Michael Bay makes a film that places action over character, shoehorns in too much story for the running time, and fills it with moments clearly designed to tug our heartstrings, complete with a tear-jerker of a score, and the critics make him their whipping boy. Chris Nolan does the same thing, and it’s a masterpiece. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but there were moments in Nolan’s latest film, Dunkirk, that seemed to me just as carefully constructed to elicit the same kind of “guy cry” moments as ones in The Rock or Armageddon (and yeah, I cry when Bruce Willis blows himself up. What’s it to you?) That’s not to say I didn’t like the film, or those moments. They work as they’re supposed to. But in the end, much like the story of Dunkirk itself, the film seems like a failure dressed up to look like a success. Continue reading →