Dunkirk

Movie Name: Dunkirk
Year of Release: 2017

Director: Christopher Nolan

Stars: Fionn Whitehead, Aneurin Barnard, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, James D'Arcy, Harry Styles, Barry Keoghan, Matthew Marsh 

Genre: Action, Drama

Score out of ten: 9
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Synopsis:

Following the successful (and divisive) "Interstellar", director Christopher Nolan is back, with a film that unlike his previous efforts, is based on a true story, this time around focusing on an episode that occurred during World War II (which was also illustrated on Joe Wright's "Atonement"). The film follows the story of the evacuation of a group of Allied soldiers from the beaches (and harbor) of Dunkirk to the English coastline (from May 26th through June 4th 1940). The film focuses on a young soldier, and his attempts to exit the beach, and all the hurdles he and his companions have to go through in order to reach home safely (among those hurdles, the sinking of multiple ships). The film also focuses on the civilians that are brought into this situation, aboard their vessels to rescue all these soldiers.
Much has been written about the fact that "Dunkirk" is duration wise, the shortest feature directed by Christopher Nolan. That particular information, should in no way be detrimental to the fact that the director has built another fantastic film, one where his cerebral perspective aligns with the events that unveiled at the beach, and in particular with the lives of all those men. It's a perfect marriage of his taste for scale (and grandiose) and tension buildup. It's also a testament to this director's refinement that the film relies so little on dialogue exposition, and yet it manages to communicate so much. The film is exquisitely photographed by Hoyte Van Hoytema, and has a crackling score from Hans Zimmer, both of which marry with the perfect editing from Lee Smith, to create a stunning example of how to create an indelible experience that captures the urgency and panic felt by so many during such a tying time. If anything can be pointed out to this film, is the fact that the characters almost feel secondary to the events unfurling, but this is such a fantastic achievement from a fantastic storyteller.