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Rating: Q=8, P=8 / Obsession
Scale 1=4, Scale 2=4, Scale 3=4, Scale 4=4
Biopic, World War II, Physics, Philosophical
Breathtaking, absorbing, poignant, philosophical, full of conflict. Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan's masterpiece and this story is one of the most well-crafted and important to be told in quite a while. It doesn't hurt that Cillian Murphy portrays the conflicted, complicated, and brilliant physicist astonishingly well (plus he's my favorite actor) and is surrounded by an amazing supporting cast.
This story wrestles with disturbing US political history, with the tragic and haunting consequences of knowledge and invention, war and death -- serious and real topics. Nolan manages to make a film that is active and fierce while still being somber and dialogue-driven. He shows us Oppenheimer in "reality" as others see him and as he interacts with people, scientists, politicians. But we also see into his troubled and stirring mind, his reality. Nothing shows this more clearly than the climactic scene of Trinity when we see a lifetime of research and work and possibility explode in a fiery cloud of death in the dark desert. We watch as Oppenheimer watches, just his breathing and complete awe. It is beautiful filmmaking.
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