Oppenheimer : Nolan's Newest Magnum Opus; A Heartfelt, Scientific Centered, Political Drama Biopic Masterpiece

    Now, just to give you guys heads up, I'm what the twitter users called Nolan's groupie. Meaning I'm such a slave for anything Nolan related. But personally, I don't think I'm a Nolan groupie since I only REALLY like some of his works and the rest of them I thought was decent enough to watch. That being said, I always looking forward to his new upcoming projects. He is and always be one of my favorite directors of all time.

    Okay, now when we entered what's the title of this blog said, I admit I am a SLAVE for Oppenheimer. For most of content that he direct that is Oppenheimer, it's a biopic about the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. I don't pretend that I knew a lot about this Oppie dude before I watch the film, in fact I only knew exactly what I wrote just now; that he's the father of the atomic bomb. That's about it.

    Of course, my limited knowledge about him as a scientist came with pros and cons. One of the pros is that I didn't have anything that can set foundation of my expectation toward this film. My only expectation as soon as I bought the pre-sale ticket was 'it's a Nolan movie. It's got to be good'. And one of the cons is that I really REALLY have to pay attention to all of the dialogs, because it contains all these characters I didn't fully familiarize with yet, these political dramas that's a bit heavy for my cup of tea, and all the scientific terms and concepts I'd like to understand a little deeper as an audience who have zero idea about what's quantum physics are all about.

    Thankfully, I watched all of Nolan's filmography (well, except maybe his first ever feature film Following) and I know his films were never light and compact with action and straightforward conclusion. He really like to make his audience think and savor each scene. He always want to make stacked conclusion, making it different from each interpretation. For me, that's fun and challenging. It's engaging and fresh, never boring.

    So, when he collaborated with the idea of a biopic, a political drama, and a scientific breakthrough that Oppenheimer went through, I know that I'm in for a treat. He really has the ability of that delicious amount of balance to combine drama, suspense, pacing, and storytelling and mold them into one singular beautiful cinematic experience. And that epic cinematic masterpiece was supported by excellent casting, creative scoring and sound mixing, and an absolute banger of editing. A 3-hour journey of total brilliance of a craftmanship.

    Cillian Murphy is always under my 'radar' as a methodical and talented actor. I know his films, I know his long-time collaboration with Nolan. It always struck me as weird that Nolan always having him around in many of his films but never actually gave him an important part; the lead role. But now I finally see his vision. Nolan was waiting for a film with this exact scale to actually gave Murphy the role he was exactly destined to play. Murphy's acting was so fresh, fitting, and heartfelt as Oppenheimer. He was so methodical that I really couldn't get my eyes off of him. Every turn of his eyes, every dialog he's spoken was carefully and masterfully executed. Probably his best role to date.

    Ludwig Göransson's score was so over the top. I've been a fan since the first Venom movie and then he did the iconic opening music as well as the scores for The Mandalorian and of course Tenet. I was a bit turned down because I thought after Tenet, Nolan would collaborate again with Hans Zimmer (his The Dark Knight Trilogy score were so amazing) because I missed the duo (and uhm... Tenet isn't one of my favorite Nolan movie. Sorry...). But it doesn't matter now because Göransson proved himself that he can adapt to whatever the film was about. If it's epic and a masterpiece, then he'd do one with the same level of epic-ness (is that even a word?).

    His works really shine especially during the detonation scene and the final scene. Combined with the buildup atmosphere and Murphy's acting, the score really got every corner of my soul as the suspense peaked and died down, leaving that sweet satisfaction of a really good score of a lifetime.

    And maybe lastly, the pacing. I noticed that my most number one favorite Nolan film that is The Dark Knight, in my most humble opinion, had a pacing issue. Especially of the good first act of the film. It doesn't really annoy me and I don't really think that's an actual issue. But it's there and I admit it's probably why it didn't get that 100% embargo on Rotten Tomato or 10/10 on IMDB or whatever. But with Oppenheimer I honestly thought there was zero pacing issue. An almost 3-hour cinema that felt exactly suitable. Each and every scene was necessary, didn't stretch to short or too long, and it all felt right. The build up suspense was enough and the climax was satisfying. And I really like how on the detonation scene the 'kaboom' sound was at first deafening and the audience instead was given this white blinding blow before the short but really loud KABOOM. I thought it's brilliant because it's a new way to introduce a heavy and satisfying climax.

    To wrap things up, Oppenheimer is a movie of the year (if not movie of the decade, together with the awesome marketing trend with Barbie, or Barbenheimer for short), packed with Nolan-esque epic political drama, his love for science, and his indispensable contribution of storytelling of one's most popular scientist ever known. My final rating would be a solid 9/10.