First ‘Oppenheimer’ Reactions Call Christopher Nolan’s Historical Epic a ‘Total Knockout’
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“Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s three-hour biography of Robert J. Oppenheimer (played by Nolan regular Cillian Murphy), one of the architects of the nuclear bomb, is nearly here and ahead of its July 21 release date the social embargo has been lifted and the first thoughts are coming through. (The movie just had its world premiere in Paris.)
Bilge Ebiri, critic for New York Magazine and Vulture (and perhaps our greatest living film writer), said the film was “incredible.” “A relentlessly paced, insanely detailed, intricate historical drama that builds and builds and builds until Nolan brings the hammer down in the most astonishing, shattering way,” Ebiri said on Twitter.
OPPENHEIMER is…incredible. The word that keeps coming to mind is "fearsome." A relentlessly paced, insanely detailed, intricate historical drama that builds and builds and builds until Nolan brings the hammer down in the most astonishing, shattering way.
— Bilge Ebiri (@BilgeEbiri) July 11, 2023
Lindsey Bahr, a film critic and writer for the Associated Press, similarly called the film “truly a spectacular achievement.” “In its truthful, concise adaptation, inventive storytelling and nuanced performances from Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and the many, many others involved —- some just for a scene,” Bahr wrote.
Christopher Nolan’s #Oppenheimer is truly a spectacular achievement, in its truthful, concise adaptation, inventive storytelling and nuanced performances from Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and the many, many others involved —- some just for a scene.
— Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) July 11, 2023
Matt Maytum, an editor at Total Film, echoed those sentiments and said the movie “left me stunned.” “An epic historical drama but with a distinctly Nolan sensibility: the tension, structure, sense of scale, startling sound design, remarkable visuals,” Maytum tweeted.
#Oppenheimer left me stunned: a character study on the grandest scale, with a sublime central performance by Cillian Murphy. An epic historical drama but with a distinctly Nolan sensibility: the tension, structure, sense of scale, startling sound design, remarkable visuals. Wow
— Matt Maytum (@mattmaytum) July 11, 2023
Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin called the movie a “total knockout” and said that the movie “split my brain open like a twitchy plutonium nucleus and left me sobbing through the end credits like I can’t even remember what else.”
Am torn between being all coy and mysterious about Oppenheimer and just coming out and saying it’s a total knockout that split my brain open like a twitchy plutonium nucleus and left me sobbing through the end credits like I can’t even remember what else.
— Robbie Collin (@robbiereviews) July 11, 2023
See more reactions below.
Totally absorbed in OPPENHEIMER, a dense, talkie, tense film partly about the bomb, mostly about how doomed we are. Happy summer! Murphy is good, but the support essential: Damon, Downey Jr & Ehrenreich even bring gags. An audacious, inventive, complex film to rattle its audience
— Jonathan Dean (@JonathanDean_) July 11, 2023
A sign that French audiences loved #Oppenheimer is that they stayed in front of the Grand Rex theater long after the film ended to debate about it!
— Elsa Keslassy (@ElsaKeslassy) July 11, 2023
“Oppenheimer,” which also stars Robert Downey, Jr., Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Matthew Modine, Josh Peck, Alden Ehrenreich, Dane DeHaan and many, many more, was written and directed by Nolan and is based on the 2005 nonfiction book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.
The movie will be in theaters on July 21, 2023.