Dunkirk (2017)

You barely learn a single name on that beach, and that’s the big gamble Christopher Nolan takes with Dunkirk. Tommy, Alex, Gibson: they’re faces more than people, and if you need backstory to care, you won’t get it here. What you get instead is the clock. Three stories on land, sea and air run on three different timelines and slowly braid together, which is confusing at first and then completely gripping. Mark Rylance’s Mr. Dawson is the heart of it, a quiet dad steering his small boat toward danger because somebody has to. Tom Hardy does almost everything with his eyes behind a flight mask. Harry Styles holds his own. Nolan treats the real soldiers with respect, no action hero poses, just young men trying to get home. It earned a 94 on Metacritic and $550 million worldwide. An 8.4 because it’s the tensest 106 minutes Nolan has made, even if the people are harder to hold onto than the ticking. $907 says you end up reading about the real little ships before the night is over.

What works: The ticking score and the three braided timelines keep the tension at a level few war movies reach, and Mark Rylance gives it a calm, decent heart.

What doesn’t: The soldiers are so thinly sketched that it’s hard to tell some of them apart, and the timeline jumps can lose you early on.

Who it’s for: People who want a war movie about survival instead of glory, and anyone who has a grandparent who still tells stories about the war.