🎞️ Ben 🎞️’s review published on Letterboxd:
“Is anyone ever going to tell the truth about what's happening here?”
How is one supposed to review a film like this one? How is it ever going to be possible? Sure, I could go through every element of the film which astounded me, whether it’s the outstanding performances, or the utterly gripping writing, or the dead-on perfect pacing, or the unbelievable cinematography, or Ludwig Göransson’s absolutely earth-shattering score, I could go on for hours and hours, pages and pages, all about each and every individual element that makes up this glorious achievement in visual art. But that would become tiring and dull to read, and this is a film that I feel deserves a better “review” than that. Barbie, I was left feeling somewhat cold by, it didn’t land for me in pretty much any kind of way, I wasn’t necessarily disappointed by it, but it didn’t really blow me away either. It was fine, it had it’s moments but I found it to be overall pretty generic, real surface level stuff. But Oppenheimer, now this is a whole different beast entirely. As of writing this review, I’ve only seen the film once, and I already know that multiple viewings will be necessary to get a complete grasp on what I’ve seen. But, for right in this moment, I truly feel that it is utterly gobsmacking. Certainly, Oppenheimer is a lot of extended scenes of people talking in various rooms about complex topics, and that could very easily have become both dull as dishwater and disorientating very quickly. And yet, there wasn’t a single moment in the film’s epic runtime that I wasn’t gripped by. Did I get a little lost once or twice? Certainly, the film sometimes hops around timelines like a coke-fuelled bunny. But I can sincerely say, from start to finish, I was hooked and gripped by everything that was happening. Every sequence of dialogue feels like absolute cinematic dynamite, which is half because of the magnificent screenplay and half because of the sensational performances from everyone involved in this picture. And even in those moments with no dialogue, those moments which are almost completely dead silent, you’re still left hanging onto every second of the film, whether it’s because of the stunning cinematography or the utterly one of a kind score. There’s not a single second of ‘dead-air’ to be found, it’s a constant barrage of excitement, fear, sorrow, intensity and brilliant complexity. You never feel as though you are disconnected from what you are watching. You are in it, locked in to every tense moment, every scientific achievement, every corrupt hearing, every moment of terror and regret, you are f**king there, in this brilliant and complex picture we call Oppenheimer. Gripping and intense, towering and utterly terrifying, unsettling and almost monstrous. From start to finish, it’s unlike anything I’ve seen at the cinema in recent memory. It’s a film where you follow many people and many stories. But in the end, nobody wins, there’s no real “hero” and you don’t really know who the so-called “villain” of this unreliably told story is either. All that’s left for you to cling onto in this nightmarish film’s wake is the regrets, the guilt and the fears of one J. Robert Oppenheimer. You almost feel dirty, like you’ve witnessed something you really wish you hadn’t, something that leaves your stomach in knots and makes you fear for the future of our world…and grieve for the pain we, as the human race, once unleashed onto innocent people. You don’t leave the movie with everything tied up in a neat little bow. And even when you do, the answers are far from simple. Mostly, you just leave the movie feeling a pit of emotionally-drained, unsettled and terrified dread. At the time, “The Bomb” was the biggest, most destructive and devastating force on the planet. Then came the H-bomb. And now…well, I don’t think I really want to know what we have now as I think it would just be a terrifying reminder that Oppenheimer was right…a chain reaction has been set off and one day, the dominos will fall and the world will change once again. And for the worse. Christopher Nolan is considered to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time by many, but I have never really explored his work deeply enough to accurately share that sentiment. But if Oppenheimer is anything to go off of, I can’t see myself disagreeing with the majority, he may very well be one of the greatest creative minds and visual artists of our time. A magnificent and towering piece of work, one you won’t soon forget.
