Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Dunkirk:
All Quiet on the Western Front
Director Edward Berger and cinematographer James Friend come together to create 2022’s signature war epic All Quiet on the Western Front, which pushes stylistic boundaries for the genre not seen since before the pandemic. It is terrifying and riveting at its best moments, and slightly formulaic at its lesser ones. Combined with a saddening performance by Felix Kammerer, the film is one of Netflix’s best ones of 2022.
Warfare
Warfare is the kind of war film that forgoes grandiosity in favor of raw, boots-on-the-ground immediacy, and the result is a lean, harrowing experience that feels startlingly real. Co-directed by Alex Garland and former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza, the film comes just a year after Garland’s more polarizing and thematically ambiguous Civil War—a movie that aspired to be a socio-political reckoning but often buckled under the weight of its own ideas. In contrast, Warfare is stripped down and visceral in a way that’s much more effective.
Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant
The Covenant effectively sandwiches two rescue missions back-to-back in a tightly controlled narrative. It’s a two hander, sneakily becoming an anthology of several strong stories and ideas working within one another. Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim headline the movie, and each get half of the film to take the lead.
The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. There are certain movies that feel almost titanic as they happen. It was only a matter of time before someone adapted The Odyssey on a grand scale. And after Dunkirk further proved Nolan’s mastery of large-scale historical filmmaking, and Oppenheimer cemented him as arguably the most important blockbuster filmmaker working today, Homer’s epic felt like the biggest fish left in the pond.
Black Hawk Down
Ridley Scott is arguably one of the best directors alive at exactly this kind of filmmaking. Movies that feel like reenactments, but reenactments so cinematic and overwhelming that – depending on my mood – it makes up for the fact that there’s often not a ton that emotionally clicks with me in his work, nor do I find much of his 21st century output to carry a lot of personality. I liked The Last Duel, Napoleon, and House of Gucci well enough, but I won’t argue that the dioramic recreation does a lot of the heavy lifting in each of those films compared to the thematic depths they don’t seem particularly interested in having. Black Hawk Down fits that mold pretty well too.
Blitz
Steve McQueen’s Blitz is an ambitious and sprawling narrative that balances the intimacy of a personal journey with the grandeur of historical drama. Known for his ability to craft emotionally resonant stories on a massive scale, McQueen flexes his filmmaking brilliance this time around by placing the viewer in the chaos and heartbreak of wartime London. The film centers on George (Elliott Heffernan), a young boy determined to reunite with his mother amid the devastating Blitz, using his story to anchor a larger one of human resilience, fear, and hope.
Civil War
I’m fascinated to see how Civil War will change in my estimation on a rewatch. The movie is significantly less tied to its premise and more tied to its character than I expected. Alex Garland is so, so remarkably close to making a thoughtful statement on the tenuous state of affairs in our country. But he pulls back when he should be going all in. It slips through his fingers when it comes to the biggest details.
Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is undoubtedly one of the best movies directed by Christopher Nolan, who puts any doubt to rest that he wouldn’t be capable of capturing a story of this magnitude. Cillian Murphy gives an iconic performance that intensifies each moment rolling along this breakneck biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is a movie of firsts that never feels tentative. It is his first modern-set feature since Punch-Drunk Love, his first collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio, and his first film of this scale, reportedly in the $130 to $175 million range. What is not new is the command. From the first explosion to the last chase, this is PTA in full control, turning a feverish political thriller into one of 2025’s most purely thrilling big-screen experiences.
Read our full review of One Battle After Another
Snowpiercer
It’s taken me multiple viewings to fully warm up to Snowpiercer (no pun intended). Bong Joon-ho’s first primarily English-language film is both brilliantly executed as a sci-fi thriller—boasting stunning set pieces and an inspired apocalyptic bullet train setting—and burdened by an overly on-the-nose allegory about class warfare that at times dulls its impact.
READ MORE: Dunkirk (2017), Movies Like The Odyssey, Movies Like Oppenheimer
