The Barbenheimer Day
On July 19 2023, which is called the “Barbenheimer Day” by the majority of people, I went to the cinema and watch Oppenheimer then Barbie. Two films on one day, with only 10-minute break 😅. This day is highly anticipated because on this day, two films with contrast nuance was being released: Oppenheimer and Barbie. While Oppenheimer makes us scratching our head due to its plot complexity and dense topic (something that is Nolan’s specialty), Barbie, on the other hand, seems to present joy, pinky-ness, comedy.
I personally had been waiting for this day to come. Not only the hype it gets and the sense of FOMO, I do really like the directors behind these movies: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer) and Greta Gerwig (Barbie). I am acquainted with Nolan at first when watching Tenet, Interstellar and Inception back then in 2021. And I knew that I love Nolan’s work when I was mesmerized with Memento and The Prestige. Those are my top two movies, if you ask me. And as for Greta Gerwig, I really love Little Women and Lady Bird so much, the warmness, emotions and the message she brings through the film.
So, as I’m waiting for this day, I expect that Oppenheimer will be about nuclear bomb, the science behind it and there must be twist in the end of the movie. Secretly I hope this film would have sort of a historical fiction genre.
Well, like other people who claim themselves for being Nolan’s biggest fan, this movie is indeed not for everyone. And sadly, as much as I want to like this film and put this in my best-film-nomination-of-this-year list, I must say this movie is not quite for me neither.
And now, I'm determined to write my review and thoughts about the two films, starting with the first: Oppenheimer.
Greatest Cinematography and Dozen of Great Actors
This movie itself is about a scientist and theorist named J. Robbert Oppenheimer. In his life, he was passionate with quantum mechanics. But instead of experiment on atoms and electricity, he was rather interested in theories. How things could go based on pure physics and mathematics. In his life, he despised exteriments in laboratorium when he was studying in Cambridge. Until he met Niels Bohr, who inspired him to leave Cambridge and pursue his interest in quantum mechanics. At least, that was he thought his life would be, as a theorist, professor and lecturer.
My thoughts about this film: well, this film is undeniably great. The combination of the visions as well as audio is perfectly perfect! You will even see explosion scenes being scattered through the first-half of the film, visions of atoms and electorns in quantum perspective, electorns dancing around the atom, even the glimpse of the vast universe. And that’s what I really love about this movie. Nolan, in my opinion, succeeds to build the tension and the anticipation since the very beginning of the film (I can even say the first 10 minutes of the film will make you gasp already! At lest that's what happened to me). Like, we all know what would going to happen, we already know what would be the climax of the movie (since this is historical docummentary everybody knows what would going to happen). But those scattered visions and audio seems to be meticulously placed in the first part and that successfully makes us even more excited. Like his other film, Nolan does not tell the story in linear manner.
And for the trinity test … Oh my god, I can’t even put that experience watching that scene in the most proper way 😩!! Because it’s just simply mesmerizing and awesome. I remember my jaw literally dropped when the Trinity Test scene happened and the test bomb got exploded. Nolan does a perfect, perfect job building the tension and viewer’s anticipation up to that scene. The build up tense is just so freaking breathtaking! Like, when that scene happened, I kno what the trinity test should be like, I expected what vision I would be seeing and the sound must be really "anhiliating". But none of my anticipation came true. No. And that's the twist for me! Maybe not plot-twist, but the cinematography delievered in that scene itself, that is the main twist for me. It's great. I can't even put this experience using proper words, maybe you will get the idea if you have already watched the film.
One thing that I find unique from this film is that other than Nolan shot this film using IMAX 70mm, the combination between scenes in color and black and white has its meaning. When I was watching the film, truthfully, I thought the scenes in black and white simply tell us the history, like what was really happened, and the colorful scene shows us like the interpretation of what could’ve happened. I was kind of hoping that Nolan will use this to give some “fiction” season in the film, so Oppenheimer would not be just boring documentary film. In other words, I hope Nolan will put his mastermind-plot-twist in the film. But that, to my disappointment, never happened.
The humanity aspect in the Oppenheimer should be acknowledged. When I watched the film, I got the sense that Oppenheimer himself is neither hero nor villain. When we watch a movie, we want or make ourself believe that the main protagonist is obviously good. But not in this film. Although he created the nuclear bomb which would be used to annihilate opponent’s city by America and he would be perceived as the “bad guy”, Nolan, using his creativity and interpretation in the subjective colorful scene, brings the morale battle inside Oppenheimer. Had he done the bad thing, was this thing right, what is wrong, what is right.
Lastly, I have to be completely honest, Christopher Nolan being the director of this film is not my sole motivation to get up and watch this in IMAX. But I wanted to see my favorite actors in this film, because Oppenheimer has lots actors that I have been a fan of since a really long time. I can even make the list, starting with Cillian Murphy himself, Emily Blunt, who I really love since watching The Girl on The Train, or even Florence Pugh (I have been a massive fan of her since Little Women and Midsommar). Not to mention Matt Damon (I at first know him for The Talented Mr. Ripley) or Rami Malek.
And, surprisingly, I even saw Casey Affleck in the film! (I really love his film Manchester By The Sea, so depressing and emotional!). There's also Jack Quaid as Richard Feynman.
What I thought Would be More Science
As much as I love the cinematography and actors in the film, I expected that this film will bring much science, maybe about quantum physics and nuclear bomb and see how Nolan plays with science in his art. But I find the heavy science only in the first one-third of the movie. And the rest mostly about history and politics, the two topics I have never been really fascinated with.
That’s why, as the film goes on, the first hour, and then first and a half hour, the film gets … boring. Not because the film itself is more talking than action (which is really different from Nolan’s latest films Tenet and Interstellar) nor because it’s loo long. But it’s because I’m simply not interested in the major topic of this film.
As the film goes to the middle section, the history and politics science get more dense. That’s when I lost my interest in this film 😕. Well, sort of. I’m not really interested what countries against what countries, and feud among the political parties makes me really baffled (there’s liberalist, communist, NAZI, etc). As someone who’s looking for detail of science and how it gets manipulated in nuclear bomb itself, I’m not really satisfied. And the scenes when Lewis makes scientist turn against each other when he accused Oppenheimer and ask his loyalty in this war.
And also, even though I mention lots of my favorite actors and actresses being present in this film, still Cillian Murphy dominates the film. I even think this film as Murphy’s film. I was kind of disappointed seeing the lack of Florence Pugh (Jean Tatlock)’s portion compared to Murphy or Damon. Only Emily Blunt seems to meet my expectation. Her role as Kitty Oppenheimer, is really great!!
Most people I know (or review I read on the Internet while researching for this article) say that this film is too much talking. And I agree. So, I don’t get bored because of the too much talking, but rather they’re talking about something I’m not interested and I lack of knowledge about that. Had they talk more about the bomb, how it works, how they engineer them, I would pretty much enjoy the film.
So, is Oppenheimer is not for everyone? My answer is yes. As a Nolan’s fan I can say that I do enjoy this film, but not as much as his other film. Not because I find his film is bad, but because I have no interest in history and politics. Maybe the same reason why I haven’t been and am not interested to watch his other film Dunkirk, I think this is similar with Oppenheimer, a historical documentary film.
Right after I left the IMAX cinema, I thought of one series that I thought is similar with Oppenheimer, and that is HBO’s Chernobyl. Like Oppenheimer, despite lots of people who really like the series (it even has 9-star in IMDb!) I don’t really enjoy the series because, like Oppenheimer, it is about politics and history.
So, Oppenheimer is Indeed Not for Everyone
So, my conclusion is, if you have huge interest in story telling, history, politics and science, I think you’d love Oppenheimer. But if you don’t, or if you a “plot-driven” like me who looks for twist and complex nonlinear plot, you might want to prepare yourself for disappointment.
Ultimately, due to its awesome cinematography, sound effect and the actors, i give Oppenheimer a 8/10 🌟 (As I’m writing this, there's still some part of me telling me to give this film a 7-star instead, but I think 8 would be the most generous of me 🙃.)
Nah, I'll give this film a 7/10 🌟 instead.
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