Oppenheimer
Darren Carver-Balsiger

Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger Patron

Oppenheimer 2023

★★★★½

Watched 23 Jul 2023

The man who ended the world. There is nothing to say about Oppenheimer which does justice to its incredible cinematic experience. It is the most extraordinary film, a work of immersion built upon a chain reaction of intercutting timelines. Nolan's precision has earned him prestige, but this is another level of intricacy. Consequences and actions become a simultaneous act, history linked together by implied relevance rather than linearity. Oppenheimer presents a man caught in a world of moral horror. He never apologises, but he never lives peacefully. The loud, overbearing soundscape creates an intensity that never stops. This is a film of existential dread, focused on the ways we have enabled ourselves to destroy each other. Scientists may believe they exist outside morality when thinking in the abstract, but in practice discoveries come with responsibility.

Oppenheimer is long and complicated, deliberately dense in history and science. It allows its version of reality to feel complete, a lived-in world that we must adjust to. It is not a patriotic movie of American ingenuity, nor is it an examination of callous murder. It is focused on Oppenheimer and his subjectivity. It is his life, his experience. The lives he affected are presented in relation to him. Dead bodies as manifestations of guilt, not his lived experience. The cinematography leaves so much out of focus, emphasising the world as he saw it. Oppenheimer is conspiratorial and dialogue driven, but it is shot like an action movie and cut with a fast pace. It is astonishing to see a piece of popular art rooted in historical and philosophical rigour, executed with such formal skill. This is a film like no other. The best Hollywood film in years. Masterpiece.

2023 Ranked
Christopher Nolan Ranked
Academy Award for Best Picture Nominees Ranked
BAFTA for Best Film Nominees Ranked
My Top Films of the 2020s

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