Hey film fans, Slick Dungeon here. Oppenheimer is one of the Oscar movies that I have already reviewed on this blog so a lot of this review will seem familiar. However, I am updating it to talk about the Oscars the film has been nominated for. If you have already read this review, feel free to skip to that part. If you haven’t and you are curious about what my thoughts were on the film, then by all means read on! This review will contain a few spoilers for the movie but nothing major. Also, since this is a biographical picture based off a book about a famous person and period in history and it’s pretty accurate, I guess this is also a warning that there will be spoilers for history as well? If you don’t want to be spoiled at all, go see the movie then come back here to read the review.

Let’s start with the obvious here. The cast, the directing, the production, and the storytelling are phenomenal. This is one of those films that has the word Oscar written all over it in thirty foot letters. My bet is we’ll see at least a nomination for Cillian Murphy, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt and Matt Damon. Not to mention one for Christopher Nolan. The film is worth watching for these performances alone. I especially think Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh really shine in this film.

The plot of the movie centers around both the development of the atomic bomb during World War II and a hearing later in Oppenheimer’s career where his patriotism was questioned because he had some loose ties to communist organizations in his past. It essentially pits Oppenheimer against Lewis Strauss in a political sense. This is where the character tension is but the more fascinating aspect is how Oppenheimer seems to see the world. He’s one of the few people who could actually understand what he was building and why. And he was one of the few people who could actually understand how risky it was to use the bomb and what the worries of proliferation would be.

The movie is set in two basic time periods, before and after the war. Interestingly, the world is in color in the time period before the bomb is dropped but turns black and white when Strauss essentially tries to hang Oppenheimer out to dry politically. Where Oppenheimer’s world is full of bright colors, big events, huge casts of characters and scientists and politicians all trying to understand life, Strauss’ world is narrow, black and white and all about him.

While I’m not going to get into any major spoiler territory here, I do want to point out the few points I feel the film doesn’t handle perfectly. First, while we see Oppenheimer seem to imagine the devastation caused by dropping atomic bombs, there are no scenes of any kind where the explosions happened. I realize the story is told through Oppenheimer’s eyes but even a single scene set in Hiroshima or Nagasaki before and after the explosions could have helped the audience to understand the immensity of what was happening.

My second gripe is the movie only barely touches on the fact that Oppenheimer knew the need for regulating atomic energy and fought hard for that for the latter part of his life. While he still seemed to think the invention of the bomb was necessary given the circumstances of World War II, he understood how out of control things could get without major oversight of such an immense power.

I will say that the last line of the film is one hell of an ending and justifies the long run time of the film. Overall, it’s a great achievement of a film, worthy of the complicate man it portrays. If you haven’t gone out to see this one yet, get on it when you have a full day to dedicate to it.

The Awards

Best Actor

There are several great actors up for this award. Colman Domingo had a great turn as Bayard Rustin in Rustin, Bradley Cooper is up for Maestro, Paul Giamati who is no stranger to the Oscars is up for The Holdovers, and Jeffrey Wright has a strong case to make with American Fiction. But, none of those guys, and I mean none of them, dived as deep into their role as Cillian Murphy did for Oppenheimer. Murphy truly transforms into the person and delivers an extraordinary performance here. On any other year I would say this is a close call but this year, I think it has to be Murphy who gets the win.

Best Supporting Actor

This category is again filled with big name actors and for me, it’s a tougher call than Best Actor. Robert Downey Jr. is the actor up for the award for Oppenheimer. There is no doubt his performance was a good one and he made a great foil to Murphy’s Oppenheimer. But there are other actors in this category who may be more deserving. Sterling K. Brown is up for American Fiction, Robert De Niro is up for yet another Oscar for Killers of the Flower Moon, Ryan Gosling has lots of buzz for his role as Ken in Barbie, and Mark Ruffalo is up for Poor Things. I suspect Robert Downey Jr. is not going to win here but I’m torn on guessing who will win. I think De Niro has a really strong shot but Gosling may just sneak his way into a win here.

Best Supporting Actress

Emily Blunt is up for the award here for Oppenheimer. She plays Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty. In the film, I actually thought Florence Pugh had a stronger performance than Blunt but she was ultimately not nominated. Blunt is up against Jodie Foster for her role in Nyad, Danielle Brooks for The Color Purple, America Ferrera for Barbie, and Da’vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers. Out of all of these performances, I think Danielle Brooks is the most deserving in this case.

Cinematography

While there are several films in this category, I think only two have a real shot. The nominees here are El Conde, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Poor Things, and, of course, Oppenheimer. While all of these films have wonderful cinematography, only Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon have cinematography on a scale that is truly Oscar worthy. I think it’s a dead even match between the two so I would not be surprised if either of them took home the trophy.

Costume Design

The costume design here was definitely good. I can see why it was nominated. But, in this category I actually think it is going to go to Napoleon or maybe Poor Things, both of which are also period pieces but have more elaborate costuming than Oppenheimer does. The other movies in the category are Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon. I could maybe see Barbie getting it but we’ll have to see.

Directing

In this category, I would be honestly surprised if Oppenheimer did not win. Christopher Nolan has proven himself a master of visual storytelling more than once and this is his greatest work to date. The other directors are certainly great directors themselves but Nolan definitely created a masterpiece here. His competition is quite notable with Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall, Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon, Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things, and Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest. Even with these notable directors and films, I still am betting on (not literally) Christopher Nolan to take home the award.

Film Editing

Again, I am calling this one for Oppenheimer. There are such memorable sequences and the way the film is structured is fairly complicated, with tons of editing necessary to make it work. The other nominees are Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Poor Things.

Makeup and Hairstyling

I think this one is going to go to Poor Things over Oppenheimer but if Oppenheimer won, it would be well deserved. It’s also up against Golda, Maestro, and Society of the Snow.

Music (Original Score)

The film has a good score, although I am not music expert, but I think Killers of the Flower Moon has a much better shot here. The other movies in question here are American Fiction, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and Poor Things.

Best Picture

I am calling it for Oppenheimer on this one as well. There are definitely notable films in competition, and I’ll be reviewing each one of them this week, but I think Oppenheimer is almost a guaranteed lock here.

Production Design

I think in this category Barbie is actually going to beat out Oppenheimer. While the production design was fantastic here, Barbie had to be even more innovative and creative so i think they will take away the Oscar.

Sound

This is a tough category to win. The competitors to Oppenheimer are The Creator, Maestro, Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and The Zone of Interest. The Creator has great sound, as does Mission Impossible but Oppenheimer has a particular sequence where the sound conveys so much of the storytelling that it’s clear how vital the sound actually is. While typically sci-fi and fantasy films tend to take home the award in this category, I think Oppenheimer is actually going to win here because of that sequence.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

The writing here is excellent and if Oppenheimer were to win, it would be deserving. But there is also really strong competition in this category. Oppenheimer is up against American Fiction, Barbie, Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest. I think this one is going to go to American Fiction or The Zone of Interest but honestly any of these winning would make complete sense.

Praisingly yours,

Slick Dungeon