Rating: 9.5
Oppenheimer left me stunned and speechless. This is the movie of the decade, and certainly Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus. This movie is the definition of masterpiece! Nolan directs a beautiful and harrowing experience that is completely mesmerizing. It’s a true masterclass on building extreme tension through exquisite, fast dialogue, insanely powerful sound & an equally explosive score. And it looks incredible on IMAX 70mm film. Cillian Murphy and RDJ deliver career best performances.
Oppenheimer is unlike any film you've ever seen. The direction, editing and music seem to be in permanent fusion, immersing us in the mind of J. Robert Oppenheimer. A pure sensory experience that makes it the Nolan film with the strongest identity.
Gorgeous. Monumental. Terrifying.
Film Info:
Premise: The film chronicles the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist who was pivotal in developing the first nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project, and thereby ushering in the Atomic Age.
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Universal
Written for the Screen & Directed by Christopher Nolan
Based on the book “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek
Runtime: 3hr 0min
Rating: 14A
Biography, Drama, History
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IMDb Rating: 8.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%
RT Audience Score: 94%
RT Critic Average: 8.7/10
RT Audience Average: 4.7/5
Metacritic Score: 89
CinemaScore: A
Letterboxd: 4.4/5
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Fun Fact: In order for the Black & White sections of the movie to be shot in the same quality as the rest of the film, Kodak developed the first ever B&W film stock for IMAX.
Nolan also revealed there are no CGI shots in the film.
Review:
written by Tyler Park
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
What am I even supposed to say after that?
I’m speechless.
Floored.
In a state of awe.
And terrified.
I’ve loved Christopher Nolan since I got into film. For many years I listed Inception as my favourite movie. I’ve hailed most of his work as masterful, seen all his movies more times than I care to say.
So when I say that Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus; his masterpiece, I mean it. This is a film that blows Interstellar, Dunkirk, The Dark Knight, Memento, and yes, Inception, completely out of the water!
I genuinely cannot even process how incredible of a film Oppenheimer truly is on every single level. Direction. Writing. Cinematography. Sound. Music. Editing. Acting. All masterful work from everyone involved to create such a stunning, profound experience.
This is cinema. This is the film of the year. This is perhaps the film of the decade. I’m not even exaggerating. See it for yourself, you’ll see.
I saw Oppenherimer on IMAX 70MM film, a format that is superior to all else that is unfortunately dying. I count myself lucky that I got to see this the way Nolan intended, being displayed on that giant screen with the powerful IMAX sound with the breathtaking 1.43:1 aspect ratio (in digital cinemas you will only see it in 2.20:1, essentially widescreen with the tops and bottoms of the frame cut off). I say this because I hope that as you read this you consider going out of your way to find a 70MM screening. It’s not often films are projected on actual film stock anymore, and with only 30 cities in the world getting 600-pound, 11 mile long prints of Oppenheimer, I feel so lucky there was a screening accessible to me. This format is truly special, there’s nothing like seeing a movie projected on actual film! The detail and quality of the picture and sound is unparalleled.
Oppenheimer is a gorgeous picture. It’s monumental. And also terrifying. It’s truly unlike anything I’ve ever seen before; a biopic that turns into a thriller before your very eyes. It’s intellectually engaging and actually gets you to think about our current reality as you watch Oppenheiemer himself wrestle with the consequences of his actions. The direction, editing and music all seem to be in permanent fusion, immersing us in the mind of J. Robert Oppenheimer. It’s a pure sensory experience that makes it the Nolan film with the strongest identity. The film is a true masterclass on building extreme tension through exquisite, fast dialogue, insanely powerful sound and an equally explosive score. Nolan directs a beautiful and harrowing experience that is completely mesmerizing; I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen.
I could go into depth on every element of the film but what is the point when everything was done so masterfully? Instead this review is just going to be my thoughts as they come, as I’m still processing the movie. I truly can’t give you my full, definitive thoughts on the movie – I’m still digesting it. I need multiple viewings and conversations to really dial into it – I’m not sure it's even possible to fully process a film like this after one watch. This is one that sits with you, I genuinely haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I saw it about 15 hours ago. I couldn’t sleep last night because it has invaded my mind to such a strong degree. And I’m not just thinking about the movie, but also the ideas it presents, what Nolan is trying to say about the world we live in today.
Oppenheimer is a devastating masterpiece that will be studied for years to come. I’ve never seen a biopic with such graceful, grand, sweeping presentation like this. The film is constructed to give that feeling of being on the precipice of something equally awe-inspiring and terrifying. It is essential viewing that leaves you in silence. There is lots of rightful praise for Oppenheimer’s technical elements, but I keep thinking about the screenplay. This is an outstanding adaptation of “American Prometheus”, capturing dozens of subplots, countless characters, and 700 pages of nuance without ever feeling bloated or confusing. The driest stretch of the book (Oppenheimer’s security clearance hearing) becomes thrilling because of how Nolan’s script intersperses it throughout the film, using it to emphasize and comment on other narrative threads. Nolan’s script really manages to draw more suspense out of boardrooms than most action movies this year! It’s like The Social Network of WWII films – with a very similar lightning fast zip zap dialogue going from one intense conversation to another, of people destroying each other, and you feel like you’re in the present tense witnessing history being made. It's a masterpiece of writing with incredible dialogue reminiscent of Aaron Sorkin’s best work. But to fully exploit the dialogue you need great actors, and on that point the film is outstanding.
Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr and Emily Blunt will win the Oscar hands down. I've never seen actors so immersed in their characters. Murphy does all-timer work — it’s impossible to imagine the film working without him. I’m sad that as a society we had to wait this long to give Cillian Murphy the opportunity to be the lead role in a movie of this magnitude. I know we have many films yet to come this year, but in no world do I see a way any performance tops Murphy’s. Give him his flowers! Although Oppenheimer is marketed as an explosive blockbuster, Cillian Murphy as a leading man transforms it into an inescapable character study with the energy of a chemical reaction that is not limited to the screen. Murphy hooks you with just his hypnotic blue eyes. He instantly deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the best work from actors like Marlon Brando and Daniel Day-Lewis - his performance is that undeniably well-realized and unforgettable. And his might not have even been my favourite performance in the movie! Robert Downey Jr. stole the show with an unforgettable, commanding performance. In Oppenheimer, Downey is magnetic – you hang on his every word. From line delivery to eye contact, RDJ hits every note in this performance to perfection. Truly a career outing that deserves Oscar recognition. I’ve never seen him this good, and it's so nice to see him getting to flex his acting muscles again! He’s coming for that Oscar! Both Murphy and RDJ delivered the best performances of their respective careers! And you can’t forget about Emily Blunt either – during a critical cross-examination scene, Nolan offers Emily Blunt the opportunity to showcase the skill and biting line deliveries she’s displayed throughout her career. That scene definitely had “Oscar clip” written all over it – but Blunt was stunning throughout the entire film too! And I have to give credit to the rest of the expansive cast too – everyone gave it their all even with little amounts of screentime. Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, Gary Oldman, Rami Malek, Jack Quaid, Benny Safdie, Alden Ehrenreich, and Casey Affleck. I could go on. This cast is incredible and I was amazed that they all delivered awards worthy performances! The cast was just pure perfection!
Imagine if Nolan took the writing and editing urgency of The Social Network and fused it with a beautiful but harsh invasion of visuals a la Terrence Malick. The result is Oppenheimer. I’d even go as far to say that this is Nolan’s The Theory of Everything. Holy shit, it is a thunderous epic about politics vs science, loss of empathy, and impending doom. It’s a stark character study, a message, a warning that leaves you with existential dread. It’s immersive and unforgettable; a harrowing, disturbing, scary story of how a man's obsession changed the world. This is the best directing I’ve seen from Christopher Nolan. The man swings hard here and they land tremendously. Give it all the editing and sound awards. One particular moment left me utterly speechless, I thought to myself “that’s the scene of the year.” Finally, after a long long time, the “cold” approach that’s commonly criticized of Nolan’s direction works wonders here, because it is all about that coming doom. About mankind’s uncanny ability to destroy itself and lose all empathy. Finally that cold is felt as a weight on us. And man, do you ever feel the weight of this movie. The film is ingeniously engineered to study its subject’s contradictions and compartmentalizations out of time and space, then collide one into another in intricate chain reactions of cause and effect, theory and practice, power and consequence. It’s one of the best historical dramas ever made because it exists so uncomfortably, so disquietly, in shades of gray.
Oppenheimer’s truly Nolan’s most mature outing to date. A euphoric and catastrophic cinematic experience. A tragic testament to humanity’s hubris and how it will be our end. This is a vital reminder that no one makes films like Nolan. His approach to the form is more lyrical than ever, yet never more mechanical. Oppressively demanding, yet effortlessly engaging. I was hypnotically riveted the entire time. Rarely has Hollywood told a story this personal over a canvas this expansive. In typical Nolan fashion, it's its own paradox! It's the little moments in Oppenheimer that keep my head spinning, like how the first shot of Oppenheimer simply putting on his hat is felt with such gravitas and fear of the unknown. The last third of Oppenheimer is wild because the entire time I had no idea how it would end as impactful as his films usually do after its first big climax, and then the actual final scene comes and it’s just completely devastating and on par with his very best final scenes. The final scene horrified me, it had me staring up at the screen unable to look away long after the film had cut to black. Goddamn does Nolan ever know how to end his films!
Oppenheimer is the film of the decade. A devastating story delicately crafted down to the smallest atom, driven by a transcendent, career-defining performance from Cillian Murphy. Nolan takes you through incomprehensible stages of emotion. It’s arguably one of, if not the most important film of the 21st century. It’s a film in 100 years people will be talking about the same way we talk about the likes of King Kong, Gone With The Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather, Star Wars, and Titanic.
The film is truly a monumental achievement from Christopher Nolan. He uses every technical tool in his arsenal to maximum effect – it goes beyond Nolan showcasing a compelling character study, as the visuals and score elevate every moment. And Nolan has perfected his sound design, allowing dense dialogue to be audible within Göransson’s ever present — booming and tense, yet magically emotional — score.
Oppenheimer will go down in history as one of the great epics of all time. A viscerally chilling unraveling of scientific discovery and persecution, McCarthy paranoia, and man's collision course with annihilation. A staggering achievement orbiting a morally complex center. A powerful story told on the grandest scale possible. Cillian Murphy seizes his moment and turns in a mesmerizing portrayal of moral torment. I also need to specifically shout out the strong Oscar-worthy supporting turns from Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt, tremendous cinematography, thunderous sound, intricate editing and magnificent score. Nolan’s character study merges a thematically resonant story with a breathtaking soundscape and epic visuals. The IMAX experience for this one is a must. It truly left me in awe!
Oppenheimer is a complete and utter masterpiece that you MUST see. I had high expectations, and the film exceeded them on every count! Cinema is thriving!
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