Reece Durham’s review published on Letterboxd:
From the first drop of rain at the start to the zoom in on Oppenheimer at the end and everything in between, I think this is a film-making marvel, and I'm in awe and disbelief at how some of this was created. Every single actor in this film pulls their weight and gives some of the best performances I've ever seen in a film, even those who have very little screen time. Rami Malek is on screen for maybe six minutes for three scenes, two of which he has no dialogue, but he still manages to make do in the jury scene he's in.
A slight nitpick that most people agree with is the audio mixing. I didn't really notice it on my first viewing, but I definitely felt it the second time. It's mainly due to the music being so loud and Cillain's very quiet tone in the way he speaks that the problem lies. The other time I noticed it was when Oppenheimer and General Groves were speaking in the rain before the Trinity Test, but I feel that was an artistic choice that really improved that scene, even if you couldn't hear all that well. Speaking of Groves, I really enjoyed Matt Damon's performance, as I thought he brought a lot of levity to an otherwise serious film.
I still prefer his first two Batman movies, but from an unbiased standpoint, I think this is Nolan's best film. Yeah, the film is polarising with whatever political themes and other stuff people like to bring up about films based on real life like this. I couldn't give a shit about all of that; I just wanted to be entertained for three hours, and I was. Whether it was through the amazing performances (obviously from Cillain, but I think RDJ and Emily Blunt are just as good), being blown away literally and figuratively by the effects and sounds, or just being mesmerised to the screen during scenes like the one in the Gymnasium, this film just clicked in all the right places for me. I've enjoyed films that have been released this year more than this, but none of those films punched me in the gut like this one did.
The bus home punched me in the gut for a completely different reason; that was some absolute shit luck.
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