Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Dunkirk

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In 1940, British and French soldiers are trapped against the English Channel by the German army after a set of military disasters at the beginning of World War II.  In a desperate tactic, the English, using mainly civilian boats and crews, were able to evacuate more than 300,000 soldiers to live and fight another day.  If you are thinking that this doesn’t sound like an exciting event, think again!!  This movie really brings this story alive with a mixture of historic detail and great story telling.   Kudos to Christopher Nolan.  The movie is told from three different perspectives:  a British private desperately trying to get home, an RAF pilot flying a Spitfire and an average man who helms his commandeered boat to rescue as many of the boys as he can.  Mark Rylance plays the civilian ship owner who shows the calm determination of the men who sailed the “cockle shell” fleet to the war torn Dunkirk beaches.  His reasons become clear as the movie progresses.  It is no fluke he won an Academy Award for “Bridge of Spies.” This man has quite the acting chops!  Tom Hardy portrays a Spitfire pilot with a quiet fortitude as he battles against German fighters and a bomber over the Channel.  There is not a lot of dialog here, Nolan lets the action tell the story and oh what a story it is!  The reactions shown by the rescued soldiers and the British people that meet them sum up the story, with a final summation provided by one of the men reading parts of Winston Churchill’s famous address about fighting on as the Battle of Britain looms. This is Nolan’s first historical movie and I hope it won’t be his last.  We saw the 70mm film version and let me tell you, several times I thought I was watching 3D because of the way the film puts you in the middle of the action.  All in all, this was a thrilling and emotional ride that will leave you wanting to run to the nearest bookstore (or on-line website) to research more about this great unsung (in movies) event from World War II.

The BFG

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The Big Friendly Giant, as played by Oscar winning actor Mark Rylance, is a kind, warm and welcoming giant.  He shanghais a young orphan named Sophie (played with just the right amount of feisty innocence by Ruby Barnhill)  because she accidentally sees him while looking out of her window late one night, and takes her to Giantland.  The BFG and the  little “human bean”  get off to a rocky start but become fast friends.  He protects her from the big carnivorous giants (he is a much smaller giant, they call him “Runt”, and is a vegetarian) and she helps him catch and bottle dreams.  The CGI effects are spectacular.  I especially enjoyed the meeting between the BFG and the Queen of England ( surprisingly well played by Penelope Wilton).  He introduces himself by saying he is her “humbug servant” and shares the secret of having a good  whizzpop (the BFG delightfully mangles the English language throughout the movie).  How Sophie, the Queen and the BFG work together to defeat the evil giants, with names like Bloodbottler and Maidmasher, is clever and exciting.  This is the last screen play that Melissa Mathison wrote before passing away at the age of 65.  I think she would have been proud of the way the whole thing turned out.