Review #1,280: 'Dunkirk' (2017)

There are countless stories of courage and bravery that made their way out of World War II, but perhaps none more famous or as inspirational (at least to us British) as the story, or miracle, of the Dunkirk evacuation. Following the six-week long Battle of France, Allied forces found themselves holed up on the beaches of Dunkirk and surrounded by German forces. Over the course of eight days, over 300,000 troops were rescued by a hastily assembled civilian navy of fishing boats, yachts and lifeboats called into action from Britain. Although Churchill was quick to remind the people that "wars are not won by evacuations," the incident became a symbol of British stiff-upper lipped stoicism and a powerful propaganda tool.

Many movies have covered the event, from 1942's Mrs. Miniver to 2007's Atonement, as well as Leslie Norman's underrated 1958 film Dunkirk. But none have managed to capture the sheer horror of the situation these troops found themselves in as Christopher Nolan's latest, which is an out-and-out masterpiece of technical wizardry and raw, grinding sound design. Long a passion project for the director, Dunkirk drops you into the thick of the action from the get-go with the welcome assumption that audiences will enter the film with at least some prior knowledge, and doesn't let up until the very end of its relatively short 106 minute running-time with the constant ticking of what feels like an ever-present clock. Nolan is determined to put you through the wringer, and does so by placing you up close and personal with the men on land, at sea, and in the air.

The closest person we have to a leading character is Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), a young and resourceful grunt who stumbles onto the beach after evading the Germans. He quickly plots his escape by attempting to board a boat carrying a wounded soldier, and later teaming up with a young soldier played by Harry Styles (who is absolutely fine) as they try desperately to survive the growing carnage. At sea, proud mariner Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) sets sail from Britain to rescue "our boys" and do his part in the war. Picking up a shell-shocked soldier played by Cillian Murphy on the way, Dawson must navigate oil-soaked waters with burning ships all around and avoid the German planes screaming in the sky. Battling the Luftwaffe in the air are Spitfire pilots Farrier (Tom Hardy) and Collins (Jack Lowden), the former having to carry out his duty without the aid of his fuel gauge.

These stories do not take place chronologically, a gimmick now something of a Nolan trademark. While this works wonders in a film like Memento, it adds an unnecessary layer of confusion to the unfolding narrative in Dunkirk, occasionally removing you from the action as you try and establish where we are in the story. With Nolan's decision to do away with any backstory to the characters - who are still fully realised and wonderfully performed - there's also a lack of emotional investment. Yet it could be argued that this approach only adds to the fog of war and the terrifying randomness of combat, and this is the most thrilling depiction of battle since 1998's Saving Private Ryan, only without the spatter and gore. Nolan also avoids flag-waving patriotism and finger-pointing, something that Spielberg's Oscar-winner failed to do. Although it's not the complete masterpiece many of us hoped for (although I suspect the majority will disagree), Dunkirk is one of Nolan's most accomplished and dazzling pieces of work. It may not move you, but it will leave you in awe.


Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Tom Glynn-Carney, Cillian Murphy
Country: UK/Netherlands/France/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,237: 'Free Fire' (2016)

The decade following the release of Quentin Tarantino's two-punch of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction saw many independent filmmakers clamouring to try and recreate the magic of those crime movies, which catapulted the one-time video store clerk to directorial super stardom. Stripped of his ear for witty dialogue and everything else that made them stand out, most of these imitations simply consisted of bad men pointing guns at each other whilst talking pop culture. This craze has since died down, but based on Ben Wheatley's latest venture Free Fire, there are those still longing to recreate the magic of those 90's classics. Free Fire is the cinematic equivalent of pillaging your toy box as a child and have the most colourful figures shoot it out with one another for the flimsiest of reasons. However, this isn't entirely a bad thing.

In 1970's Boston, a bunch of mean-looking men and one woman meet at an abandoned warehouse to finalise an arms deal. IRA members Chris (Cillian Murphy) and Frank (Wheatley regular Michael Smiley) meet with intermediary Justine (Brie Larson), and eventually with charming connect Ord (Armie Hammer looking very comfortable rocking a 70's beard). Arms dealer Vernon (Sharlto Copley) has some bad news in that he doesn't have the guns ordered, but the Irishmen push ahead for the deal anyway. A rocky introduction seems to be heading towards peaceful resolution, until Vernon's associate Harry (a hairy and bespectacled Jack Reynor) recognises junkie Stevo (Sam Riley) - one of Chris and Frank's gang - from a violent confrontation the night before. Negotiations quickly escalate into a stand-off between both parties, and a huge shoot-out ensues. With a briefcase full of money and a truck load of guns there for the taking, everyone's motivation and loyalty is quickly under scrutiny.

After tackling the lofty concept of socioeconomic commentary in messy misfire High Rise, Wheatley has fallen back on a simplistic and indulgent crowd-pleaser. With many an object to hide behind in the expansive warehouse setting, the witty dialogue of the opening thirty minutes becomes a cycle of leg-and-shoulder wounds and ricocheting bullets. It's a rather childish concept, but it manages to entertain by refusing to take itself seriously. Fracturing loyalties and double-crosses play second fiddle to guessing who will die next and just how they will meet their doom, backed by an impressive line-up of character actors. Outside of a couple of gruesome deaths, the script by Wheatley and long-time writing partner Amy Jump offers few surprises. Perhaps the couple needed to recuperate after their ambitious but ultimately disappointing attempt to bring High-Rise to the big screen. Whatever the reasoning for tackling a project so knowingly lacking in scale and originality, I enjoyed it, and hopefully now it's out of their system they will be capable of delivering a film as masterful as their jewel in the crown, Kill List.


Directed by: Ben Wheatley
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Brie Larson, Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Michael Smiley, Sam Riley, Jack Reynor, Babou Ceesay, Noah Taylor
Country: UK/France

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,146: 'Anthropoid' (2016)

Although the emergence of the superhero genre and the re-emergence of the Star Wars franchise as a global phenomenon have turned audience's attentions towards conflict on a more galactic scale, film-makers still find a fascination with World War II and the smaller-scale, almost forgotten acts of heroism that occurred amidst the bloody madness. Whether it be soldiers on the front-line or the chess-playing at the very top, audiences also remain keen, and their frequent presence at the big Awards suggests that there is still a wealth of material to explore. The story of Operation Anthropoid has been told before, but never with such a grasp of the scale of these men's mission, and all the horror and hesitation that comes with it.

Sean Ellis' Anthropoid chooses to focus on two men - Josef Gabcik (Cillian Murphy) and Jan Kubis (Jamie Dornan) - from Czechoslovakia's government (now in exile) as they are parachuted back into their homeland during the German occupation. That same night, they are taken in by two fellow freedom fighters who offers them shelter from the harsh weather. They turn out to be betrayers and blood is spilled before Gabcik and Kubis flee to Prague. The stock footage shown on early establishes the context: With Czechoslovakia left without allies following the Munich Agreement, the Nazis quickly invaded. crushing any acts of rebellion with swift executions and routinely torturing suspects for information. Czechoslovakia was a very dangerous place to be in 1939.

Our two heroes have arrived in their homeland with one goal - to execute Reinhard Heydrich, the high-ranking Nazi official who masterminded the Final Solution and was dubbed the 'Butcher of Prague'. They touch base with their fellow freedom fighters, who all have a clear picture of the repercussions the country will face should the operation go ahead. This was never an assassination intended the win the war, but to make a global statement of their intent to fight the oppressive threat. It may be for the greater good, but it also means that thousands will die. This conflict is reflected in the two main characters. Gabcik is steely-eyed and determined to follow his orders through no matter what the consequences, while Kubis is the younger romantic, hoping to live long enough to see a better world.

Anthropoid is keen to study the effects such selfless heroism can have on a person, and the men many and women taking part in the operation do so with shaky hands, self-doubt and trepidation. Ellis keeps things incredibly reserved and low-key for much of the built-up, perhaps a little too much, but this time is spent enveloping you its paranoid and dangerous world, where a slip of the tongue in the presence of the wrong person could mean torture and brutal death. I must admit that I wasn't familiar with the ins-and-outs of the story before going into the film, so the climactic stand-off against a hail of Nazi bullets and pipe bombs in the Orthodox Cathedral was an exciting and emotional experience. It's all shot with a grainy, brown-y tinge by Ellis, who also acts as cinematographer, and helps to give the film a lived-in feel, avoiding the ugly sheen that plagues many a period piece.


Directed by: Sean Ellis
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Jamie Dornan, Anna Geislerová, Charlotte Le Bon, Toby Jones, Harry Lloyd
Country: Czech Republic/UK/France

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,102: 'Sunshine' (2007)

Danny Boyle's under-performing attempt to rekindle audience interest in the philosophical sci-fi genre so successful in the 1970s plays out very much like an object hurtling towards the Sun - thrilling, dazzling and often overwhelming at first, before quickly burning out and being swallowed up by the enormity of the themes it attempts to explore. 2007's Sunshine ponders a future in which humanity is facing extinction as the Sun powering the planet is burning itself out. A last-gasp mission sees the crew of Icarus II travel for five years through space with a bomb the size of Manhattan in the hope of reigniting the Sun's flames.

Of course, there was also an Icarus I, captained by a man named Pinbacker (Mark Strong), which disappeared seven years earlier carrying out the same mission. When a distress signal is picked up from the lost ship, the crew of Icarus II, captained by the enigmatic Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada), are faced with the dilemma of either carrying on with their mission, or answering the call and picking up a second bomb in the process, and therefore doubling their chances of saving humanity. Physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy) makes the decision to set a new course, much to the frustration of level-headed engineer Mace (Chris Evans). However, navigator Trey (Benedict Wong) forgets to realign the ship's shield as it changes course, throwing the entire mission into jeopardy.

The film captures the claustrophobia and restlessness of the cramped surroundings and characters incredibly well. The crew often feel as if they are hunched over, as if being slowly swallowed up by the deadly beast that is their destination. Even the on-board garden, a self-sustaining eco-system which supplies the ship's oxygen, tended to by botanist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh), feels oddly suffocating. Boyle's trademark eye for visuals also helps give the film a sweaty, scolding vibe. An entire room on the Icarus II seems to be dedicated solely to appreciating the Sun's sheer power, as the crew, in particular psychiatrist Searle (Cliff Curtis), sit and stair in utter awe. Sunshine begins rather slow, but Boyle takes this time to sculpt an incredible sense of atmosphere.

Boyle's desire to contemplate the larger questions is ultimately the film's downfall. In the early scenes, the mere presence of the Sun looming just behind that massive shield and the way Boyle captures it is enough to start audience's comparing the star's influence to that of God, and the crew's mission to save humanity by conquering something of such unfathomable power has enough religious connotations on its own. The climax sees the arrival of a mysterious being on the ship that may or may not be supernatural, and it just doesn't work. A lot was written at the time about the Sunshine's descent into slasher territory, and although I can applaud the attempt to muddle genres and take the story in a completely different direction, I have to agree with the criticism. Instead of inviting discussion as the credits roll, it simply left me disappointed at the squandered potential.


Directed by: Danny Boyle
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada, Cliff Curtis, Benedict Wong, Mark Strong
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,016: 'In the Heart of the Sea' (2015)

When taking into account the reputation of Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick as one of the Great American Novels, it is surprising that so few directors have taken it upon themselves to adapt the epic tale of man against nature. The most famous and well-respected is John Huston's 1956 effort that starred Gregory Peck as the obsessed Captain Ahab and, dismissing the few straight-to-DVD efforts and TV movies over the past few years, it is really the only one of note. Ron Howard has also decided to side-step Melville's tricky beast in favour of the true story that inspired it, the sinking of the whaling ship Essex.

Almost as if Howard was afraid that the sight of a group of battered, starving sailors drifting would be too boring for the audience to stomach for two hours, the story begins with Melville himself (played by Ben Whishaw) paying a visit to the only remaining survivor of the Essex's doomed voyage, Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson). After a bit of nagging from his wife (Michelle Fairley) and the promise of whiskey, Nickerson soon begins spilling the tale he has kept bottled up for years, and reveals that it is not just a story of a giant, extremely peeved-off whale, but that of two men - first mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) and captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker).

The men sitting behind the desks at the Nantucket whaling company view Chase, despite his impressive record at collecting whale oil, as a 'landsman' - someone born outside of the vast whaling family. Pollard is inexperienced and envious of Chase's reputation and popularity, and there personalities soon clash. Most is viewed through the eyes of the young Nickerson (played by Tom Holland, the new Spider-Man), and just when the two potential father figures reach a mutual understanding and finally discover whales after months at sea, they are rammed by a giant sperm whale and left hundreds of miles from shore with limited food, water and supplies.

You would think that a story so packed with sea-faring adventure and the promise of an unknown monster lurking beneath the surface would be effortlessly thrilling, but sadly In the Heart of the Sea is not. While certainly an overrated director, Ron Howard has made exciting films before, but here the action is so laced with obvious CGI that it makes it impossible to truly engage with the action. The film actually works best during its quieter moments. While peppered with survival-movie cliches and sluggish character development, its well-performed by the (mostly British) cast, particularly Walker, whose character arc pleasantly surprised me, and Holland, who is surely destined to be a star in the future. Still, we wait patiently for the film that does Meville, or the story behind his greatest work, justice.


Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw, Paul Anderson
Country: USA/Australia/Spain/UK/Canada

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #729: 'Inception' (2010)

Inception wasn't the only time English writer-director Christopher Nolan has blown our minds with a big-budget summer blockbuster - two years before, he made The Dark Knight, which destroyed most people's pre-conceptions of what superhero movies should be made of, and showed you that movies designed to make a lot of money can work your brain as much as your heart-rate. Inception also blows the minds of it's characters, themselves barely able to keep up with the multi-level dream universe they create. It's a film that revels in it's own heavy exposition; finding visual thrills in discovering the possibilities of consciously walking through a dream, or showing you the beautiful art of dream-stealing.

It follows Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), an exiled criminal who makes his money from corporate espionage jobs bankrolled by rich CEO's. Only, Cobb applies his craft by entering people's dreams, extracting information left over by the dreamer's subconscious, usually within a locked safe or protected by projections of that subconscious. After a botched job, Cobb's target Saito (Ken Watanabe) offers him the chance to redeem himself and to go home, only the task is not to steal information, but to implant it, known as 'inception'. Saito wants Cobb to implant an idea into the head of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the heir to an energy conglomerate. Cobb alone has ever achieved inception, but it is a near impossible task, especially with the psychopathic projection of his dead wife (Marion Cotillard) stalking his subconscious.

It's a dangerous and bold thing for a mainstream director to have confidence in it's audiences intelligence. If there's a main problem with Inception, it is probably that things get a little too baffling at times, as the crew delve deeper and deeper into the levels of the dream, and new rules start to apply. There is a lot of information to process here, and the film spends nearly its duration trying to explain it to us. But Nolan is a fantastic writer, and most directors would lose the audience without such expert storytelling ability and great dialogue. Thankfully, Ariadne (Ellen Page), an architecture student recommended to Cobb to design the dream world, plays as a proxy for the audience, learning as we learn.

Ariadne is one of a bunch of experts lined up for the job - Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is Cobb's right-hand man and the brains behind the job, Eames (Tom Hardy) is a skilled in-dream impersonator, and Yusuf (Dileep Rao) is a chemist who provides a knockout drug so powerful that the dreamers cannot be shaken awake. There's also Tom Berenger, Michael Caine, Lukas Haas and Pete Postlethwaite in the mix, making this a huge ensemble. As expected, Nolan keeps tabs on them all, never allowing you to forget about anyone or about what the role they have to play. It's a miracle he even managed to line up such an impressive group of actors, let alone make sure no-one gets lost amongst the thick plot.

Although the climax gets a little too over-crowded in the final half an hour, and Nolan places us in the pretty dull setting of a snowy mountain, this is still innovative, stylish and exciting action cinema. It still abides by all the standard rules of the genre, but it dares to toy with them and to keep the action moving with intriguing sub-plots or simply delivering an exceptional set-piece (Arthur's no-gravity hallway fight comes to mind). It bends the mind as much as it bends the rules, and this is much about the strangeness of dreams and what it means to dream them. Nolan went on to deliver an ever better movie two years later with The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and I'm eagerly awaiting his upcoming Interstellar (2014). He alone has reawakened my faith in the 'big' movie, proving that films can deliver brains as well as bang for your buck.


Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger
Country: USA/UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #422: 'Batman Begins' (2005)

Back in 1997, when the Batman franchise was given a thorough anal-raping and given cinema AIDS by director Joel Schumacher with the preposterous Batman & Robin, fans and audiences alike were left wondering if there was any hope left for one of the darkest and most complex 'superhero' characters in the comic-book world. Come 2005, up to this point, British director Christopher Nolan was still a relative maverick, having made indie breakthrough Following (1998), the mind-bending critical hit Memento (2000), and the solid re-make Insomnia (2002). Few realised that they were about to witness a re-defining of not only comic book adaptations, but blockbusters themselves.

We first meet Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) in a Bhutanese prison, where he is approached by the mysterious Ducard (Liam Neeson) who offers him a chance to learn to fight with the League of Shadows, a generations-old group that punishes criminality with an iron fist. As he trains, we learn about Wayne's childhood, where after falling into a well and developing a phobia of bats, witnesses his parents' murder. Returning to a Gotham believing him dead and in a state of utter tutmoil, he turns to faithful butler Alfred (Michael Caine) and Wayne Enterprises' weapons developer Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) to turn him into a vigilante crime-fighter and a symbol of a stance against crime. He finds his childhood friend Rachel (Katie Holmes), the assistant district attorney, caught up in a scheme ran by Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) to get mob boss Falcone's (Tom Wilkinson) thugs off with insanity pleas.

Tim Burton's once-definitive Batman (1989) made the mistake of having the film's villain The Joker engulf the majority of the film, keeping Michael Keaton's Batman almost in the background. Nolan knows that this is Batman's story, and wisely keeps the focus on Bale's anger-fuelled, guilt-ridden, and honourable leading character. In the hands of Nolan, Batman's origins are given the complexity it deserves, shifting back and forward in time to reveal more pieces to his jigsaw. This is no wise-cracking, tights-wearing Batman; when we meet him, he is giving a bunch of prison thugs a thorough beating, snapped legs and all. With the hugely talented Bale in the role, his character is given the weight it deserves - this is Nolan's world, and it is violent, real, and usually pissing down with rain.

As the norm since this film's release, Nolan has managed to gather a hugely-talented ensemble cast (and mainly British). While there is no obligatory main villain that may be a problem in anybody's else's hands, Nolan has instead given us a criminal ring for Batman to fight, from Wilkinson's ruthless crime boss, to Murphy's genuinely unsettling Scarecrow, who likes to fire his hallucinogenic poison in his victims' faces before donning his 'mask' (leading some some fine trippy moments). There is also Ra's Al-Ghul (Ken Watanabe), who plans to destroy Gotham along with Neeson's Ducard by infecting Gotham's water supply. With Gary Oldman's cop Jim Gordon, and Holmes' Rachel Dawes also in the mix, it may seem dangerously over-supplied with characters, but Nolan knows fully well how to handle such a large cast, tying their stories together with fine precision.

Having seen The Dark Knight (2008) and eagerly anticipating The Dark Knight Rises (2012), this admittedly pales in comparison, being that The Dark Knight was a phenomenal leap forward in big-budget film-making and an iconic film that will no doubt be remembered as one of the best of its decade. Also, the action scenes here are quickly-edited and shaky to the point where it is hard to tell what is happening, but Nolan would step up in confidence with the film's sequel and the proceeding Inception (2010). But as superhero origin stories go, this is probably second only to Superman (1978), and a welcome kick up the arse for one of the most enticing comic-book heroes in existence.


Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe
Country: USA/UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie