Dunkirk review roundup: See what critics have been saying about Christopher Nolan’s latest

“He’s (Nolan) found a way to harness that technique in service of a kind of heightened reality, one that feels more immersive and immediate than whatever concerns we check at the door when entering the cinema.”

Slate’s Dana Stevens is also in awe of the world of Dunkirk, but remarks how the film works with emotions differently because, although it is a war film, it is not a victory film. Dunkirk was actually a shameful evacuation, no matter how miraculous.

“Though this movie brims with scarily immersive you-are-there action it works on the emotions in a different way than most war movies.”

Stephen Whitty of New York Daily News has commended Nolan’s insistence on minimal use of computer generated effects and instead relying on practical effects.

“Let other directors play with toy soldiers and computer effects. This is big-time, old-school filmmaking. Dunkirk isn’t overdone. It’s simply done epically.”

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter points out that even though Christopher Nolan is known for his blockbuster movies with stunning visuals, he also has an impressionist streak that “conveys the whole through isolated, brilliantly realized, often private moments more than via sheer spectacle” harking back to French cinema of the 1920s.

“This is a war film like few others, one that may employ a large and expensive canvas but that conveys the whole through isolated, brilliantly realized, often private moments more than via sheer spectacle, although that is here, too.”

Dunkirk hits theaters worldwide on July 21.