Oppenheimer

The other half of the Barbeheimer phenomenon, Oppenheimer, hasn't been quite as controversial as Barbie, but it has still drawn some controversy. Not controversy about the morality of atomic warfare, of course, but about Florence Pugh's nude scenes. Because that's the world we're living in, I guess.

But I begin with a digression.

Much like Barbie, there's probably not a ton to be said about Oppenheimer at this point, except to say that it's every bit as good as people are saying. Still, I'm going to take a run at it.

What stands out most about Oppenheimer is how much it's both very much a Christopher Nolan film and quite a radical departure for him. Yes, loads of the old Nolan tropes are present and accounted for: multiple timelines, an epic scope, trouble writing female characters, practical effects shot on IMAX cameras, a booming and intentionally over-stuffed soundtrack, and of course, Cillian Murphy, finally taking centre stage. 

On the other hand, it's a fairly straightforward film that's very much a mix of pure biopic and, essentially, courtroom drama that consists mostly of people talking in rooms. And by "people" I do mostly mean men - this was the 1940s, after all. It's a huge film, designed to be watched in IMAX (as I did) but it's actually a very intimate tale: arguably the first character study that Nolan has ever done. And yes, it's also the first of his films to feature nudity and/ or sex, but it's a sex scene as only Christopher Nolan would do it, as mid-coitus, Florence Pugh's character dismounts to pick up a book written in Sanskrit and incorporates it into the action - with the immortal words, "I am become death, destroyer of worlds" acting as basically the, um, climax of the scene.

And people say Christopher Nolan doesn't do comedy.

Either way, some may miss the Nolan-ness of Nolan's latest film, but after the undeniably creative but ultimately crushingly disappointing Tenet, going back to basics was a move that very much paid off. Not that he needed to go too far as the film that preceded Tenet was the historical war film, Dunkirk. Even then, though, Dunkirk still shared a certain coldness to it, a lack of interest in its characters, that prevented me from ever coming close to loving it.

Unsurprisingly, Oppenheimer has a ludicrously impressive cast, with yet another familiar face popping up every few minutes, but crucially, even the smallest parts - and there are loads of small parts - have enough character to them that you understand why so many stars and excellent character actors showed up even just for a couple of minutes of screen time. And after playing pretty much no one but Tony Stark for a decade, it's a real pleasure to see Robert Downey Jr get the chance to really cut loose here and remind us how great and versatile an actor he really is.

Even the film's two "main" female characters make a serious impact with their limited screen time and undeniably thinly drawn characters. All joking aside, though I do understand why people view Florence Pugh spending much of her screentime in the buff as purely gratuitous, it seems pretty apparent to me that this was done to draw a contrast between Oppenheimer's two loves. And, yes, this is a cheat, but it does genuinely put Pugh's character's emotional rawness in stark contrast to Emily Blunt's character's literally buttoned-up stoicism. 

No matter how great the supporting cast are, though, this film belongs entirely to the eponymous Robert Oppenheimer and to Cillian Murphy's spectacular, sure-to-be-award-winning performance of this enormously complex historical giant. Aside for Peaky Blinders, he has spent much of the past decade in small supporting roles, so there's something particularly gratifying about his performance here, which is, in part, pure leading-man charisma and in part, nuanced and deep character-acting.

This is a historical drama about the development of the atomic bomb, certainly, but more than anything it's about what being the driving force behind the weapons that would kill thousands in Nagasaki and Hiroshima and set the groundwork for a potential nuclear holocaust, would do to the psyche of its creator. Especially because there is such a convincing argument that it was a necessary evil to prevent Germany from build its own atomic bomb and to finally and definitively defeat a Japan unwilling to surrender the war - or at least so it seemed at the time. 

And despite going on for a bladder-testing three hours, it's never less than entirely compelling throughout. 

9/10