All We Did Was Survive…That’s Enough

There’s a moment towards the end of Dunkirk when a small fleet of personal fishing and pleasure boats break through the fog to the French beach and the thousands of men stranded there begin applauding and cheering.

It’s one of those, “not a dry eye in the house” moments that feels truly earned by the film that preceded it, and really surprised me, especially coming from Christopher Nolan, who’s made himself the king of a the not necessarily earned but audience pleasing third act twist.

But that’s kind of all of Dunkirk, a masterfully made war film, that feels somehow like the absolute culmination of Nolan’s career so far as a filmmaker, and yet like a complete departure from anything he’s done before. The genre trappings he’s been able to hide behind before are stripped away for one thing, but it’s still somehow about the way communities and individuals intersect and the ability of the human mind and spirit to transcend unthinkable circumstances (both big favorite themes of his.) It’s a movie that is both epic in scale and claustrophobic-ally small at the same time.

A game ensemble of British character actors take us through the day of evacuation, special stand outs however, go to Mark Rylance as “Patriotic And Determined Civilian With A Boat” and Kenneth Branagh as “Officer On A Pier Looking Concerned.” (I don’t remember any characters’ names, but that’s more because I don’t know that anyone is given names.) I was less impressed by Cillian Murphy as “Shell Shocked Soldier Who Whines The Whole Time.”

Overall, I think Dunkirk is really special, and if it had been released in November, would be a shoe in for awards conversation. Even with it’s mid summer blockbuster slot, I think it’s got good chances.

Rankings:

1. Wonder Woman
2. The Big Sick
3. Dunkirk
4. Spider-Man: Homecoming
5. Guardians of The Galaxy: Volume 2
6. King Arthur: Legend of The Sword
7. Cars 3
8. Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Trailers:

I did the 70MM so there were few trailers (it was cool to watch a movie on film again though, I haven’t done that in quite a while)

Justice League: It looks…fine? My lack of enthusiasm in either direction about this movie worries me. I do like the cover of “Come Together” used at the end though. Definitely a cool choice, And hey, it’s more Wonder Woman…so that’s good? Right?