In May 1940, German troops quickly advanced through France, trapping Allied soldiers on the beaches of Dunkirk. Under air and ground cover from British and French forces, troops were slowly evacuated from the beach using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found. 330,000 French, British, Belgian and Dutch soldiers were safely evacuated.

Director Christopher Nolan delivered a visually stunning and emotionally gripping masterpiece that captures the desperation and heroism under fire of the Allied troops trapped at the beach. Technically awe-inspiring, narratively inventive and thematically complex, Dunkirk reinvigorates its genre with a war movie that is both harrowing and smart.

The movie does not waste any time on tedious expose. Within seconds, the viewer is thrown into battle, and the action never lets up. What could have turned into yet another boring 120-minute-long nonstop explosion, like so many over-the-top action movies these days, actually manages to keep the viewer at the edge of his seat the entire time.

Score: 9 out of 10