By Lindsey Bahr, AP Film Writer
"Dunkirk " is not a typical war movie.
There are no brothers in arms, no flashbacks to simpler times and pretty wives and girlfriends left behind, no old men in situation rooms pontificating about politics or helping with exposition. There's no talk of Hitler, or Germans or battlefields or trauma or mothers. In fact, there's hardly any talk at all, or, for that matter, even any characters in the traditional sense.
But don't be mistaken: Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" is a stone cold masterpiece.
It's a stunningly immersive survival film told in 106 thrillingly realized minutes. Nolan puts the viewer right in the action whether it's on the beach with 400,000 men queued up and waiting for a rescue that may never come, on the waters of the English Channel in the little civilian ship headed into hostile waters with only an aging man and two teenage boys aboard, or in the air above in the two lone Spitfires that are quickly running out of fuel.
I've never experienced anything quite like "Dunkirk's" intoxicating immediacy. The screen and images envelope you with urgency, dread and moments of breathtaking beauty and grace as you wait with the soldiers, as the title card at the beginning says, for deliverance.
The story begins on the ground, with a young soldier, Tommy (newcomer Fionn Whitehead) wandering the deserted streets of Dunkirk looking for water and a place to relieve himself. Propaganda flyers float down to the ground reminding the soldiers of something they're already well aware of — that they're surrounded. "Surrender + Survive!" the flyers read as Hans Zimmer's gently ominous score plays in the background telling us that while it may be calm for a moment, it is not safe. A deafening gunshot breaks the silence, and, fair warning, your racing heart will not stop for quite some time.
Nolan follows Tommy back to the beach where soldiers stand in long lines that stretch to the water, where no boats approach. His part is nearly silent, his motivations unknown. They are all haunted shells, stripped of meaningful weapons and a military purpose. He and the rest just know they need to get off the beach at any cost.
We accompany Tommy as he tries to achieve that objective which eludes him with almost comic frequency. He's the unluckiest lucky fellow out there.
Occasionally we get the sobering perspective of the higher ups, compliments of the great Kenneth Branagh as Commander Bolton.
In the air there are the two Spitfire pilots, Farrier (played by Tom Hardy, whose face is once again largely obscured but who can act circles around many of his contemporaries even with just the use of his eyes and eyebrows) and Collins (Jack Lowden). They get to be the lofty, classical heroes of war films past as they shoot down the enemy. Hardly has a film ever made you feel as in the moment as this.
And on the sea, the three civilians, Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance), Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) and George (Barry Keoghan) who, like so many during the Dunkirk evacuation, took it upon themselves to captain their own small vessel and journey into war dressed in their seaside knits and armed only with lifejackets and blankets to help save their country's stranded men. They're the beating heart of film, especially when pitted against a shell shocked soldier (Cillian Murphy) who is determined to stop them from going back to Dunkirk.
These narratives intertwine and loop back and repeat from different vantage points with stunning effectiveness — never seeming redundant or dull. Nolan finds suspense at every angle, and ramps up the tension with the help of Zimmer's ticking score. While, there might not be character arcs to speak of, the performances are first-rate nonetheless (even pop star Harry Styles, who might just have another viable career option).
Nolan continues to be unparalleled in Hollywood — working on a scope that few are able to. As many filmmakers experiment with the small screen, Nolan has only gone bigger and bolder with his commitment to film and IMAX. What a case "Dunkirk" is for the movie theater. Not only that, "Dunkirk" is far and away the best film of the year, and Nolan's finest too.
See it big and then see it again.
"Dunkirk," a Warner Bros. Pictures release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "for intense war experience and some language." Running time: 106 minutes. Four stars out of four.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More