71

The title refers to 1971, the year when Gary Hook (Jack O'Connell), a private in the British army, finds himself stranded on the streets of Belfast. The situation leaves him a target for the warring forces of Catholic nationalists who are embroiled in their own internal conflicts with the IRA and other radical insurgents and Protestant loyalists.

In short, our boy Gary is in the shit. And '71, the hard-charging debut feature from TV director Yann Demange, makes us live every vivid, violent moment with him, the threat of death lurking at every turn. Director Paul Greengrass took a documentary approach to the same Troubles in 2002's Bloody Sunday. Demange's film, spiked by an outstanding, all-stops-out O'Connell, makes politics unnervingly personal. Too much? What else do you expect of a cinematic knockout punch that sends you reeling?