I've waited on writing this review for some time. It was a highly anticipated film that I couldn't exactly deliver concise thoughts to immediately upon the film's conclusion, however, I think I'll keep this review fairly simple after all.

This is certainly the best work I've seen from sir Cillian Murphy. His worn, chiseled impressions really speak louder than atomic bo- I mean, words. But those, too. Speaking of bombs, they tend to create a lot of noise and chaos. Which is essentially what Oppenheimer is in a way, this sort of controlled, sonic chaos. I haven't seen a drama in quite some time that is as rapid-fire as this, but it feels like Nolan at his most familiar in this respect. I think sonic was an appropriate word to describe the levels of mastery in which sound is used to convey various key aspects of the story to the audience in a way that is universally understood.

The way that dialogue and exposition is used here is mostly fine, and it makes the 3-hour behemoth of film pass by extremely fast—that's not to say the lightning-speed of the narrative isn't part of its slight downfall. For a quite literally atomic picture, you would expect a bit more of a meditative tone to blip in certain points throughout the film to balance these heavy-hitting moments, yet there never really is one. This is a personal choice that I didn't quite particularly love as much as others, but I enjoyed it for what it's worth.

This was definitely one of Nolan's heavier pictures in the sense that its gravity (heh) hit a bit closer to home than something like Inception or Interstellar, meaning this was a real thing that devastatingly impacted everyone. It's a lot more imaginable, thus increasing the stakes of what you're watching simply based on its subject matter. I love that Nolan decided to not romanticize this event, yet magnify it in a way that gives to great importance. Clearly the audience understood this, I understood it, humans can understand this. Real stakes hit real close to home, and in a world where nuclear war seems just a touch away at times, what better way to devote a film to the dreadful event of these bombings, a devotion to reenacting an evanescent occurrence that is as important now as it was then.

I don't think you have to be a particular kind of person to get something revelatory out of this film, so if you're still hesitant, I'd really recommend giving it a look.