Oppenheimer (2023) - Christopher Nolan's Stylistic Magnum Opus

   Oppenheimer (2023)

I'll try to be concise, taking into account the fact that there would be endless talk about this film.

Let's start from the fact that my expectations were quite average, taking into account Nolan's latest films (especially Tenet), but despite this I tried to see the film as impartially as possible.

Yet, the exact moment I stepped into the IMAX theater, I already knew inside of me that I was going to encounter a completely different experience from the ones I have previously had in seeing a film. And so it was: the moment the lights went out and the film began, I knew I had embarked on a journey of no return.

Summarizing everything, I would say that it was without a doubt a mystical experience, this is the film, no longer the IMAX theater.

In fact, Oppenheimer is truly a fine film.

Paul Schrader called it the most important film of the century, I agree in part: as a message we are faced with the history of our time, of our world and especially of our (dark) future, from the point of view cinematic, we are facing an excellent film, which however, as much as I myself would have liked, is not a masterpiece.

Well, Oppenheimer, as far as one can tell, is a wonderful film, really excellent, incredibly successful, but not a masterpiece as many say (from my humble and plebeian point of view).

If the direction, the music by Ludwig Göransson (which he composed as if he were enlightened by god himself), the sets, the costumes, the cinematography, the special effects (THAT moment is physically to die for), the sound, the sound design and every actor (particularly Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. who have to take home every possible award) are ALL elements of really superhuman level, the editing and the narration of the events (not the story, that's beautiful) didn't blow me away completely convinced.

This is because the first, despite the duration of 3 hours, is in any case rushed: there is not a single moment during the vision in which the viewer or even one of the characters has the opportunity to "take a breather". Everything is always so chaotic and rushed. Obviously I understand that Nolan wants to convey the anxiety of building the bomb, the time passing like lightning and the wave of consequences that each character has unleashed, but it's still too fast, way too fast.

Besides this the second aspect is the narration.

Here I would like to make 2 points.

Point 1: the film has some plot holes, trivial things, imperfections and narrative oversights that make you turn up your nose;

Point 2: the plot of the story: now, we are all aware of the type of narrative that characterizes the career of the good Christopher, that's good.

I like it when a simple story (see Pulp Fiction) is intertwined a bit to give more depth to the scope of the story or to the various characters, but when the interweaving of a complex story is also complex itself I can't help but grasp little of what is shown to me: this is not because I want to, but because it is the direct consequence of an excessively complex narration, exactly as in the case of this film.

Now, maybe you can think that it's my way of seeing the film that didn't allow me to fully follow every aspect of the story, but also comparing myself with other people I also had confirmation of my premonition from them.

And this is a huge sin, because if some aspects had been less confusing, the intentions of certain characters would have been better understood well before the end of the third act, which, by the way, is the most confusing and chaotic.

Despite all this gigantic preamble, which seems more like a complaint, I don't feel like saying that this film is not very successful, far from it: Oppenheimer is one of the best films of the year and one of the most successful films recently released, with a goosebumps and jaw-dropping ending; but it could very easily have also been among the best films in the history of cinema, and this is perhaps my greatest regret.