Director, writer, and producer Steve McQueen brings his incisive real-world filmmaking back to his home city of London in “Blitz”, an impeccably well-made historical drama set in the early days of World War II during what many called “The Blitz”. Named after Germany’s Blitzkrieg, The Blitz was an eight-month period when Hitler’s Air Force unleashed a major bombing campaign over British cities. During that time over 1.2 million people were evacuated from ravaged British targets with more than half being children.

That bit of history sets the table for McQueen’s heart-rending story. After a truly harrowing four-minute opening that features firefighters battling raging infernos caused by German bombs, we’re introduced to the film’s two main characters, a devoted mother named Rita (Saoirse Ronan) and her good-hearted 9-year-old biracial son, George (Elliott Heffernan). Their unshakable bond is the emotional linchpin that secures McQueen’s story.

McQueen drops us into September of 1940. It’s only one year into World War II, but the impact of Hitler’s aggression is being felt all across England. Rita and George live in a London flat with her piano-playing father, Gerald (Paul Weller) who has a strong attachment to his dear grandson. But outside of their small but loving home is a much harsher and troubled world.

As the Nazi bombings intensify, Rita is convinced to send George to the countryside on a train full of other kids being evacuated. The two don’t part on the best of terms as the frustrated George shuts out his heartbroken mother. But as the train nears its destination, a remorseful George jumps off and heads off on an ill-advised adventure back to London in hopes of reconciling with his mother.

The majority of the story follows George’s dangerous journey which opens his young eyes to the terrible realities of his world. He meets an assortment of people along the way, some vile and opportunistic while others show much needed compassion. McQueen shows us both sides through George’s naive and innocent eyes which offers a raw and forthright perspective. Young Heffernan (making his feature film debut) is terrific, quietly conveying everything we need to understand what George is feeling. It’s a potent first performance.

As George tries to find his way home, Rita goes to work in a factory making bombs for the war effort. She also volunteers at a shelter for displaced locals. But once she gets word that George didn’t arrive with the other children, she sets out on her own mission to find her son. Ronan has always possessed a near effortless grace. Here she combines it with a fraught motherly intensity resulting in a warm yet steely performance that’s crucial to McQueen’s vision.

As “Blitz” moves forward, flashbacks offer some needed context and depth especially involving George’s father, Marcus (CJ Beckford). They’re well done and informative though not particularly original in where they go. And as McQueen is known to do, his film takes moments to examine racial prejudice. Some of the scenes are powerful while others feel framed for the audience rather than organic to the story. They can be a little too on-the-nose and even clumsy at times, lacking the storytelling finesse we’ve come to expect from the filmmaker.

But those are such small quibbles for a movie this stirring, heartfelt, and well crafted. Steve McQueen remains a fascinating filmmaker. With “Blitz” he embraces an old-fashioned classicism yet isn’t afraid to add his own creative flavor. His film is very much a lavish wartime drama, illuminated through the period-piece lensing of DP Yorick Le Saux. But as with most of McQueen’s projects, it’s a human drama at its core. There are moments of inspiration but even more that shatter us. And then McQueen hits us with something like the film’s Café de Paris nightclub sequence – the kind of technically brilliant and emotionally sobering scene that makes his movies must-see experiences.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

In the biographical drama “Bonhoeffer”, writer-director Todd Komarnicki attempts to tell the fascinating true story of German pastor, theologian, and vocal anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Jonas Dassler is given the weighty task of portraying the titular lead character whose significant life was marked by courage, resilience, persecution, and eventually martyrdom.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born February 4, 1906 in Breslau, Germany (now Poland) and grew up in a large and loving family. By age 21 he was completing his Doctor of Theology degree and at age 25 he was ordained to ministry. But the course of his life changed with Adolph Hitler’s rise to power and the spread of Naziism across his country. Not only was Bonhoeffer instrumental in defending the sanctity of the church from the Third Reich’s influence, but he stepped beyond the pulpit to aid oppressed Jews and even helped in devising a plan to assassinate the Führer.

Anyone attempting to chronicle the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer automatically has a lot of ground to cover. And if “Bonhoeffer” has one noticeable flaw, it’s its use of elements from conventional biopic formulas to help cover as much ground as possible. But while Komarnicki may borrow from other biopic blueprints, he doesn’t rely on them. He incorporates many of his own ideas both narratively and structurally. And ultimately it’s the power of Bonhoeffer’s rich and inspirational true story that Komarnicki leans on most. The results are gripping, provocative, and deeply affecting.

Komarnicki takes a non-linear approach to telling Bonhoeffer’s story, beginning in 1914 at his childhood family home in rural Germany before quickly shifting to 1945 Bavaria where he is imprisoned for his Nazi opposition and more directly his involvement in the plot to kill Hitler. As he awaits his fate, he begins reflecting on his tremendous life.

From there Komarnicki transports us back to key points in Bonhoeffer’s journey. We witness how 12-year-old Dietrich’s life was impacted by the death of his big brother in World War I. Years later we follow him to Union Seminary in New York where he attends as Berlin’s star theological pupil. There he befriends a Black man named Frank Fisher (David Jonsson, “Alien: Romulus”) who introduces him to a new kind of spirituality, jazz music, and an eye-opening bigotry and hatred that Dietrich never knew existed.

But reality truly sets in after Dietrich returns home and learns of Hitler’s ascension. Among the many troubling aspects of the Führer’s systematic power-grab is the Nazi influence on the church. It included the removal of the Jewish Bible and all imagery, as well as the promotion of pastors who were sympathetic to the Nazi cause. It doesn’t take long for Deitrich’s blind optimism and naïveté to give way to a principle-driven boldness to speak out, not only against the current trend of the church, but against Hitler himself.

Dietrich’s unwavering courage immediately puts a target on his back. Yet he continues to fight, pushing for the church to stand on the truth and to reject the false doctrines of the German Reich Church. Among those inspired by Dietrich’s conviction is his friend and fellow pastor Martin Niemöller (played by August Diehl – brilliant in 2019’s “A Hidden Life”). Together they’re instrumental in creating underground seminaries and helping to found the Confessing Church.

Komarnicki goes even further, showing Deitrich’s efforts to smuggle Jews out of the country with his brother-in-law Hans (Flula Borg) and his work in Sussex, England, secretly encouraging pastors to share the truth of what’s happening in Germany to the outside world. And then there’s his part in the plot to assassinate Hitler and the moral dilemma he faces as a pastor and a pacifist. Some of these endeavors could have benefited from more attention, but they all help give us a better grasp of Bonhoeffer’s extraordinary life.

As history informs us, Deitrich Bonhoeffer was executed on April 9, 1945 at the age of 39, mere weeks before Germany surrendered to the Allies. While the finer details surrounding his death have been debated, “Bonhoeffer” chooses a more sanitized yet no less powerful approach to his final moments that stresses the impact of his enormous sacrifice. It’s a stirring punctuation mark on a true story that emphasizes the refusal to keep silent in the face of unspeakable evil.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS