Saoirse Ronan Suffers Through Nazi Horrors in ‘Blitz’
There’s terror in both cacophony and silence, and Blitz is most arresting when it exploits the interplay between the chaotic and the tranquil to suggest the seesawing insanity of the Nazis’ September 1940 bombing campaign against London.
Director Steve McQueen’s second straight WWII effort following his 262-minute 2023 documentary Occupied City, the formally accomplished film is an immersive descent into a hell of fear, death, and separation. Nonetheless, it’s also a narratively and emotionally disjointed journey, its fine lead performances, moving details, and racial commentary never cohering into an affecting spectacular.
(Blitz was the closing night selection of this year’s New York Film Festival. It hits theaters Nov. 1 ahead of its release on Apple TV+ Nov. 22.)