Oppenheimer Movie Review

Christopher Nolan delivers a masterpiece with 3 hour biopic about the father of the atomic bomb

Nolan knocks it out of the park with possible career best film that belongs in the same league with epic films like Lawrence of Ariba, Gandhi, Seven Samurai, The Bridge on The River Kwai, and The Godfather. Nolan uses all the tools he has learned and refined over his career to make this film getting incredible performances across the board from the main cast to actors who have 1 scene and crush it. The themes of what happens when you are a genius and create something and then realizing it is a mistake and it’s too late, the trauma of feeling the weight of not only the people who died from the 2 bombs dropping in Japan but what it means for the world going forward. When you have a different opinion from those in power, they will turn your back on you and accuse you of being communist and a traitor to get you out of the way are so compelling and so well explored they make you want to watch the film over, and over which is an incredible achievement in cinema.

Christopher Nolan does such an incredible job directing the film the way he jumps back and forth in time, how he chooses to hold back certain things back unit later in the film. The performances he gets out of his incredible cast like Cillian Murphy,Emily Blunt, and Robert Downey Jr who gives his best performance since Tropic Thunder and leaves his tricks he used as Iron Man behind and embodies Lewis

Strauss. The way he uses score and sound design to bring you into Oppenheimer’s headspace to understand what he is thinking and feeling is so immersive I can’t recall another director using them like this way and it’s so good. The pacing of the film is incredible for a 3-hour half black and white dialogue heavy movie it flies by and never drags or loses focus and has such a confident hand in telling the story.

I’ve mentioned the acting is stellar Cillian Murphy in the title role is phenomenal he brings the iconic Scientist to life, his genius, the mental health issues that he had, the hubris and excitement he has when first creating the atomic bomb. Then the depression, regret, and feeling the consequences of what he created. The way he uses those piercing eyes and captures the essence of this man and it’s so impressive since he is almost every moment of this 3-hour movie and carries it so well. Robert Downey Jr is so good he conveys human frailty, paranoia, and ego when you see how him and Oppenheimer come into conflict and when its revealed that Strauss arranged for the private farse of a trial to humiliate and discredit Dr Oppenheimer just because he thinks Oppenheimer talked ill of him to Einstein without any proof of that shows how fragile someone’s ego can lead someone to make terrible petty choices. Emily Blunt is also fantastic as Kitty Oppenheimer who is J Robert Oppenheimer’s wife as his support system in the film and seeing how she felt trapped in a life she didn’t want. You see how strong she was and how much she loved him and when she finally gets a chance, she testifies to defend him and

absolutely steals the film by turning the tables on the prosecutor played by Jason Clarke and is a powerhouse. The rest of the cast is great Matt Damon played a cornel who is about to be promoted to general who has a respect for Oppenheimer and has conflict with because he wants to compartmentalize but Oppenheimer wants to share with other scientists and it’s great to watch. The rest of the ensemble are great actors like Josh Harnett, Matthew Modine, Rami Malek, and Alden Ehrenreich

are so good and fill the cast and make an impact even if it’s just for a scene.

The technical aspects of the film are astounding starting with the score by Ludwig Goransson is one of the best scores for a film I have ever heard it is a character in the movie and when I hear certain tracks of the score it immediately puts me back in scenes of the movie and in the film really elevates the film like when there are hearings the score really sells the intensity and seriousness of them. I love the themes that play in Kitty’s testimony and when Strauss is monologuing about how Oppenheimer would do it all over again if he could and how he turned the scientific design of the trinity test is so well done, and, in a theater, you feel the weight of the moment through the silence at first to then the explosion and you feel like your there. Another scene where the sound design is the speech Oppenheimer makes after the

2 bombs dropped in Japan you see how he has the realization of what he has done and when he steps in an imaginary dust of a corpse you feel his anxiety, panic, and what the ramifications of what he has created. The cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema is so beautiful and the way he uses Imax for intimate scenes in the film are so engrossing and the trinity test is so well done you feel like the characters who are that brings all the scientists together to create this device, the tight little room where

Oppenheimer was tried and the house where Oppenheimer and Kitty lived is so well done.

Final thoughts on the film is I adore this film that I believe will stand the test of time and become a classic from top to bottom from the direction to the script, the editing, the score, sound design, cinematography, and the performances are note perfect, it’s my favorite film of 2023 please see it whenever you get a chance I give it a 5 out of 5.