REVIEW: OPPENHEIMER

4/5

The Dark Day 

180 Mins. Starring: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Benny Safdie, Jason Clarke, Dane DeHaan, Alden Ehrenreich, David Dastmalchian, David Krumholtz, Scott Grimes, Matthias Schweighöfer, Alex Wolff, Jack Quaid, James D'Arcy, Tony Goldwyn, Matthew Modine, Tom Conti, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh & Robert Downey Jr. Director: Christopher Nolan. In: Theatres.

'Barbenheimer' may have stimulated the summer season of Hollywood blockbusters in theatres. Bringing bums back to those iconic red cinemas seats that were previously tipped up during the pandemic and the age of streaming. But the memes and artwork it inspired led to cruel controversy targeted here in Japan when last year a fan on X (or some other drug) posted a mocked up picture of Cillian Murphy's J. Robert Oppenheimer carrying Margot Robbie's 'Barbie' (made to look happy and celebrating) away from the atomic bomb blast that destroyed and devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Just another twittering troll on what was Twitter. Until the official 'Barbie' Twitter account in the US got involved and replied, "it's going to be a Summer to remember". As if anyone in Japan could forget. Adding insult to more than injury, they already have to put up with cruel and abhorrent memes every time someone mentions a heatwave in Summer, and now they have an official 'Barbie' representative interacting and unbeknownst to them maybe, co-signing. Then came a soft boycott of 'Barbie' due to the controversy and worse retaliating memes from some X users just as callous, putting the same meme up, but changing the background to the World Trade Center on 9/11 and even making the lovely (and I say this about her character) Margot Robbie (who had absolutely nothing to do with this) looking like she was hit by the bomb blast. Truly disgusting behaviour. Both ways. But not from westerns or Japanese people. Just mindless, ignorant individuals. The kinds we don't have to be.

So you can see why this year's Academy Award-winning Best Picture, 'Oppenheimer' took so long to make it here. As it marches to an eight-month late release this week and end of March. Trailer introduced by Japanese 'Batman Begins' and 'Inception' star Ken Watanabe Then again, the previous Oscar winner for Best Picture (the epic 'Everything Everywhere All At Once') only came out after the Oscars, too. Unless it's a Marvel movie, many films feature here in the Far East a little, or much later. You can see 'Past Lives' in the near future. Some for understandable reason. When you watch Paul Thomas Anderson's legacy making 'Licorice Pizza' starring Alana Haim you can also see why offence was caused in a different, but no less ignorant way. Still, like that, THIS is a great movie. One for all-time. No wonder it sealed seven Oscars. And long overdue winner of Best Director, Christopher Nolan has given us his magnum-opus. And here's this generations' filmmaker like the 'Dune' of Denis after him who has even bested his redefining 'Dark Knight' trilogy, not mention his epic exploration one of 'Inception', 'Interstellar' and the terribly underrated, pandemic lifting 'Tenet'. A memento to his prestige in his traditional trademark directing decadence. Beating 'Barbie', and so many other great films, out the box like Scorsese's historical re-telling, in order to learn new lessons 'Killers Of The Flower Moon' with his own epic ensemble like 'Dunkirk'. Exploring similar themes and Geiger counter like scratching score that itch at you. Even if Hans Zimmer isn't collaborating this time like Nolan and fellow knighted filmmaking and life partner Emma Thomas' former Warner Bros home. Victims of the streams (kudos though to 'Tenet's' Ludwig Göransson ('Black Panther', Childish Gambino's 'This Is America' amongst others) who also took home the Oscar for Best Score). World building, a wild west town like Johnny Depp's 'Transcendence' for this doctor of the Manhattan Project, as the atomic age of building a bomb became the race before the space age one. And who would have thought that a three-hour epic that is almost all talk would not only be an Oscar winner, but the highest grossing movie of the year not made out of plastic? If you build it, they will come to your field of dreams.

Japanese cinemagoers are right in saying that more film-time should have been devoted to the suffering Oppenheimer's bomb cause. This is a place that, like they say in 'Shogun', knows death can come at any moment when they feel the earth move. A presentation of both sides maybe like the great Clint Eastwood's dignified directed career-turn in twin war movies, 'Flags Of Our Fathers' and 'Letters From Iwo Jima'. Yet, there's nothing gratuitous about Nolan's nuanced and wonderful work. No glorification, just conflicted guilt from our pure in his methods protagonist. It's always respectful and dignified, and you don't even see the actual bomb blast here. Just in testing. But there are haunting visions of moments that really step on your chest and one that is truly horrific, and in days gone by before this desensitized age would be all you needed to convey the absolute horrors of all this. Nolan has always been one for symbolism, too, like his hidden tribute to Heath Ledger. Here, a massive globe in the White House's Oval Office almost looks like the very bomb itself and the effect it had on the world as we knew it. A reminder in this cautionary tale that prays for peace, that even if we have great power, it doesn't mean we should wield it. Presided over by a President played by a man we won't spoil, but is no stranger to going to great lengths to play these political figures, hidden here. There's a world of wonderful actors here that deserve to be mentioned in this epic ensemble, mind you. David Dastmalchian ('The Dark Knight', 'The Suicide Squad'), David Krumholtz ('Numb3rs'), Scott Grimes ('ER'), Matthias Schweighöfer ('Army Of The Dead' and 'Thieves'), Alex Wolff ('Hereditary'), Jack Quaid ('The Boys'), James D'Arcy ('Agent Carter'), Tony Goldwyn ('Friday The 13th's' Jason), Matthew Modine ('Stranger Things', 'The Dark Knight Rises') and Tom Conti all show up in small, but significant roles. As do friends of the Nolan's like the great Kenneth Branagh and an Academy underrated Matt Damon, with his friends of the family Casey Affleck showing up like Matt did in 'Interstellar'...it's been enough time now, right.

Although she had strong competition from the 'Barbie' speech of America Ferrera, 'Nyad's' support of 'True Detective' great Jodie Foster, 'The Color Purple' of Danielle Brooks, and well deserved winner of 'The Holdovers' Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Emily Blunt deserved her nod in her 'A Quiet Place Part II' reunion with Cillian. Bringing some of that sobering 'The Girl On The Train' acting, also whilst stealing the scene in a table flipped moment that is akin to the ace in the hole that is Best Actor winner Rami Malek's character. 'Dune: Part Two' star Florence Pugh should have also garnered a nomination for the explicit soul and pain of her heartbreaking lover. The future is hers. Alongside the likes of 'Uncut Gem' Benny Safdie, Alden Ehrenreich (back after some unfair 'Solo' railroading from 'Star Wars' fans) and the young, great Dane DeHaan in real prominent and powerhouse parts. There's not enough nominations to go around the table, that hides some behind flowers they should be given. The ever consistent Jason Clarke. The return of the poster boy Josh Hartnett, still so fresh to this. There's more to 'Oppenheimer' than just Oppy. Take Robert Downey Jr. for example. An acting ironman in more ways than one. Don't discredit his time locked up in the M.C.U. Nor what he spearheaded with Marvel in career redemption avengance. But this is the man who played Chaplin perfectly. A real bona fide actor with the 'Best Supporting Actor' statue to add gold weight to that claim in compelling courtroom drama in bold and beautiful black and white. To peace. And the 'Peaky Blinder' (movie to come) eyes of Cillian Murphy that has been a mainstay in many a Nolan movie already. But now, more than '28 Days Later' this actor is getting his overdue respect. Reuniting with Blunt after 'A Quiet Place II', haunted by visions even his Batman Scarecrow couldn't conjure up, Cillian's craftsmanship of character confirms this as a classic. Making the Stetson and pipe iconic, as he tells more behind those bookended stares into the void than he does in the stirring science of this incredibly interesting take on THE turning point in world history. Like Alan Turing, J. Robert Oppenheimer finally got his long-awaited due. But who was it for? And right now, we need his story more than anything. But can you tell me, for what reason? TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Barbie', 'Dunkirk', 'Interstellar'.