Oppenheimer (2023) – Review

Quick Thoughts – Grade – A – Oppenheimer is a grand achievement and will be a major player come awards time. Director Christopher Nolan has crafted a beautiful film and I still can’t believe that he shot it in only 57 days. Also, it’s nice seeing Nolan back in Memento and The Prestige-esque storytelling mode as he focuses on character interactions and interweaving plotlines (and non-linear storytelling) that build to something great. 

Nolan has described Oppenheimer as being ”part hero’s journey, part heist film and part courtroom drama, set against the imagery of a western.” The miracle is that it’s all of these things and it doesn’t feel bloated or unnecessary. I can’t really explain or fully articulate what an accomplishment this film is, but I can say that it feels like Nolan and everyone else involved came together and hit another level to create this three-hour beauty. In interviews, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema discussed his “very intuitive, no-nonsense, no-bulls*** shorthand” that he has with Nolan, and star Cillian Murphy, who has worked with Nolan six times  (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Dunkirk, Oppenheimer), went to extreme lengths (weight loss, alienation from the rest of the cast) to put himself in the mindset of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer is a film that happens when a cast and crew totally dedicate themselves to a director’s vision, and they did all of this with only 12 weeks of prep!

Adapted from Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, American Prometheus, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Oppenheimer tells a non-linear story that focuses on the creation of the famous/infamous Manhattan Project, which led to the world’s first atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Since it’s a Christopher Nolan film, time is a major storytelling element as Oppenheimer and his team of scientists work around the clock, for years, in an attempt to get ahead of the Germans and Russians who were concurrently building their own atomic weapons. Adding more stress to the stressful situation is that Oppenheimer’s past associations with the Communist party hinder him at every step as his associations come back to haunt him during the following decades as he becomes a vocal advocate against the stockpiling of nuclear weapons. This leads to a trial inside a dingy boardroom that leaves Oppenheimer and his lawyer Lloyd Garrison (Macon Blair) up against hostile opposition in the form of prosecutor Roger Robb (Jason Clarke) and Gordon Gray (Tony Goldwyn). Adding even more stress is the fact that Oppenheimer and his team were building an explosive weapon that would inevitably lead to thousands dying and a chance that the world could be destroyed due to a chain reaction of explosions. Toss in subplots involving Lewis Strauss’s (Robert Downey Jr.) nomination for Secretary of Commerce, and the relationship between Oppenheimer and Kitty Oppenheimer (Emily Blunt), and you have a film that’s stuffed with dozens of characters, and multiple timelines. It seems like a lot, but Nolan and editor Jennifer Lame make everything easy to follow and absorb. 

The acting is exceptional too, as Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Florence Pugh, Matthew Modine, Alden Ehrenreich, David Krumholtz, Robert Downey Jr., Josh Hartnett, Olivia Thrilby, Casey Affleck, Benny Safdie, Dane DeHaan, Gary Oldman, and Gustaf Skarsgard are all excellent, and I’m 98.5% certain the majority of the “Ensemble Acting” awards will go this film. I can’t think of the last time when seeing so many familiar faces didn’t feel distracting. Oppenheimer could’ve easily become “Hey! I know that actor,” but instead everyone feels like they belong and seeing Gary Oldman pop up as Harry Truman doesn’t feel distracting. 

I deeply admire Oppenheimer and I hope that it goes on to make loads of money and gets the respect it deserves. Nolan is firing on all cylinders here, and I can’t wait to watch the film again.

Final thoughts – Watch Oppenheimer on the biggest screen possible.