Crisp Criticism - "Dunkirk", "A Quiet Passion", "The Bad Batch"

by

Julien Faddoul

Dunkirk **

Miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada, and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between May 26- June 04, 1940, during Battle of France in World War II.

Bombastic, but deft and earnest terror-suffused WWII film assembled in its director’s typical entangling structure – encompassing three separate timelines – and shot in fierce 65mm. But also typical with Nolan, the emotion is frustratingly self-conscious. There is a valuable relinquishing of dialogue but an over-emphasis on sound and music. Altogether, it contains both his mastery of cinematic momentum and his disappointing self-aggrandization.

wd – Christopher Nolan

ph – Hoyte van Hoytema

pd – Nathan Crowley

m – Hans Zimmer

ed – Lee Smith

cos – Jeffrey Kurland

p – Emma Thomas

Cast: Fionn Whitehead, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Harry Styles, James D'Arcy, Aneurin Barnard, Barry Keoghan, Tom Glynn-Carney, Bobby Lockwood

A Quiet Passion ***

American poet Emily Dickinson from her early days as a young schoolgirl to her later years as a reclusive, unrecognised artist.

Witty and meticulously composed biopic on Dickinson by a filmmaker with similar personal tribulations. The whole thing is endlessly engaging with everyone concerned completely in sync.

wd – Terence Davies

ph – Florian Hoffmeister

pd – Merijn Sep

ed – Pia Di Ciaula

cos – Catherine Marchand

p – Roy Boulter, Sol Papadopoulos

Cast: Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle, Keith Carradine, Emma Bell, Sara Vertongen, Duncan Duff, Jodhi May, Joanna Bacon, Benjamin Wainwright, Catherine Bailey, Annette Badland

The Bad Batch *

A love story set in a community of cannibals in a future dystopia.

Stylish but empty-headed black comedy with everything mannered to the nth degree. As plucky and indefatigable as it is, a reason to care about any of these people never reveals itself.

wd – Ana Lily Amirpour

ph – Lyle Vincent

pd – Brandon Tonner-Connelly

ed – Alex O’Flinn

cos – Natalie O’Brien

p – Megan Ellison, Danny Gabai, Sina Sayyah

Cast: Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Giovanni Ribisi, Jayda Fink, Keanu Reeves, Diego Luna, Jim Carrey, Yolonda Ross, Aye Hasegawa