a start, it is important to point out a flaw with the characters in this film. It suffers the exact same problem that I faced with the Dark Knight Rises, Nolan can’t seem to be able to pick one protagonist. This could have worked if it was done in a similar way as Pulp Fiction, telling multiple short stories that are non-linear, but all build into one storyline. On the other hand, Nolan decided to do a similar method, but to do it linearly. This makes it so we, as the audience, don’t spend much time on one single character at one time. Although each scenario is different, both visually and structurally, it would have been nice to learn more about each of these characters, and why everything in the movie is so important. Everything just seems incredibly thrown together, and the timeline just doesn’t quite fit. There are certain things that feel real in terms of time, for example, following the small British boat throughout the movie made the journey feel long, drawn out. However, there are other cases in which the timeline doesn’t work at all, especially all of the soldiers on the beach. Every scene on the beach seems to just be more or less the same thing. There was a lot of room to build upon the importance of each troop on the beach, but the film mostly threw that away to value the overall entertainment more. Which, on that note, I should mention some of the good things about this movie, because it isn’t all bad. As I said, the movie is a very engaging and entertaining watch. Although the timeline doesn’t feel right, the way it is told keeps the tension of the film rising every second. This is accompanied by Hans Zimmer’s brilliant score, using an auditory illusion to constantly build. The way the film looks is also a brilliant take, a usual Nolan staple. So, while there are things in Dunkirk I would prefer a different way, the entertainment value, visual style, and decent performances by the cast make it at the very least worth watching. 7.9/10