Dunkirk (2017) (SPOILERS) For the most part, Dunkirk is every bit as relentless and gripping as you’ve heard. I wouldn’t say it ranks up there with Christopher Nolan’s trio of classics thus far ( Memento , The Prestige , Inception ), or agree that it’s quite as unparalleled as the critical plaudits attest, but it’s definitely more pronounced in its achievements than his last couple of patchy pictures. But it’s as much what it tells us about his tendencies that makes Dunkirk interesting in his filmography, aside from accessing his facility for conveying harrowing incident. This is his first piece based on a real incident, and one of linear simplicity on the face of it, but Nolan can’t resist adorning it and turning it, in part, into an intellectual exercise. At its best, Dunkirk succeeds without reliance on such devices – intriguing as they are - and when shorn of stars who distract from complete immersion in the narrative, be it Sir Ken as the every-Brit-actor-sta