Premise:
The story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.
Directors:
Christopher Nolan
Writers:
Christopher Nolan, Kai Bird, Martin Sherwin
Cast:
Cillian Murphy ... J. Robert Oppenheimer
Emily Blunt ... Kitty Oppenheimer
Robert Downey Jr. ... Lewis Strauss
Alden Ehrenreich ... Senate Aide
Scott Grimes ... Counsel
Jason Clarke ... Roger Robb
Kurt Koehler ... Thomas Morgan
Tony Goldwyn ... Gordon Gray
John Gowans ... Ward Evans
Macon Blair ... Lloyd Garrison
James D'Arcy ... Patrick Blackett
Kenneth Branagh ... Niels Bohr
| RELEASE DATE | RUNTIME | ROTTENTOMATOES | IMDB | METACRITIC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 21st, 2023 | 3hr | TBD | TBD | TBD |
I didn’t love it even more than you.
After waiting a month to see it in the true-IMAX theater that Nolan used for projection tests (tix were sold-out that far in advance, unless you wanted to sit in the first 2 rows)–I ended up walking out around the 90 minute mark.
Other than ego, I cannot for the life of me figure out why Nolan felt he had to shoot a movie that is a lot of close-ups of actors talking indoors in full, 15-perf, 70mm IMAX.
Bottom line is that I was just incredibly bored and emotionally uninvolved in anything that was happening. I’m quite familiar with post-war, McCarthy-era witch hunts, so there was no drama there for me.
I enjoyed The Prestige and The Dark Knight–but Nolan just doesn’t impress me as a director any more.
@wilberfan @mancy Oppenheimer represented Nolan’s strengths and weaknesses as a filmmaker.
Nolan has never been afraid to challenge his audience intellectually, so the scenes where smart characters are engaged into rigorous scientific debate is where Oppenheimer works. For audiences who enjoyed Apollo 13, A Dangerous Mind and Hidden Figures, this film fits snugly into that category.
But the characters are outdated stereotypes, especially the women, wasting the talents of Pugh and Blunt.