James Connon’s review published on Letterboxd:
I usually struggle with character names unless I can see them written down in subtitles, so let this little review be a testament to the much-memed-about casting of this film, which manages to find every white guy in Hollywood that I’d immediately be able to identify and remember for when they become important again an hour later.
Anyway, definitely feels like what Nolan’s been building to for his whole career. The editing rhythms of Dunkirk have been transplanted from the pure sensory overload action of that film to this, a film that’s mostly about people talking in hearings and in classrooms and in labs. I think I still prefer the purity of how simple Dunkirk really is but this is clearly Nolan trying to do something with real thematic depth and I think he totally succeeds. His characterization of Oppenheimer (and really everybody) is very fascinating because he’s sort of just a little worm with no moral fortitude who freely passes the buck until he finds he can’t anymore (and surprise, surprise - it’s too late by then). However the film presents this weak will in a subtle way, thanks to the editing weaving in and out of scenes so that our feelings about him build up over time rather than present a series of repetitive moral failures with the same buildup and comedown each time.
Also the secret ingredient to this movie is how the final third evolves into a scenario where you can just cackle at the walls closing in on Downey Jr.’s character. Ehrenreich is a perfect audience surrogate throughout the whole thing.
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