English Channel

It’s the height of summer, but theaters around the Bay Area are currently resplendent in a wide variety of amazing pictures right now, from tentpole superhero movies to quiet, meditative micro-budget films

We learn hardly any names — no backstories, no motivations. But war leaves little time for dialogue, and the wordless understanding between the soldiers, while one we may not be privy to, establishes a new way of telling war stories — one that focuses not on an “us vs. them” but on survival by any means.

Gemma Arterton is vibrant and powerful. The script presents her with opportunities to combat the men she works with, and she capitalizes on those.