Film Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer'

Idxomer

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2014
Messages
15,415
I'm far from a Nolan fan but I loved this. The last hour is one of the most interesting things he has done in his career.
 

BD

technologically challenged barbie doll
Joined
Sep 1, 2011
Messages
23,212
I didn't find it boring after the bomb test, but it definitely took me a while to get it all together in my head - i.e. where the Oppenheimer kangaroo court scenes before or after the Strauss scenes, trying to remember the different characters, their names, and their motivations and relationship to Oppenheimer, etc. It all eventually came together enough in my head to be able to follow, but I noticed the couple next to me seemed to switch off and were getting ready to leave with 10 minutes to go.
 

Rooney in Paris

Gerrard shirt..Anfield? You'll Never Live it Down
Scout
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
Messages
36,012
Location
In an elephant sanctuary
I didn't find it boring after the bomb test, but it definitely took me a while to get it all together in my head - i.e. where the Oppenheimer kangaroo court scenes before or after the Strauss scenes, trying to remember the different characters, their names, and their motivations and relationship to Oppenheimer, etc. It all eventually came together enough in my head to be able to follow, but I noticed the couple next to me seemed to switch off and were getting ready to leave with 10 minutes to go.
There's no accounting for stupidity.

It's really not a very hard film to follow.
 

BD

technologically challenged barbie doll
Joined
Sep 1, 2011
Messages
23,212
There's no accounting for stupidity.

It's really not a very hard film to follow.
They were definitely not too much into it. They came in 5 minutes late after half time, opened a massive bag of crisps, cheers'ed their beers by clinking the bottles during the movie, etc. I mostly found it funny, how lacking in self-awareness they were.
 

Jev

Full Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2008
Messages
8,082
Location
Denmark
I thought it was probably Nolan's most accomplished film. I've always been a fan of his but I was impressed that he could make such a dialogue-heavy three-hour character study so compelling. Dialogue has never been his biggest strength, often exposition-heavy and slightly clunky at times but here, it was clever, funny and interesting throughout. Oppenheimer is probably his most compelling character to date and the nuances of the character relationships were far above any other Nolan film.

Maybe it doesn't have as many iconic moments as, say, the overall far inferior Interstellar but as a complete package, my first reaction is that it was his best film. Interestingly structured without being gimmicky, great performances by Murphy, Downey and Blunt in particular, spectacularly scored by Göransson. It was just really, really good. 9/10.
 

Rooney in Paris

Gerrard shirt..Anfield? You'll Never Live it Down
Scout
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
Messages
36,012
Location
In an elephant sanctuary
They were definitely not too much into it. They came in 5 minutes late after half time, opened a massive bag of crisps, cheers'ed their beers by clinking the bottles during the movie, etc. I mostly found it funny, how lacking in self-awareness they were.
They sound awful :lol:
 

Herman Toothrot

Full Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2021
Messages
1,777
They were definitely not too much into it. They came in 5 minutes late after half time, opened a massive bag of crisps, cheers'ed their beers by clinking the bottles during the movie, etc. I mostly found it funny, how lacking in self-awareness they were.
Half time?
 

Sweet Square

Full Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
23,782
Location
The Zone
Where you the guy sat next to me checking his phone every 20 minutes?
Haha. I was sitting next to a old couple who kept doing this. The audiences for both Oppenheimer and Barbie have made a great argument that cinema should die(Some guy in Oppenheimer went to go for a piss as the countdown started :houllier:)

Disappointing review though SS.
Tbh I was fully expecting to hate it as I have never been a fan of Nolan yet the film won me over for most of it.
 
Last edited:

FrankDrebin

Don't call me Shirley
Joined
Aug 25, 2019
Messages
20,615
Location
Police Squad
Supports
USA Manchester Red Socks
Anybody playing around on their phone during a film in theatre should be thrown out and banned for life or publicly hanged.
 

Rooney in Paris

Gerrard shirt..Anfield? You'll Never Live it Down
Scout
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
Messages
36,012
Location
In an elephant sanctuary
Anybody playing around on their phone during a film in theatre should be thrown out and banned for life or publicly hanged.
... by the balls.
Haha. I was sitting next to a old couple who kept doing this. The audiences for both Oppenheimer and Barbie have made a great argument that cinema should die(Some guy in Oppenheimer went to go for a piss as the countdown started :houllier:)
That is sociopathic behaviour
 

Jev

Full Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2008
Messages
8,082
Location
Denmark
So saw this tonight and yeah oddly it’s very similar to the Barbie film. The good bits are incredible and the bad bits are laughable awful.

Somewhere in the edit there is a 90 minute film that would be one of the greatest of all time. Currently it’s far too long and bloated. Nolan has such a odd world view that he can never really get to the core of an issue(The last hour is like a very boring and long twitter thread from Carole Cadwalladr). Although it’s probably the most left wing big budget Hollywood film since the first Avatar. Still it’s easily worth seeing at the cinema.

Also

I can agree to a 2 hour and 30 minutes cut or slightly less but do you seriously believe a 90 minute cut would be better?

Also: What did you find laughably awful?
 

Rooney in Paris

Gerrard shirt..Anfield? You'll Never Live it Down
Scout
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
Messages
36,012
Location
In an elephant sanctuary
SS wanted to see the Japanese die.
:lol:
I can agree to a 2 hour and 30 minutes cut or slightly less but do you seriously believe a 90 minute cut would be better?

Also: What did you find laughably awful?
I don't see how a 90mn version would work either. I actually honestly feel there's a lot that has been left out, as I said, I easily could've watched a longer version of this. It was tight, the script was excellent, and nothing felt superfluous, for me.
 

Mr Pigeon

Illiterate Flying Rat
Scout
Joined
Mar 27, 2014
Messages
26,361
Location
bin
90 minute cut?! :lol:

The movie was great. Why would you want less of it?
Adam Sandler stars as Oppy the Magical Farting Pixie, who falls in love with a witch played by Drew Barrymore. Together they try to stop the evil Hitlertron 4000 (David Spade) and Doctor Fart (also Sandler) from reversing time so farts go inside everyone's bodies, causing them to explode in a big farty gas of farts. Starring the voice of Michael Caine as Fart Noise #46.
 

Sweet Square

Full Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
23,782
Location
The Zone
I can agree to a 2 hour and 30 minutes cut or slightly less but do you seriously believe a 90 minute cut would be better?
In 55 minutes Herzog pretty much shows hell on earth both physically and spiritually in Lessons Of Darkness. There should only be a hand full of films that go the 3 hour mark.

The big cut would have been getting rid of almost everything after the bomb(Only keeping the scenes where Oppenheimer is shown after effects of Hiroshima and the sit down with Truman). It’s completely different film after that event and Nolan goes into expensive BBC One dad drama mode

Start it in New Mexico and end it there with the successful test. Remove all the science jargon(Ideally I would have loved almost no dialogue at all).

To me the movie was at its best when I can’t hear what the characters are saying, the soundtrack is extremely loud and it’s cutting to between shots of fireballs and close ups of Cillian Murphy distressed face.

And to be somewhat fair to Nolan. The film I wanted would also be universally hated and career destorying

Also: What did you find laughably awful?
The Commie bits. In particular Nolan playing it straight with Oppenheimer and reading all 3 volumes of Marx’s Capital in German then saying property = theft. Granted most people won’t care but it was about as in depth as a Jordon Peterson speech.

Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr have too many silly west wing style mic drops.

The sex scenes were awful.

Einstein by accident is the comedic relief of the film.
SS wanted to see the Japanese die.
:lol:


That is sociopathic behaviour
The best was the guy who sat through 20 minutes of adverts and then when the film started left to get some drinks.

The common man is a strange beast.
 

V.O.

Last Man Standing finalist 2019/20
Joined
Jan 12, 2019
Messages
8,070
Saw this yesterday. I'm not a massive Nolan fan at all - I thought The Prestige was great, his Batman films are very good for what they are, but most of his other stuff is meh and I'm generally a bit wound up by some of his directorial foibles.

This is genuinely brilliant, though. There are of course a couple of eye-rollers, like the fecking sanskrit Bhagavad Gita randomly opening on the 'destroyer of worlds' line in the sex scene, or the way that several different characters describe things happening during the Oppenheimer/Strauss hearings using the exact same words in order to beat you over the head with the parallels - but these are just nitpicks.

I was a bit wary of the film falling into the biopic trap of getting too far down the rabbit hole into relationships etc that I just don't care about, but the personal side of things was weaved together with the stuff with a wider scope very well and found just the right balance for me. The pacing and efficiency of dialogue was excellent too. it felt like there was barely a line wasted and as mentioned by others, you couldn't go for a piss without missing something that had moved the plot along. Most three hour movies feel like 90 minutes pointlessly stretched out to fill the time, this felt more like four hours expertly streamlined into three.

I barely remember seeing Downey Jr in anything other than Marvel shite, but he might even have been the best thing about the film. The scene where he first meets Oppenheimer and is somehow slighted by almost every word that comes out of Oppenheimer's mouth is great.

There have been criticisms of mostly swerving scenes showing the death and injury caused by the bombs, but I think they got that right as well, with it being primarily a biopic. The decision to have those elements superimposed onto the jingoistic crowd while Oppenheimer gives his rah rah speech was perfect.

On the Jamie Redknapp rating scale: it's a top, TOP movie.
 

Simbo

Full Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2010
Messages
5,237
No idea if this was any good or not, I reckon people could convince me either way. I think it'd probably help to know something of Oppenheimer beforehand and his story. Oddly, I'm not sure I'd heard of the guy before this movie was announced.

I also had the sound issues, in imax. Some dialog was lost to the excessive background noise.
 

The Corinthian

I will not take Mad Winger's name in vain
Joined
Dec 10, 2020
Messages
11,938
Supports
A Free Palestine
Adam Sandler stars as Oppy the Magical Farting Pixie, who falls in love with a witch played by Drew Barrymore. Together they try to stop the evil Hitlertron 4000 (David Spade) and Doctor Fart (also Sandler) from reversing time so farts go inside everyone's bodies, causing them to explode in a big farty gas of farts. Starring the voice of Michael Caine as Fart Noise #46.
Also starting Rob Schneider as a shart. A role he’s been typecasted in.
 

The Firestarter

Full Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2010
Messages
28,309
No idea if this was any good or not, I reckon people could convince me either way. I think it'd probably help to know something of Oppenheimer beforehand and his story. Oddly, I'm not sure I'd heard of the guy before this movie was announced.

I also had the sound issues, in imax. Some dialog was lost to the excessive background noise.
For real?
 

Herman Toothrot

Full Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2021
Messages
1,777
Saw this yesterday. I'm not a massive Nolan fan at all - I thought The Prestige was great, his Batman films are very good for what they are, but most of his other stuff is meh and I'm generally a bit wound up by some of his directorial foibles.

This is genuinely brilliant, though. There are of course a couple of eye-rollers, like the fecking sanskrit Bhagavad Gita randomly opening on the 'destroyer of worlds' line in the sex scene, or the way that several different characters describe things happening during the Oppenheimer/Strauss hearings using the exact same words in order to beat you over the head with the parallels - but these are just nitpicks.

I was a bit wary of the film falling into the biopic trap of getting too far down the rabbit hole into relationships etc that I just don't care about, but the personal side of things was weaved together with the stuff with a wider scope very well and found just the right balance for me. The pacing and efficiency of dialogue was excellent too. it felt like there was barely a line wasted and as mentioned by others, you couldn't go for a piss without missing something that had moved the plot along. Most three hour movies feel like 90 minutes pointlessly stretched out to fill the time, this felt more like four hours expertly streamlined into three.

I barely remember seeing Downey Jr in anything other than Marvel shite, but he might even have been the best thing about the film. The scene where he first meets Oppenheimer and is somehow slighted by almost every word that comes out of Oppenheimer's mouth is great.

There have been criticisms of mostly swerving scenes showing the death and injury caused by the bombs, but I think they got that right as well, with it being primarily a biopic. The decision to have those elements superimposed onto the jingoistic crowd while Oppenheimer gives his rah rah speech was perfect.

On the Jamie Redknapp rating scale: it's a top, TOP movie.
He wasn't there. The entire story is told from either his or Strauss' point of view. Him imagining his colleagues skin fall off their face told you everything you needed to know.
 
Last edited:

Camilo

Full Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
Messages
2,941
Ended up seeing this for a second time, and I still found it pretty average.

You couldn't edit it down - he's done his absolute best to keep it as brief as possible - which to me means it's a badly written film. It's too long, there's no pacing, it's one dimensional.

Thought I might enjoy it more, but nah. It's like an a film by AI; there's no art in it.
 

The Firestarter

Full Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2010
Messages
28,309
Yeah and and I'm someone who takes an interest in all sorts of random shit including plenty of history, so I find it more strange than you can, believe me :lol: He seems a pretty important fellow.
I am not sure when I first learned about him. Either in physics class in high school, or some of the discovery channel I watched as s kid.
 

Gavinb33

Full Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2014
Messages
2,814
Location
Watching the TV or is it watching me
Watched it today, what an incredible piece of filmmaking it was amazing, the last bit to me was the most compelling as it was the bit I didn't have any idea of beforehand, the whole thing has made me want to find out more so will he shopping for some books on this in the next few days
 

VP

Full Member
Joined
May 19, 2006
Messages
11,558
Great first two hours of cinema, but the last bit was a complete waste of time.
 

Rooney in Paris

Gerrard shirt..Anfield? You'll Never Live it Down
Scout
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
Messages
36,012
Location
In an elephant sanctuary
Ended up seeing this for a second time, and I still found it pretty average.

You couldn't edit it down - he's done his absolute best to keep it as brief as possible - which to me means it's a badly written film. It's too long, there's no pacing, it's one dimensional.

Thought I might enjoy it more, but nah. It's like an a film by AI; there's no art in it.
The bolded parts make no sense.
 

Salt Bailly

Auburn, not Ginger.
Joined
Apr 23, 2017
Messages
9,679
Location
Valinor
Guys, I just got out of my 8th screening. It was the worst one yet.

Like, I predicted the entire plot cus it didn't change. How lazy is that?