By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Blitz (UK, 2024. Dir: Steve McQueen): There’s one advantage that Blitz has over most “Battle of England”-inspired films: it has Steve McQueen at the helm. Not only the filmmaker can create poignant tableaux about the black experience (most notably Twelve Years a Slave) and urban malaise (Shame). He also makes them look good.

Blitz is a stunning, no expense spared experience (Apple TV+’s calling card), yet there’s more to it than eye candy. McQueen does something few war films from the Allied perspective have dared in the past. Instead of showing the Brits as a single, stoic body steadfast in the face of unfathomable odds, the filmmaker chooses to focus on the cracks: the pervasive racism, the class divide, and moral shortcomings of many. The “keep calm and carry on” mantra was only skin deep.

The drama is anchored by Rita (Saoirse Ronan, having herself a year) and her nine-year-old son George (newcomer Elliott Heffernan). It’s 1940 and Nazi Germany is bombing London nightly. There’s little for civilians to do outside turning the lights off and seek shelter, preferably underground. Rita decides to send George along with hundreds of children to the countryside to keep him from harm.

George is not having it and very quickly ditches the train and heads back home. His journey goes from picturesque to Dickensian to Painted Bird (almost). Rita, in turn, must deal with deep emotional pain and impending doom on nightly basis.

There’s a disparity between George’s fascinating trip and Rita’s predicament. The kid’s odyssey is thrilling, intriguing, and painful. George is black and his race permeates every interaction, even the positive ones. This is a rarely seen approach and McQueen deals with it both delicately and bluntly, depending on the circumstances. Rita’s journey is more internal (navigating the heartbreak of losing George’s dad and open herself to new possibilities), but by no means dismissible.

At times Blitz is a notch tropey and wastes a perfectly good Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness) in a pointless role, but the shortcomings are far fewer than the things McQueen gets right. Blitz reminds us empathy doesn’t always come naturally, but putting an effort is worthwhile. Maybe it should have opened before the American election. Four stars (out of five).

Now playing in select theatres in Canada. Blitz will premiere globally on Apple TV+ on November 22.