Sutter Cane’s review published on Letterboxd:
I've spent the last few days ruminating about Christopher Nolan's latest, yet I'm struggling to articulate how it made me feel. When I watch films, I respond emotionally, as most of us do. I value the technical aspects, but ultimately, I am looking for an emotional connection to something like this. I certainly got that with Oppenheimer. That final shot will remain with me until I shove off this mortal coil. What a gut punch to the damn soul. Hoyte van Hoytema, you're one gifted bastard.
I'll be the first to confess I am a Nolan super fan; he hasn't missed with me. While I thought Tenet was the one time he bit off more than he could chew, there was still much I appreciated about that film. I will also never understand the argument that his movies lack emotion. This makes eleven of his twelve films that have made me cry. He and Greta Gerwig may have just saved the box office after a summer of films that didn't catch on with American audiences. Though I certainly have enjoyed a great many of them.
Cillian Murphy has never been better. And Robert Downey Jr. hasn't been this good in a long while. They are equaled by Emily Blunt, delivering a career-best performance too. I mean, damn, all of the performances are pitch-perfect. And that score from Ludwig Göransson is an all-time banger, as the kids say. It's nice to see Josh Hartnett getting a career reevaluation. He's better than some of his earlier work and has proved it in the last few years.
What keeps me from giving anything higher than a four-star rating is the length felt during the middle, and I do think Nolan could've dialed back on the sound at moments which did drown out some of the dialogue. It's funny in the past, when others have complained, I have always been able to hear what people were saying in his films, and this time I missed dialogue because of the sound; go figure. I do think subsequent viewings may see my rating rise, though.
Grade: A-
