1917 (Sam Mendes, 2019)

What about this particular story or historical event dictated that it be filmed in "one take"? The gimmick turns Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998) into a video game and, as such, I found it insufferably goal-oriented. There's a vaguely psychedelic moment in the middle where the hot-thank-gawd protagonist played by George MacKay holes up in a village on fire. It looked like a sound stage and I was fond of this brief bit of artifice in a film praised for its realism. But if Mendes has any insight into what makes WWI a unique disaster, then he's hidden it quite well under his dexterous camera movements. A dreary slog.

Grade: C+