Watched in the cinema (101st visit in 2023)

J. Robert Oppenheimer is this man with hat and pipe, who is considered the father of the atomic bomb. When the pipe and headgear are seen for the first time in Christopher Nolan's biopic thriller about him, the staging has a bit of Bruce Wayne getting ready for his first mission. What's fascinating about "Oppenheimer", however, is that we've seen actions from the brilliant physicist before that are more in keeping with the Joker than Batman. So is he good or evil? This makes the film an extremely interesting character study.

You should not be blinded by the name Nolan, which stands for action-packed spectacle with brains. "Oppenheimer" is also ambitious, but even "Memento" has more action than this biopic. Oliver Stone's "JFK" and David Fincher's "The Social Network" must be consulted as comparative films due to the political turmoil and the non-linear narrative so typical of Nolan. It's a film of conversation battles, quips, intrigue and complicated characters. The fact that the narrative rhythm, which is endangered by the time jumps, does not completely falter is thanks to composer Ludwig Göransson, whose driving music underscores the emotional worlds of the historical figures.

However, Nolan not only jumps back and forth in time, but also decided to visually separate the film into two halves. In the colored scenes, you see the subjective view of the titular character, while those in black and white offer a more objective look at what happened at Los Alamos, among other places. In this way, Nolan allows you to briefly break out of Oppenheimer's head, who is hardly fit to be a sympathetic figure. Nolan does not condemn, however, but shows a complex man. Cillian Murphy plays the ambivalence great and even makes you slightly nervous with his performance.

However, it is Robert Downey Jr. as politician Lewis Strauss who leaves the most lasting impression. Because while we know how things turned out with the atomic bomb, this is rather not the case with the interrogation and congressional scenes, and so Nolan gets some tension out of that. Oppenheimer's private life is also dissected there - and in front of his wife (Emily Blunt). She doesn't get a chance to show off his skills until near the end. The same goes for Florence Pugh, who nevertheless gets the best out of her role - apart from a weird sex scene.

But Nolan was never a successful when it came to female characters anyway. Thus, the director's 12th film is also one that mainly revolves around men - which is understandable, given the history. Thus, "Oppenheimer" is a big-budget and brilliantly filmed drama about power, responsibility and us little people. Because, as with the atomic nucleus, great damage can occur if we don't stick together and split off from each other.