Dunkirk reviews roundup: What the critics are saying about Christopher Nolan's latest movie

Almost unanimous praise from reviewers across the board

Last week, the initial social media reactions to Christopher Nolan’s upcoming World War II blockbuster Dunkirk were posted, the reaction being overwhelmingly positive.

On Monday (17 July) evening, the critical reviews were released, the picture being labelled a “masterpiece” and probable awards contender.

Five-star reviews came from The Guardian, Empire, The Telegraph, The Mirror, and many more, American publications — such as The Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly — also dishing out praise.

The Independent’s reviewer was one of the few not to award five-stars, sticking with four while still concluding Nolan’s work to be “spectacular”. Here's what the critics are saying:

The Independent — Christopher Hooton — 4/5

In spite of my want for deeper or more oblique notes in it, Dunkirk is an unbelievably assured and thrilling war film. Nolan is at the top of his game, and what a joy it is to watch him construct such grand scale filmmaking.

The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw — 5/5

Nolan surrounds his audience with chaos and horror from the outset, and amazing images and dazzlingly accomplished set pieces on a huge 70mm screen, particularly the pontoon crammed with soldiers extending into the churning sea, exposed to enemy aircraft. It is an architectural expression of doomed homeward yearning.

Empire — Nick De Semlyen — 5/5

Nolan gets the wow factor back by stripping away the pixels, shooting real Spitfires on real sorties above the real English Channel. The results are incredible, particularly on the vast expanse of an IMAX screen, with the wobbly crates veering and soaring above a mass of blue.

The Telegraph — Robbie Collin — 5/5

Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line rewrote the rules of engagement between cinema and war… Dunkirk is as unlike those films as they are each other, but all three fall into a tradition of capturing real, enormous horrors at intimate quarters… That task – perhaps more than any other in cinema – takes a filmmaker at the peak of their powers. This is the work of one.

Variety — Peter Debruge

Though the subject matter is leagues (and decades) removed from the likes of “Inception” and “The Dark Knight,” the result is so clearly “a Christopher Nolan film” — from its immersive, full-body suspense to the sophisticated way he manipulates time and space — that his fans will eagerly follow en masse to witness the achievement. And what an achievement it is!

IndieWire — David Ehrlich — A

Few movies have so palpably conveyed the sheer isolation of fear, and the extent to which history is often made by people who are just trying to survive it — few movies have so vividly illustrated that one man can only do as much for his country as a country can do for one of its men. But Nolan, by stressing that grim truth to its breaking point, returns from the fray with a commanding testament to a simple idea: We may die alone, but we live together.

Radio Times — Jeremy Aspinall — 5/5

Nolan’s reputation as a technical director is well founded, though he has sometimes garnered unfair criticism for a lack of heart. Here, he strips down the war picture, leaving out extraneous back stories and faux heroism, and allows the drama and emotion to come naturally from nerve-shredding suspense and the sight of our protagonists in perpetual peril.

The Mirror — Chris Hunneysett — 5/5

After his ponderous sci-fi opus Interstellar, and his bloated Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, this is Nolan's finest film and a superb return to form. So prepare yourself to take flight with his immersive and emotional masterpiece.

TotalFilm — Jane Crowther — 5/5

Hoyte Van Hoytema’s beautiful, terrifying lensing – dizzying dogfights, suffocating sinkings and a cinematography-award moment when a Spitfire lands on sun-gilted sand – ensure that what could have been complicated and depressing is rendered with clarity. Thoroughly modern in its approach, yet classical in style, it’s a film that will appeal as much to Batman fans as WW2 scholars, and ultimately, the Academy come gong time.

Entertainment Weekly — Chris Nashawaty — A

This is visceral, big-budget filmmaking that can be called Art. It’s also, hands down, the best motion picture of the year so far.

The Hollywood Reporter — Todd McCarthy

Dunkirk is an impressionist masterpiece. These are not the first words you expect to see applied to a giant-budgeted summer entertainment made by one of the industry's most dependably commercial big-name directors. But 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 realised, often private moments more than via sheer spectacle, although that is here, too.