Oppenheimer

Not only the movie of the year but most likely the movie of the decade. 

Instantly up there in the high reaches with Apocalypse Now, Godfather II, There Will Be Blood and the best of Scorcese. 

Although spiritually and visually I think it’s close to Apocalypse Now the other touchstone movie is Titanic. The audience knows the ship will sink and we know what will happen when the scientists at Los Alamos test the bomb. 

And yet, it is almost unbearably tense. It’s the mark of a director who can absolutely own an audience and do anything he wants. 

Here’s a filmmaker at the height of his powers delivering important material that acts as a lecture and a magnificenty entertaining biopic.

A movie that contains multiple arguments and can carry several opposing views. Oppenheimer suggests that America is the greatest country ever and is simultaneously the most dangerous civilization in existence. So dangerous that we may someday be responsible for the end of humanity. 

It argues that the left wing radicals and the conservatives who opposed them were both correct. 

It argues that the bomb must be built to stop the Nazis, that ultimately using the bomb on Japan was necessary and that everyone involved should feel great shame. 

The movie is not shy and refuses to give anyone easy answers. Nor does it turn Oppenheimer into a hero. It argues both that Oppenheimer was calculating and naive. That he felt pride in his work and real shame and suffered psychological damage over the deaths he caused. It also argues that he publicly martyred himself so that history would look more favorably upon him. 

I have quibbles. It’s races so hard through every section that more than once I wished it would stay with a scene instead of cutting away. 

And it feels like it is always cutting away, either to another interrogation in a different time period or to Nolan’s special effects. The explosions, rumbling sound, shaking and star device is ever present and perhaps a symptom of not trusting the audience to sit through the material. 

I write that because I felt it but I also freely admit that those issues are the equivalent of turning to Picasso and asking him why all his lines are cube shaped. 

Nolan is a master and this is his masterpiece. Any argument any of us make is just personal taste and not legitimate. 

After all, it’s a three hour movie that keeps its audience enthralled not only at every minute but at every second. If it’s visually akin to Apocalypse Now, and materially similar to Titanic then in its rhythm it’s like Goodfellas. Which is, this is another movie that swiftly covers an entire life. 

The difference may be that all of Oppenheimer is the equivalent of the final third — cocaine addled — section of Goodfellas. 

Every actor is right for every role, every actor gets at least one scene to make their case and every performance is flawless. There isn’t a false moment even among the people who are largely required to stand in the background or look with awe and wonder on the great man. 

Here let me list some of them for you: 

Cillian Murphy, Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman, and Robert Downey Jr. 

It’s the casting equivalent of getting the 1927 Yankees. 

Finally, Oppenheimer is the concluding argument that Nolan and other filmmakers have been making about the theatrical experience. 

I would argue that a great film is great whether you see it in IMAX or on an iPad. But there is no doubt that if you can, you should see Oppenheimer in the biggest and best movie theater you can find. 

It will set your world on fire.