UM. UMMMMMMMMMMM

*morning-after thoughts below*

I couldn't even try to contemplate this movie much after double-featuring it alongside Barbie, so here's my attempt at doing so now.

Most of the performances in this film (Murphy, Downey Jr., and Blunt) are probably their greatest to date and should earn them bountiful awards. I'm astounded by how perfect nearly every casting was in this film.

In typical Nolan fashion, every quote and interaction mattered and made a reprisal at pivotal moments. In the trajectory of the film, the novelty of quantum physics and making abstract theory reality (taking things further than even Einstein would) brought an element of suspense—"could they really do it?"—to our knowledge that they did, and it was devastating. That's the reason Oppenheimer feels more like a horror film than a drama: a rise-and-fall story with the most prolific rise, and the most revolutionary fall (or drop).

I enjoyed the political side of the story. (I didn't know much about Oppenheimer outside of his creation, so seeing the ways U.S. leaders and scientists reacted was great.) Every scene with Albert Einstein in it was probably my favorite. When we finally hear the conversation they had, after all that Oppenheimer had been through, it hits so much harder.

Listen, I'm a fan of Nolan writing. He's clearly had massive missteps before (Commissioner Gordon's dead-but-not-dead moment comes to mind), but perhaps one of the more devastating writing mistakes he's made in his career is fleshed out in Oppenheimer's affair with Jean. There was absolutely no need to show nudity or extended sexual content in this film, and it was honestly terrible writing—especially the scene of them during his interrogation. I'm of the mind that most, if not all nudity in film may simply be implied and still carry the same weight, and Nolan's reasoning for using nudity and sex in the film is a perfect example. That is one of the few reasons I can't give this film a solid five stars. It just didn't seem to make sense, it was distracting, and it was pointless to show that much.

Nevertheless, this is also the film where we saw Nolan making "horror." The scene where he gives the speech but can't avoid visualizing the destruction his invention caused is peak cinema. What a great use of sound and a highly-original depiction of the mindset our main character was in.

Also, the opening and subsequent scenes with the inner-workings of atoms and fission were some of my favorites, visually, from Nolan. So stunning and crisp.

Overall, this is a film I will definitely return to. It was so dense, meaningful, and complicated to warrant a one-time watch. It will definitely land among my favorite watches from 2023.

Unpopular(?) opinion: DON'T double-feature this with Barbie. It's a fun trendy thing (which I did) but this film deserves its own time and day for thought and review.