By: Andrew Wing

Oppenheimer is a 2023 epic biographical thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar). Based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, 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.

Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Peaky Blinders) stars as the titular character, with Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, A Quiet Place) as Oppenheimer's wife, Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer, Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting, The Martian) as General Leslie Groves, Oppenheimer's military handler, and Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man, Avengers: Endgame) as Lewis Strauss, a senior member of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. The supporting cast also includes Florence Pugh (Midsommar, Black Widow), Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down, Wrath of Man), Casey Affleck (Ocean’s Eleven, Manchester by the Sea), Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody, No Time to Die), and Kenneth Branagh (Dunkirk, Murder on the Orient Express).

The project was announced in September 2021 after Universal Pictures won a bidding war for Nolan's screenplay. Murphy signed on to portray Oppenheimer in October, with others in the main cast joining between November 2021 and April 2022. Pre-production was underway by January 2022, with filming taking place from February to May. Oppenheimer was filmed in a combination of IMAX 65 mm and 65mm large-format film, including, for the first time in history, sections in IMAX black-and-white analog photography. As with his previous works, Nolan utilized extensive practical effects and minimal computer-generated imagery.

Oppenheimer premiered at Le Grand Rex in Paris on July 11, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United Kingdom and the United States on July 21, 2023, by Universal Pictures. Its simultaneous release with the fantasy comedy film Barbie (see our preview here) led to the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon on social media, which encouraged viewers to see both films as a double feature.

THE GOOD

Let’s fucking go! The day that all moviegoers and lovers of film have all been waiting for has finally come! July 21, 2023, also known as “Barbenheimer” Day! First things first, I just have to say as a cinephile that it was great to see this become a phenomenon on social media because both movies were original and organic, but more than that, both movies were necessary to make a big deal out of, and while I still have yet to see Barbie, let me just say that Oppenheimer absolutely lived up to the hype! Keep reading to find out why!

For starters, as Ted said to me as soon as the film concluded and the end credits came up, Christopher fucking Nolan man! He doesn’t miss! The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, I mean the list goes on! Add in Oppenheimer, and Nolan has made five of the best films of the 21st century, and I’m going to go out and say that Oppenheimer just might be the most important film of this century! Nolan is known for his Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, and while we still get that in Oppenheimer, it is truly an epic biographical thriller at the end of the day!

Doing press for the film, Nolan said he has been interested in the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer since he was just a boy from London. More than that, he addresses an old childhood dread of his in this movie, that of course being the threat of thermonuclear war and human annihilation. And while I don’t view this to be Nolan’s magnum opus because I just don’t see anything ever topping The Dark Knight, I do think this is the best-directed movie he has ever done. He put all of his childhood fears into this because, despite the fact that I and everyone else in the theater knew the outcome of this story, the film was still incredibly thrilling and gripping from start to finish. Best believe I will be rooting hard for him to win the Academy Award for Best Director, because let’s be honest, he is well overdue for one.

Onto the screenplay, which Nolan adapted from the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, which I definitely plan on reading in the coming weeks, it is dynamite (pun intended). Seriously though, every line of dialogue is excellent and it goes to prove that not only is Nolan one of the best directors we have working, but also one of the best writers we have today. There are so many monologues given in this film that just made my jaw drop, and the only way he doesn’t win for Best Adapted Screenplay is if some guy named Martin Scorsese does for Killers of the Flower Moon (see our preview here), which is set to come out this fall.

But enough about Nolan, we have to touch on A LOT, and I mean A LOT of performances, but there is only one place to start, and that is Cillian Murphy, who is the titular J. Robert Oppenheimer. A frequent collaborator with Nolan, Murphy often plays side characters in his films, and he is most known for his work in the series Peaky Blinders which I have yet to start for some god-forsaken reason. Needless to say, even though I have not even seen that series, this is a career-best performance from Murphy, and it is truly one of the greatest performances of all time! Apparently, he was so incredibly focused on set and he would go days without eating because he wanted to try and look as much like Oppenheimer, a very skinny man, as possible.

The 47-year-old Irishman has never been nominated for an Academy Award, but I will BET MY LIFE that changes this year. Not only should he be nominated, he really should win. He absolutely carries this movie on his back with his performance, and his intensity in every scene makes the movie as good as it is. Then again, there is that movie I already mentioned that is coming out this fall that just so happens to star a man by the name of Leonardo DiCaprio, who apparently gives a career-best performance, so time will tell, but regardless, hats off to Cillian Murphy because this was unbelievable to watch!

The next best performance belongs to Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr., who plays Lewis Strauss. Strauss, if you disregard the Nazis and the other Axis powers the U.S. is fighting in World War II, is really the film’s antagonist, and good lord does Nolan know how to cast because RDJ was perfect in this role! Being a big Marvel fan, RDJ means so much to me and my love for film because of what he did as Iron Man for over a decade, but other than that, he is just one of my favorite actors and he is so incredibly talented! I am so happy to see him back doing films like this with big-name directors because I’ll say it, I want to see him get some Oscars and I think he will very soon following his performance here! He has a very important role in the film, and in the final third of the film he just cooks with gas, and there is one scene in particular where he just goes off and I’ll say it, I got chills!

I mean I could go on for days because everyone in the cast gave superb performances. Aside from Murphy and RDJ though, the next two key players in the film were Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer's wife, Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer, and Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves, Oppenheimer's military handler. They were both fantastic and are both deserving of Academy Award nominations. Blunt steals the show in the last fifteen minutes with a great scene, and Damon was responsible for almost all of the movie’s few comedic scenes. Other standout performances belonged to the beautiful Florence Pugh who played Oppenheimer’s mistress, Jean Tatlock, Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence, Benny Safdie of the Safdie brothers as the Hungarian-American physicist Edward Teller, Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) as Roger Robb, and Scottish actor Tom Conti (Reuben, Reuben) who plays Albert freaking Einstein, and that’s just to name a few because I’ll say it again, every actor involved killed it!

Now onto arguably my favorite part of a Nolan movie, and that is the technical elements! I have to start with the visuals! First, I saw this in IMAX, and I’m embarrassed to say that it was my first time seeing a film in IMAX, but boy oh boy did I pick a good first movie to pop my IMAX cherry with! For real though, from the opening scene, I was just in awe and it truly was an unforgettable experience, thanks in large part to Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography! Hoyte had done the previous three Nolan movies, and the most recent film he worked on was Jordan Peele’s Nope (read my full review here) from last year, and I just have to say it, he might be the best cinematographer working right now. I’m sorry Roger Deakins, you are the G.O.A.T., but what Hoyte is doing with the camera right now is just on another planet, and this should be a LOCK for Best Cinematography. The editing from Jennifer Lame was remarkable, and Oscar-worthy and the score from Ludwig Göransson is unreal stuff. The score just bangs and like van Hoytema, Göransson might be the best composer working right now and he proved it with this score which everyone should just go listen to right this very second!

THE BAD

Come on. I have never skipped this section in my over 130 reviews, but this is the closest I have ever come to skipping it entirely. Seriously though, this movie is a masterpiece and a true achievement in filmmaking. I have seen critics saying that Nolan is juggling too much here and good lord does that piss me off because he gives us one of the best movie endings of the past ten years in this because, in the last five minutes of the film, we get every question answered. Oh, and if anyone complains about the runtime of this movie, I swear to God, I will blow my top!

THE VERDICT

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is truly one of the greatest films of all time. It is an achievement in filmmaking in every way possible and it is carried by career-best performances from almost everyone involved, most notably Cillian Murphy who plays the titular J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Seeing this in IMAX was undoubtedly the best moviegoing experience of my life, and I just can't wait to watch this win every award at the 2024 Oscars!