Oppenheimer

A Christopher Nolan movie is highly anticipated by itself. After all, their first trailers generally debut a full year before their release. We get plenty of time anticipating Nolan's latest. But Oppenheimer's hype skyrocketed when the internet paired it with its biggest weekend rival. Both movies are well on their way to recouping their budgets. And now, I'll explain the other half of the most anticipated double feature in cinema history.

Nolan adapted American Prometheus, the biography written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, of J. Robert Oppenheimer. We see Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) progress from university student to university professor right when World War II hits. Gen. Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) hires him for the Manhattan Project that would invent the first atomic bomb. He soon has grave reservations about the A-Bomb’s ethicality. This nearly leads him to be ruined as a Communist sympathizer.

All of this is depicted in full color in the film’s Fission storyline. The Fusion storyline follows Oppenheimer’s archenemy, Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), the chairman of the AEC, in monochrome. Strauss believes Oppenheimer has it out for him. So, he set up Oppenheimer for his eventual fall. But a nasty surprise awaits him when he aims for a Cabinet post.

The non-linear storylines are generally easy to follow. We learn quite a bit of Oppenheimer’s life during its massive three-hour runtime. Murphy's compelling performance as Oppenheimer helps the runtime breeze on by. Its most significant subplot concerns his relationships with his wife, Kitty (Emily Blunt), and mistress, Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), both of whom have Communist ties. It's an interesting subplot, though how the Bhagavad Gita figures into it is pretty odd. Meanwhile, Downey Jr.'s Strauss plays the subtle schemer for most of the movie. His vindictiveness explodes in a climactic speech. And then we understand it all.

A bigger challenge is keeping up with the film’s massive cast. I lost track of one Haakon Chevalier (Jefferson Hall), a bit ironic considering his significance. In fact, much of the cast is filled with recognizable actors in unrecognizable roles, including Benny Safdie as Edward Teller and James Remar as Henry Stimson. Kenneth Branagh is more recognizable as Niels Bohr, but you won't recognize Gary Oldman and Tom Conti as President Truman and Albert Einstein, respectively, unless you saw their names in the credits. The makeup team is just that good. Even Murphy's Oppenheimer is that stunning a dead ringer for the real man.

The sound design is generally better than Tenet. There's only a few instances where Ludwig Goransson's stunning score overwhelms the dialogue. A few bits of dialogue are cut off by some atomic imagery. But it's generally discernible. What matters is the explosions. We see them, and after a lull, we hear them. The arrangement gives them quite the punch, especially with the Trinity Test. Hoyte van Hoytema's cinematography and the visual effects team perfectly amplify the nightmarish splendor. Equally shocking is when Oppenheimer hallucinates a crowd getting vaporized. The editing just works.

Oppenheimer is a captivating biopic. Its double storylines perfectly capture its main characters' central perspectives rather well. This can mitigate some of the film's incomplete perspectives. Both men are compelling whether as optimists, cynics or egotists. It's a good motivator to read up on their histories. See it on the biggest screens you can find. It will be a while before it comes to home media. You bet I'll get it and the published screenplay by year's end. It's certainly worthy of its hype. And more.