Barbenheimer pt. 2 of 2

Completely enthralling. Nightmarish. The ultimate monkey’s paw where the thing you thought you wanted, or you thought would get you what you wanted, never stops getting exponentially more threatening. The depths of its depravity and the danger it poses only descend further and further down and still, to this day in July of 2023, has yet to hit the bottom. For 78 years we have continued to hear the whistle of this object falling from the sky. We haven’t seen the mushroom cloud yet. The world as we know it will be over once we do.

Nolan and crew convey this expertly. After Tenet being a bit of a mixed bag for me, I was worried about this and really just had no idea what to expect from a Chris Nolan take on a historical drama. I was excited of course, but cautiously so. It is one of my favorite of his movies, maybe even my number one favorite, even with it being so outside his norm. Maybe because it is so outside of his norm?? First of all, the writing is GREAT. Beyond just his typical playing with structure, the dialogue is incredible! Sharp and punchy and smart with a surprising amount of humor too! But also no mind bending sci-fi concept. No series of action set pieces. All of that visual flair and tactile, practical filmmaking mastery funneled into a pretty cut and dry, uber-focused biopic that has literal flashes of cerebral, surreal imagery that both shock and wow in the perfect doses.

What Nolan did not stray from though is his Mann-esque signature use of sound and very thoughtfully/intentionally just cranking that shit up to 11 at the perfect moments. Like the gunshots in Heat, Nolan knows how and when to use sound to assault the audience. Not only is it exhilarating and yet another reason to watch this in a theater but it is genuinely scary. It is meant to be. The sound design overall is just immaculate. Expertly chopped and mixed and woven into the visuals we see, the themes we are processing and the truly wonderful score done by Ludwig Goransson.

Lots of stuff I haven’t even touched on like this fucking STACKED cast that kill it across the board (Cillian aside, definitely in the camp of Krumholtz MVP. Fuckin’ Bernard the elf MVP, BABY!!!) And, while Emily Blunt had slightly more to do than most, it still stands that Nolan really does not have much interest in serving the women in his movies beyond being some kind of motivating factor for the tortured genius at the center of it all.

But even with that in mind I’m just so in on this thing, man. A total surprise to me. Gotta see it again, gotta catch it in IMAX. I don’t think I’ll drive the 3+ hours out of Chicago to either Indianapolis or Grand Rapids to catch IMAX 70mm, but I at least want to experience both individually and I was lucky enough to see this on 70 last night with some fuckin bangin’ ass sound here in St. Louis. An incredible, yet harrowing and sobering trip to the movies. What a day.

Seen on 70mm at Marcus Ronnie’s Cinema with Chels, Tyler and Serena.