1917

3 Reasons to See It: 1) It's a story about bravery, a survival-type of story. 2) Some of the elements are really unique as it's a continuous shot movie. 3) A lot of the actors are unknown and it makes for a very different movie.

3 Reasons to Not See It: 1) This movie is about war and it's pretty heavy material. 2) Minor thing, but some of the transitions are there for obvious reasons. It was slightly distracting. 3) Plot is pretty basic, but this does focus on character in the midst of action.

Popcorn: 8/10. I really enjoyed 1917. It kept you in suspense most of the movie and was just thrilling to watch. I wouldn't watch it with the kids simply because it's really dark. Not as dark as Joker but I wouldn't recommend this to everyone.

Art: 9.5/10. Acting, story, set design and costuming, and filming were all spot on. There's only two glaring points in the editing and story elements that were off.

Acting: 5/6. Really good acting and not a lot of well-known actors. I'm not sure it rises to the level of Oscar-worthy, but it was good nonetheless.

Music: 4/4. This was amazing music - very haunting and stirring. It wasn't until someone pointed it out to me and then I couldn't get it out of my head. Even the next day.

Filming: 4/4. The entire movie was about the cinematography. It was aiming for a single-take continuous-shot feel and it landed. Very impressive. Some of the pictures were gorgeous and contrasted well with the background of war.

Art Dept: 4/4. This was a period-piece in 1917. Costuming, hair/makeup, and set design were true to the time period (or at least felt true).

Editing: 3/4. I went back and forth on whether to give this full marks or not. The visual editing was impressive to stitch together the continuous shot feel. The sound editing was amazing (we saw it in Dolby Cinema - worth it). I think where it fell short was that the visual editing was a little obvious. I think even going in blind (not knowing about the continuous-shot feel) it would've been obvious.

Story: 7/8. For the most part, the story was pretty basic. It's a survival movie, which automatically has emotions that go along with it. Those weren't spoiled. The one thing that made me roll my eyes was that there was quite a bit of coincidence in the movie. It's a distraction, but not enough to say it's a bad movie. One could argue it was part of the theme.

Directing: 6/6. This was a very unique vision and executed very well. Most everything clicked except one or two things.

Production: 4/4. A movie well worth seeing on the big screen, in Dolby Cinema if possible.