puckamo

This is a rare film, a harrowing look at reality that is deeply unsettling and very entertaining at the same time. The performances are sensational, especially Bria Vinaite, the mother Halley, in what I believe is her first movie.

The director spent a decade of her life gathering evidence that Alice Guy-Blache was one of the founders of cinema, on the same level as the Lumiere Brothers, Georges Melies and Thomas Edison, and the case she makes is completely convincing. This film should be seen by everyone interested in movie history.

The story of the "little ships" and their rescue of the British army at Dunkirk deserves a great movie, and this is not it. Or even close. The first scenes are compelling, and the vision of the troops standing in line on the beach, queuing up patiently for the transport that might never come, is striking. Mark Rylance is superb as always, and Kenneth Branagh shows up, though he doesn't have much to do. I've heard from friends that they found the Spitfire dogfights boring, but I didn't- they are often confusing, and the shots from the pov of the Spitfire pilots are too short, but the scenes stay in your mind. But after about fifteen minutes the relentless, incessant, ever-present "music" of Hans Zimmer begins to wear on any sensible viewer, especially once you realize that there's another hour and a half to go. This "music" never stops, and once that becomes apparent, and the time jumping starts in earnest, the movie really starts to grind, with only momentary flashes to show what it could have been. Christopher Nolan should stick to the franchise movies and let someone with some sensibility handle the real-life epics.