Oppenheimer
Aaron White

Review by Aaron White

Oppenheimer

2023
★★★★★

Watched 18 Jul 2023

Powerful storytelling. Technically superb. Murphy and Downey Jr. give masterful performances. This is a complex biographical epic that dances in many genres over several timelines and is deeply human but also challengingly dense and exhaustively long. Will need a second viewing to even remotely form a fully fair opinion, but I was mesmerized more often than not and found the ambition worthy of praise.

Ranked: Christopher Nolan

Click here to listen to my spoiler-free review on Feelin' Film Podcast

Discussed in-depth on Episode 377 of the Feelin' Film Podcast

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Edit after second viewing, in IMAX: 4⭐ -> 5⭐

Understanding the two timelines going in from the start and having an air-conditioned experience in superior format were game changers. This could be the best biopic ever made, honestly. It's so incredibly unbiased, showing a genius who changed the world with his strengths and flaws laid bare. It's a challenging story and telling it so thoroughly is critical in ensuring that the audience doesn't just see Oppenheimer as strictly a hero or villain. Because he's neither. And all of the pieces like the fear of communism and war and political maneuvering and even vindictive grudges all matter in trying to understand the man's life and the effect of his creation on the world then and now.

Every performance is truly sublime, and Göransson's score is the best work of his career. The latter paired with the sound design are necessary in crafting the kind of powerful emotional journey we go on. I can only think of maybe three scenes or moments where I'd say Nolan has a little excess that could be cut. So what? Two total minutes out of 180? I'm not gonna get up in arms about that. This is a perfect, brilliant motion picture.

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