Last week, Steve McQueen’s “Blitz” opened the BFI London Film Festival on October 9, and closed the New York Film Festival on October 10.
The rousing big-budget action film tackles the impact of the London bombings on a separated mother (Saoirse Ronan) and son (Elliott Heffernan). It’s set to have a limited theatrical run on November 1 via Apple Studios and Variance Films. Its streaming date is set for November 22 on Apple TV+
IndieWire’s Anne Thompson says despite “Blitz” playing to raves on its home turf in London, American critics have been more critical about the WWII epic. She’s right. “Blitz” currently down to 72 on Metacritic, and a majority of the high scores belong to UK-based critics.
“Blitz” played to a polite if unenthusiastic reaction at NYFF. It’s turned out to be both McQueen’s most ambitious and most conventional film yet. Here’s our NYFF correspondent, Tyler Gibson, with more details:
“McQueen strives to make “Blitz” his most accessible film, a rousing war epic influenced by the tales of Charles Dickens. However, it’s as if he crammed every story and character he’s ever researched or read about regarding the true stories.”
“If anything, “Blitz” is a miniseries worth of material. McQueen doesn’t have the light levity as a filmmaker to articulate these moments of surreal whimsy. He’s at his best with the detailed tracking shots of rubble and dismantled war zones. A standout moment is the flooding of a train tunnel.”
“The best moments in the film intercut between musical sequences and the war occurring outside the homes. The scale is immense. The sounds of bombs being dropped viscerally pump up the theater sound system.”
“Blitz” bursts at the seams with storylines and characters, but they are sketched too thinly. They’re more notions of characters and narratives. Actors such as Harris Dickinson pop up, but ultimately offer very little. The sense of childlike innocence being exposed to the cruelty of humanity is not properly reflected upon enough as the film breathlessly moves along and cross-cuts between flashbacks and the present without moments of ruminative pace.”