War movies are of men. Historical war movies, more so. Which is why Testament of Youth, the first feature film dramatization of the famed World War I memoir by Vera Brittain, an auxiliary nurse, bestselling author, and lifelong pacifist, comes as a fresh perspective even in 2015. With an elegant and gritty performance by Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina) as Vera and what can only be described as poetic direction by James Kent, Testament of Youth is a haunting and unsparing elegy to a war that, a century later, still has much to teach us about love, loss, and—believe it or not—feminism.
