The reviews are in for Christopher Nolan’s new film Dunkirk, with critics praising the film and even tipping it for Oscar glory. The film stars Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh and, of course, pop star Harry Styles. The film is set in the Second World War and follows the plight of hundreds of thousands of allied troops and their rescue for the beaches of France in 1940.
Many of the critics gave the film five stars and praised the performances of the lead actors, including Styles who is mainly known for being a member of the boy band One Direction. Many are even talking of Oscar glory for the film’s actors and for its director, Christopher Nolan.
Here is a selection of what the critics had to say…
It is Nolan’s best film so far. It also has Hans Zimmer’s best musical score: an eerie, keening, groaning accompaniment to a nightmare, switching finally to quasi-Elgar variations for the deliverance itself. Zimmer creates a continuous pantonal lament, which imitates the dive bomber scream and queasy turning of the tides, and it works in counterpoint to the deafening artillery and machine-gun fire that pretty much took the fillings out of my teeth and sent them in a shrapnel fusillade all over the cinema auditorium. – Peter Bradshaw (Gaurdian)
Although the film is deeply moving at unexpected moments, it’s not due to any manufactured sentimentality or false heroics. Bursts of emotion here explode like depth charges, at times and for reasons that will no doubt vary from viewer to viewer. There’s never a sense of Nolan – unlike, say Spielberg – manipulating the drama in order to play the viewer’s heartstrings. Nor is there anything resembling a John Williams score to stir the emotional pot. – Todd McCarthy (Hollywood Reporter)
Where it does deliver on action is in the sky. Today’s audiences have spent decades watching digital dogfights in Star Wars movies, themselves originally inspired by World War Two movies such as Twelve O’ Clock High. Nolan gets the wow factor back by stripping away the pixels, shooting real Spitfires on real sorties above the real English Channel. The results are incredible, particularly on the vast expanse of an Imax screen, with the wobbly crates veering and soaring above a mass of blue. – Nick De Semlyen (Empire Magazine)