Reviews

As of writing this review, it's been 21 hours since the credits rolled, I traveled 2 hours by train, and slept for 14 hours.

I never made it past high school, so my knowledge about physics and philosophy is limited, yet my interest is straight from the heart.

I first read about Christopher Nolan doing a biographical drama about J. Robert Oppenheimer last summer, and that they detonated a nuclear device to record in 70mm IMAX, and I've been looking forward to this day for a year non-stop.

Before going in, I knew that it wouldn't be as "mind blowing" as Inception or Tenet as their premises are that of fiction, but I went in with an open mind anyway, and it turned out to be even more mind blowing, but in another way. A way I didn't expect. A way of which I don't feel that my limited vocabulary will do it justice.

I have a feeling of melancholy inside of me that I have never felt before. At least not from a movie. In my best words, "I want to go back, crawl inside the screen, and stay there forever." I am 28 years old and grew up with the Harry Potter series, which I enjoyed, yet I never got this feeling from any of them, even when I was a child. I get flashbacks and subsequent chills from Cillian Murphy's eyes, his acting, the two climaxes, and the abrupt silent sequences with the most visually spectacular orange colors I thought that I had seen before. The sounds, the visuals, the shaking, the tension, the empathy.

There are no facts or information in this movie that you can't read anywhere online from searching "Manhattan Project" or "Oppenheimer," but it's summarized so perfectly in the film, both objectively and subjectively. Something Nolan mastered some 20 years ago with Memento, albeit being a fictional story.

I'm still processing the emotions from this journey. I have so much to say, but I can't find the words yet. In toto, this is the most flabbergasted I've been from a movie. It's the perfect mix of the right timing, the right director, the right cast, the right crew, and in my specific case, the journey behind travelling 1 hour each way by train to experience Nolan in IMAX (technically LieMAX, but I'm not complaining).

I'm going again to watch it with my mom, and hopefully I'll have more words by then. So far, I'm too speechless and emotional to make an objective review without spoilers.

If you enjoy Christopher Nolan, history, quantum mechanics, philosophy, and politics, and you get even the smallest chance to watch Oppenheimer in a modern cinema, do not hesitate.

So, as of writing this review, I'm 28 years old, this movie was released when I was 11, and I saw it by accident when I was 16. I think that's relevant. Watching this movie is far from watching a political blockbuster like Dr. Strangelove or a visual masterpiece like Blade Runner, but when it comes to movies you can just lay back and chill to, or watch with friends who just wants something to look at, this has several times in my life been a go-to for some reason. It's an absurd mix of premature sexual jokes and a wholly cliché storyline, while still having actors trying to do their best with a script that's... questionable. To simplify it as much as possible, it's the game of Clue (like the Savannah episode of The Office) meets horny college student. In terms of cinematic value, it's one of the lowest hanging fruits you can image, but somehow the actors executes the questionable script flawlessly. Whenever I want to lay back and relax without thinking about... well... anything, this movie is in my top 10, and I feel like it's a guilty pleasure of mine.