Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017)

[transmogrifier]

It always surprises me how divisive Nolan seems to be.

For me, it's not a Nolan thing. It's a fanboy thing in general. Criticism of anything that gets good reviews off the bat is dismissed as backlash.

[Dukefrukem]

Best picture, best director best actor.

[Dead & Messed Up]

For me, it's not a Nolan thing. It's a fanboy thing in general. Criticism of anything that gets good reviews off the bat is dismissed as backlash.

Agreed. We need space to be able to talk about these flicks and trust that people are responding in good faith, both when they like a new film and when they don't.

[Pop Trash]

'member when Match Cut's The Dark Knight discussion thread went on for a million pages? I 'member !!!

[Morris Schæffer]

Got my IMAX ticket purchased for this weekend.

That's what I'm gunning for. Imax is1 Hour drive away but 98% on metacritic ain't no laughing matter.

[Morris Schæffer]

Best picture, best director best actor.

Best beach scene. Best use of Spitfire plane. Best use of, uhm, Harry Styles.

[Morris Schæffer]

[transmogrifier]

Pros: Interesting structure, lean and direct, tense set pieces, great aerial photography. Cons: incessant fucking score that just won't shut up, raggedy editing in parts, last five minutes seems to be transported in from a Tom Hooper version of this story, cross-cutting starts to become a crutch, extending simple situations far longer than they need to be (e.g. escaping the plane)..

In sum: good but flawed. Basically every Nolan film except Memento (all good) and Batman Begins (all flaws).

[Morris Schæffer]

The scant few nay reviews all say the same thing. The movie is too cold to elicit something beyond the staggering direction, editing and cinematography.

I have heard good things about Zimmer's score though. It's like an omnipresent clock ticking away and an important component of driving up the suspense and tenson.

[transmogrifier]

I don't think it is cold at all - I like the matter-of-fact take on it. As usual for me, my problem with Nolan is his execution. And the score is a crutch that is way, way, way overused in this film - it's like Nolan saw how much people seemed to love that docking scene in Interstellar and thought - fuck it, I'm gonna do the whole movie like that. Shit's tiring, and you can see the seams where it is covering for a lack of spatial or chronological coherence (though this lack of coherence is sporadic - at times, the film works very well in that respect, building neat set-pieces).