Christopher Nolan is back with his sixth feature, 25 years after his feature debut Following. He’s reached a point where his films are regarded as motion picture events, as is the case with this one. Nolan has been rather obsessed with this subject matter for a long time, even his previous film Tenet deals with a doomsday bomb and has a reference to the Manhattan Project. While Tenet feels like one big time-twisting puzzle, Oppenheimer is actually more clear-cut despite its shifting timelines. 

J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) was dubbed the American Prometheus, hence the quote from Greek mythology at the start of the film that Prometheus stole fire from the gods and was eternally condemned for his actions. Nolan adapted his screenplay from a Pulitzer-prize-winning book by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, which chronicles the triumphs and tragedy of the father of the atomic bomb. 

Per Nolan’s tradition, the film doesn’t follow a linear narrative as it jumps around from different periods of the protagonist’s life. The three main acts are interwoven together, deftly edited by Jennifer Lame, weaving scenes from his college years in Europe to the two separate hearings, and of course, the process of creating the atomic bomb itself.

This film consists mostly of men in suits writing on chalkboards, talking about science and politics in various nondescript rooms, yet there is constant tension and a sense of impending doom that permeates every scene. That unsettling aura is unrelenting with barely any moment of levity. What seems like a series of mundane activities is anything but, it’s all building up to that fateful day, that is the world’s first nuclear test on July 16, 1945, code-named Trinity.

The way the scene plays out gives me goosebumps. After 3 years, 400 people, and $2 billion dollars invested in the project, it all comes down to this and its tremendous weight is palpable on Oppenheimer’s slender face and piercing blue eyes. The moment of detonation itself is utterly dramatic… there’s no music, barely any noise at all, just the sound of Oppenheimer’s heavy breathing. Nolan’s insistence on practical effects instead of CGI lends authenticity as we could practically smell and feel the wind knocked out of the people witnessing the explosion. It literally takes my breath away.

Just as indelible to me are the scenes that play out before and after that test. There’s the scene when Oppenheimer told US Army engineer Leslie Groves (scenery-chewing Matt Damon) that the chance of this test igniting the atmosphere and killing every living creature on Earth is near zero. ‘Theory will only take us so far,’ he quips nonchalantly. It’s hard to shake that the scientists went ahead anyway knowing there was a chance, albeit a smidgen, that the world might not survive. 

By the time the US dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki though, gone is Oppenheimer’s cool, unruffled demeanor. As he takes the stage at Los Alamos, he’s deeply disturbed by the ramification of his creation. His harrowing hallucinations of the victims of the atomic bomb–charred bodies, skin peeling off–are something out of a horror movie. His biggest fear has actually materialized “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds,” a line from Hindu scripture that he utters early in the film during his tryst with Jean Tatlock (fearless Florence Pugh).

Speaking of the tryst, Nolan isn’t exactly known for overt sexuality in his movies, so it’s pretty unusual to see nudity and sex scenes here. I think the scenes humanize the characters and show the complexity of their relationships. The romance between him and Tatlock feels rather cold however, crafting warmly intimate scenes is clearly not Nolan’s strong suit. On a related note, Nolan’s female characters often get the shorter end of the stick as most of his work is so male-centric.  He does make an effort with feisty Kitty Oppenheimer (the always-excellent Emily Blunt). Her complex character feels far more fleshed out here and she’s instrumental in her husband’s journey. I’m hopeful there’ll be more nuanced and compelling female characters in Nolan’s future work.

The massive cast is top-notch, led by Cillian Murphy showcasing his best leading performance yet. He’s often relegated to supporting roles in Nolan’s films but this is his time to shine with his brilliant, mesmerizing performance. Definitely a role he’s born to play and I’m convinced he’ll be the one to beat come next year’s Oscars race. Robert Downey Jr. as Oppenheimer’s ally-turned-foe Lewis Strauss will likely nab awards in the Supporting Role, his best post-MCU role by a long shot. There are simply too many actors to name and the rotation of scientists, military figures, and politicians kind of blur together. Out of those lot, Benny Safdie, Rami Malek, Jason Clarke, and Alden Ehrenreich stand out, as well as cameos by Gary Oldman as President Harry Truman and Tom Conti as Albert Einstein.

On a technical level, the film is a feast for the senses. It looks great at the standard 70mm theater so I bet it would look even better at IMAX 70mm. The stunning visuals are courtesy of Hoyte Van Hoytema, mixing black/white and color aesthetics seamlessly. The wide shots seem to be an homage to David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia. The sound design is excellent, though at times the background music comes out too loud that it drowns the dialog in a few scenes. And there’s the music… right from the start, Ludwig Göransson’s violin-heavy score is omnipresent–emotive, haunting, and thunderous, which fits the film’s ominous tone perfectly. It’s yet another fruitful collaboration between Nolan and the Swedish composer after Tenet, one of my fave scores of the past decade.

Overall I admire this film and what Nolan has accomplished here. I’m not a science buff and largely unfamiliar with the subject matter, yet I was quite immersed in the film from start to finish. The three-hour running time flies by relatively fast, though some of the scenes at the senate hearing could’ve been trimmed quite a bit. While it was difficult to follow at times, in the end, it doesn’t really matter if we don’t get what quantum theory is all about, so long as we grasp the magnitude of what these scientists built and its impact on humanity’s future. I do think Nolan succeeds on that front, giving us a majestic thought-provoking piece of cinema that will fuel many conversations. The moral of the story is still relevant to our world today, how technological advances can often lead to our own demise if not used carefully.

I’m in the camp that thinks Nolan is a visionary director and this one further cements his auteur status. He’s an astute and highly intelligent director who continues to challenge himself, as well as his viewers. Oppenheimer sure is a challenging film in every sense of the word, a fiercely unconventional, genre-defying biopic fitting for an unconventional historical figure.

Have you seen OPPENHEIMER? Well, what did you think?
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