Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Many people believe that Dunkirk is Christopher Nolan's best film. Arguably, it leaves out his more frustrating trademarks and showcases his best.
Nolan's films often feature puzzle-like plot, exposition-heavy dialogue, and ambitious ending, and long running time. Dunkirk cuts out those elements but maintains fundamental Nolan-isms like the nonlinear structure that plays with time.
The films triptych narrative is set in three locations and three temporalities - the events on land take place over a week, the ones on sea over a day, and the ones in the air over just an hour.
It's one of the most intentive, interesting structures Nolan's ever experimented with, up there with Memento.
Dunkirk also reimagines the war move, starting with it's whole premise. This isn't film about battle - it's about an evacuation.
According to Nolan, this is more a survival story than a war film, and that's why he includes movies like Alien and Speed among his inspirations.
Finally, Dunkirk has gotten a lot of attention for how vivid and visceral it feels. It's almost like a virtual reality experience. In classic Nolan style, the director chose to use a lot of real boats and planes and thousands of extras instead of depending mostly digital effects. So this makes us feel like we're traveling into the past, but we're into a particular piece of the past that we haven't really seen much before onscreen.
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