9/10
First things first, this is a long movie. 3 hours + trailers. I had to step out for a quick bathroom break around the 2 hour mark…fortunately I didn’t miss anything critical.
The thing that stands out most to me about this film is the cast. Christopher Nolan assembled an amazing cast. Every character is nuanced, complex, and flawed. Cillian Murphy does a fantastic job as J. Robert Oppenheimer. Robert Downey jr, Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and so many more delivered masterful performances.
The next thing is the sound design - that may seem like a minor thing, but it really elevated some of the scenes from good to great. It took scenes where you knew exactly what was going to happen and still built suspense.
The film jumps around in time and switches from color to black and white depending on the characters and setting. Unlike Dunkirk the time jumps make narrative sense from the get-go. Also, while they jump back and forth in time, there’s a definite sense of flow regardless the time period in the story which lets you keep a sense of events progressing.
Overall this was a really great film. If you are into biopics or history it’s well worth your time.
Next up…Barbie.