This Summer, British-American director Christopher Nolan delivered quite the explosive film to movie-goers: Oppenheimer.
Nolan has directed quite an impressive set of films (including Dunkirk, Interstellar, and the Dark Knight Trilogy) – that was, until his 2020 film Tenet had audiences quite divided. Fans both nervously yet excitedly waited for Nolan to ‘set off’ Oppenheimer, something of a passion project for him after receiving a book on the scientist from one of his actors/collaborators: Robert Pattinson. Nolan is respected amongst film fans for his use of practical effects over Computer Generated Imagery, or CGI- fans questioned how he could continue this practice while attempting to portray something like a Nuclear Explosion. Surprisingly, he remained true to this practice throughout the film.
The film follows J. Robert Oppenheimer, portrayed brilliantly by Cillian Murphy, of Peaky Blinders fame, as he navigates through the complexities of developing the first nuclear bomb, while also still being a human with human struggles. Nolan’s direction and Murphy’s acting does an excellent job of building tension and stress, and at points it makes the viewer truly understand how much Oppenheimer struggled with his own creation.
Nolan put together quite the ensemble for this film, casting Emily Blunt as Katherine Oppenheimer, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, Rami Malek as David Hill, and Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock; fans of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid films were keen to recognize that Devon Bostick, or ‘Rodrick’ also had a small role in the project.
Critics of Oppenheimer point out that the film fails the Bechdel Test– or a simple set of questions that movies are suggested to follow as a means to be more gender inclusive. Others argue that the film is attempting to stay true to Oppenheimer’s real life, which given the time period would likely not be applicable to the test.
Apart from those critics, Oppenheimer saw a lot of praise this summer with an 8.5/10 on IMDB and a 93% ‘Tomatometer’ grade coupled with a 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Nolan’s impressive work will be available to all to see outside of theaters with a digital release date of November 21st- see it for yourself!
