Oppenheimer: Another three hour history flick, but with bombastic Christopher Nolan energy

 

Oppenheimer isn’t simply a movie about the creation of the atomic bomb, it’s a full character study of the man behind it. Cillian Murphy completely embodies Oppenheimer, capturing the true grief and emotions he felt over his actions. Nolan takes you deep into this mindset with some horrifically mental scenes that might be the best display of anxiety I’ve ever seen on screen. Oppenheimer is fully realized, with Nolan’s bombastic direction completely enveloping the viewer. It’s almost hard to believe this movie is three hours because it breezed by for me, I felt so immersed from start to finish. Masterpiece material.

Christopher Nolan almost always manipulates time in his projects, and that’s no different here as we see two halves of a story jumped between over the runtime. Half the story is of course about Trinity and the creation of the atomic bomb, but the other half is a deep investigation into Oppenheimer himself that feels like a political thriller. The constant jumping between the two stories seems initially confusing but it all starts clicking together pretty quick. On top of this, we get tons of little side glances that jump all over the timeline to give you plenty of context and insight into Oppenheimer’s life. And of course, the color / black and white scenes that capture subjective / objective view. We see the same scene but from different perspectives, adding and revealing context where we least expect it.

Every performance is stellar no matter how large or small the role is. To list every single actor and how good they were would extend this review by many paragraphs, so I’ll go quick with the performances that stuck with me the most. Emily Blunt plays the alcoholic wife perfectly, but she has some surprising depth that starts to creep up towards the end of the movie. Matt Damon‘s weary general act worked for me, I especially liked the scenes where you can tell he’s being empathetic towards Oppenheimer. Florence Pugh demands your attention and steals the few scenes she’s in (the choice to display the affair in the hearing was a stunning yet bold choice). Strauss is easily RDJ’s best performance ever. That third act sneering that starts to creep up as a result of him feeling slighted by Oppenheimer is truly fantastic. God, I could keep going. Safdie? Amazing. Casey Affleck? Intimidating. Too many names to name, but they’re all fantastic and important to the story no matter the size of their roles.

I talk about Nolan’s dedication to practical production pretty much every time I review one of his movies, and that dedication is present tenfold in Oppenheimer. The audio mixing is actually great for once, the dialogue was backed by intense sound but had plenty of clarity. Ludwig Göransson presents one of his best scores ever, driving the flow of the movie and demanding your attention with many intense themes. I think this is Nolan’s most sound driven movie yet, the pacing of the story wouldn’t work without the ambitious score driving it the whole time. Everything looks gorgeous too, plenty of classic Nolan wide shots but also many intense closeups that capture what characters are feeling in the moment. One of the main appeals of Oppenheimer is to see the practical bomb go off and I’m very satisfied with the result. I’m seeing many people say that it’s underwhelming, but it’s very accurate to the original Trinity test footage. The perspective of Oppenheimer viewing it through that lens of anxiety is genius, and the choice to keep most of it silent pulls you into that. And then of course that massive bang that shatters your theater!

Oppenheimer is a masterpiece no doubt. I’ve been thinking about it for days and I really cannot find anything that irked me in any way. There’s a little unusual pacing at the beginning and after the atomic bomb test, but 99% of the time pacing issues are cleared up for me on a rewatch. Every layer of this film is perfect, be it the stellar production, fantastic performances, or the deep dive into Oppenheimer himself. The theater experience for it was incredible, a packed IMAX auditorium with every single person glued to the screen. When the credits rolled, there was silence and no movement for at least 30 seconds. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to watch a timeless masterpiece when it came out, and now I know. I’m already buying tickets for a second showing, I absolutely have to see this again.