Universally this is a week of big bombs. Will they explode on the screen or will they just blow up?
The two summer openers premiered this week — Barbie and Oppenheimer.
I had to toss a coin, it rolled off somewhere, so I left Ken and went with Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer is godhead director Christopher Nolan’s show and tell biopic of the father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer.
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A very long movie indeed — three hours — which makes it ideal for a good day out for silvers, if you count the bus or train rides, and the makan after.
Now, it is not a war film, but a biopic docudrama thriller into the psyche of the man who created the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist, headed the Manhattan Project (the race to reach a nuclear weapon before Hitler).
Why America eventually dropped it over Japan is another story (to cow Russia?).
The movie hits its strides on its second hour, precisely when Matt Damon’s character enters. I tell you this so silvers can drop the bomb in preparation within the first hour.
Nolan’s signatures are evident. The editing, flashbacks, use of black and white and colour, and the persistent non-melodic music to drive home his intentions, of which a few are confusing.
The cast is stellar, brilliant Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) will remind you of David Bowie. Oh there’ll be awards come the season. Robert Downey Jr in one of his best performances, Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman (give ’em hell Harry Truman), and other known names.
Oppenheimer’s character is a complex mix and you’ll be not much wiser by movie’s end. There is a lot of talkety-chitchat, in rooms, in tribunal courts ; we are not shown as much as we are told.
I would have been impressed to see the building of the bomb, rather than blackboard chalkings.
More show than tell!
Ultimately it is a timely relevant film when you think of what’s taking place in Ukraine and its effects on the world.
