"Genius is no guarantee of wisdom. How could this man who saw so much be so blind?"

My first time seeing this in 70mm IMAX (grateful for the re-release), would you believe. An interesting development occurred in that I found myself sympathising with Oppie's plight not nearly as much as on previous viewings. As a man, he's a walking paradox. Claims to support the common man by advocating for workers' rights but refers to Lewis Strauss as a "lowly shoe salesman" and disapproves of his own brother marrying a waitress. Claims to be a principled man by supporting the Spanish Civil War and other such causes but is unfaithful to his wife. Father of the atomic bomb but advocates against the use of nuclear deterrents. It's not so much that he's a malicious hypocrite, just incredibly conflicted, tortured and probably not fit to be in a policy-making position (neither is someone as openly a social climber as Strauss) despite pushing sensible policies.

I read something somewhere that said Oppenheimer and Strauss both being denied is like its own form of mutually assured destruction, and I can't stop thinking about how brilliant (and 100% intentional) that is. I'm now confident in saying without any hyperbole or recency bias that this is probably the greatest film released in my lifetime thus far (that's everything post-2001) and certainly the most ingeniously structured screenplay. I don't usually like when one film sweeps the Oscars, but in the case of this I think it deserves a Return of the King style sweep.

An observation on the 70mm IMAX presentation: I'm not sure if this is even technically/feasibly possible, but it would be amazing if Nolan could shoot 100% of a movie on large format 15-perf 65mm because the switches to 5-perf and vice versa are a little jarring, especially mid-scene. It's only really a noticeable distraction on the biggest screen in the UK though. Up to now, I'd only seen the film projected on standard 70mm, which I actually found more immersive, as it's one consistent aspect ratio. Sorry, Chris.