Dunkirk

THE GIST: During the 1940 World War II Battle of France, 400,000 British and French troops were trapped and surrounded on the beaches of Dunkirk by German forces' relentless advance. The Germans kept dropping bombs on the British Navy ships attempting rescue missions, so the British government decided, in desperation, to requisition every civilian vessel available to aid in the rescue.

Dunkirk is not your ordinary war movie that showcases a particular battle. Here the focus is the rescue of these hundreds of thousands of soldiers, who represented the backbone of the British army. If the Germans had succeeded in wiping them out, they would have likely won WWII.

Dunkirk is also a Christopher Nolan movie, and as such one can expect a showcase of dazzlingly realistic visual effects and twisted plots that lead up to a grand reveal.

Here, the bravura is in filming three separate stories that develop over different timescales (a week, a day, and an hour) and weaving them together to flawlessly tell one unified tale. The feat's success is reflected in the final product's grade.

THE BOTTOM LINE: A masterful cinematic adventure that keeps you on the edge of your seat from the first frames to the very end. Very powerful, especially considering this is all based on factual accounts.

Grade: 9