Oppenheimer
Ian Curran

Review by Ian Curran Patron

Oppenheimer 2023

★★★

Watched Jul 21, 2023

Overwrought for the first two hours and sluggish in the third, this talky thriller is unmistakably an Nolan accomplishment but it also fails to play to his strengths. Nolan is a master of visual storytelling, yet everything about Oppenheimer rests on words and feeling—two things he struggles with.

To be quite frank I think he was out of his depth a little with this story. He couldn’t find the emotion behind it which meant the only way characters could interact with one another was through the idea of importance. There are numerous scenes where the only thing characters say is: “You’re so important”, “we’re so important”, “isn’t this all so important“.

The constant talk of genius is exhausting, and it feels a little like Nolan commenting on himself as much as the Manhattan project. It gives the movie a sense of self-importance that, along with its clinical feel, kept me at a distance.

There’s undeniable genius in the craft of this film, but I honestly can’t say I cared for it very much.

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