My review of Dunkirk

I thought it was a good movie, especially if you really are trying to get people in a nice, semi-comfy theatre, to feel the confusion, panic, and dread of those on the screen. Branagh was good, D'Arcy was great (for the like 5mins he's in it), and the Christian Bale-look-alike that is the main boots-on-the-ground-soldier level person was excellent- particularly in the last scene on the train. But the first 20 minutes were so jarring and the whole "one week"/"one hour" thing threw me at first. My biggest complaint was that I couldn't understand a word the pilots were saying till the Scottish one was out of the plane and I could lip-read him (I usually do quite well with Scottish accents and I love them, so it wasn't that) plus everything inside the cockpits was a bit blurry so even without the masks- I may have had trouble lip reading.
Beautifully shot, the music was great, and the effect of making the noise to the point that it hurt your ears whenever there was a bomb/shell/gun shot/etc., was an interesting choice. Overall, I'd recommend it. Maybe not to someone without the patience to wait out the first half hour till it really gets going. I did see it with a friend who teaches WWII history, so she explained a few things for me before and after the movie. (My specialty is WWI.) I think the dude who was screaming the F-word and trying to get the Frenchman out of the boat (I believe he's in some band, and that's why the two teen girls in the 3rd row were squealing whenever he came on screen?) should have gotten punched at some point. Just saying.