Christopher Nolan is quite the phenomenon, merging pretty weird and complex narratives with wildly popular sensibilities. I'm not the biggest fan of Nolan's latest work. Sure, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar were all hugely ambitious and spectacular blockbusters, but each had their own flaws. Interstellar, in particular, was the first Nolan movie I found annoying at points. I mean, what was all that bullshit about "love"? Come on...
Dunkirk is a triumphant return to form for Nolan. The narrative structure here is pretty ingenious, with three inter-cutting narratives unfolding in entirely different timescales. We did see hints of this in Inception, and even Interstellar, of course, but in Dunkirk it's delivered with the same overarching precision and finesse reminiscent of Memento and The Prestige. The editing is simply sublime. By editing, I don't just mean film editing, but also, screenplay editing. Everything falls together like a domino in one of the tensest experiences in cinema history. There's not one bit of filler material or unnecessary sequence - everything in Dunkirk is there for a good reason.
There's no time wasted on the usual formulaic stuff like 3-act structures, character development, drama, plot twists and whatnot. This is purer cinema, it's an audiovisual tale about a bunch of people living through some rather harrowing times. We discover the characters' struggles with them. The audience has no excess information to work with, and the suspense is developed purely through observation, rather than exposition. Of course, all of this needed a talented cast, and everyone from top stars - Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh to lesser known talents - Fionn Whitehead, Harry Styles, Tom Glynn-Carney - bring their A-game.
Unlike some of the outlandish fantasy elements of Interstellar, Dunkirk is rooted firmly in reality. It's not just the screenplay, of course, but also in how everything is shot and made. There are no extraneous, showy elements at play. The air scenes in particular are incredible, shot with real planes. The claustrophobic shots inside Tom Hardy's cockpits drive home a sense of dread that simply don't exist in the more spectacular, sweeping shots you usually see in such action sequence. Of particularly note is the sound - I have never heard WW2 era bombers sound quite like this. Then there's the music, of course, which builds up with metronomic precision.
I'd imagine Dunkirk would be a divisive picture. This is pretty much the most experimental Hollywood blockbuster in years, if not decades. Yet, it's made with such precision and finesse that you barely notice its experimental roots. However, people used to the traditional Hollywood formula - many of which existed in Nolan's earlier films - may be disappointed. I'd recommend giving it another watch if you didn't like it the first go.
