1917

Even without the spectacle of a simulated "one-take" film that is primed to rival Birdman or Gravity, 1917 is a roller coaster of a cinematic journey that puts the audience in a state of uneasiness one likely would face in the heat of World War I warfare; tagging along protagonists Blake and Scoffield, two unassuming British infantryman going over the top, through no-man's land, and through war-torn France to deliver a message to call off an attack that could lead an entire army regiment to their doom against the German forces awaiting then. A tour de force of technical filmmaking that is also effectively somber in the few moments of calm in this storm.

Sam Mendes, the Oscar®-winning director of Skyfall, Spectre and American Beauty, brings his singular vision to this World War I epic. At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield (Captain Fantastic's George MacKay) and Blake (Game of Thrones' Dean-Charles Chapman), are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers-Blake's own brother.

This isn't an action movie. Think the smaller setpieces of Saving Private Ryan mixed with a more tense, cinematic direction. It's almost like a military thriller in the way old horror movies used to build suspense because you knew bad things were coming but you didn't know when or how. The goal is to make you feel the weight of the characters throughout, and how their survival is now about more than just their lives.