🎭 Drama 🎬 C. Nolan 🏆 2023 🌟 96th Academy Awards

"Is anyone ever going to tell the truth about what's happening here?" (Answer: Oppenheimer)

There are two types of filmmakers right now: everyone else, and Christopher Nolan.

Of course, the same could be said of many good directors, but it’s especially relevant when trying to rate a film of this sort in comparison to the types of lower-budget horror and thriller films I generally love.

A quick personal story to explain what I mean. A few years ago I had the strangest acid trip. I believed I was talking to eight firemen who were trying to convince me that I was on drugs, which of course I was. I believed that the existence of Christopher Nolan hung in the balance, so I started trying to convince them that if I were on drugs, Christopher Nolan would not exist, and would they truly want to live in a world without him there to make films about it?

The existential dread of a world without Christopher Nolan notwithstanding, he was my gateway into contemporary cinema. I had a small tolerance for violence, mainly only liked Kiarostami and Antonioni, and a lot of tolerance for intellectual wonkery, so Tenet and the like became my favorites well before I got into horror.

Watching a film like Oppenheimer makes me have to evaluate how I score films at all, because if I went by production value, very little else exists like it. How am I meant to compare this with Red Rooms or Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, two of my other favorites? It is like comparing skyscrapers to a beautiful home. There should not be competition between them; they are different degrees of the same art of visual storytelling.

When he releases something, we can expect it to be technically pristine. Nothing is wrong with Oppenheimer that matters. It is genuinely near flawless as far as I can tell, and that’s a gift to viewers. It shows what is possible, and it cannot possibly fail to make an impression.

Compare this with something like Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, or even Dune, and it becomes obvious that there is something else that is entirely his own that he brings that is nearly alchemical that other people with the resources to create films like this just don't have to the same degree.

Films live or die based on how engrossing and rewarding they are for viewers, and that requires strong writing and directing and a clear creative angle, and here we have all of this. Oppenheimer film somehow makes three hours largely about physics and politics fly by.

Looking at what doesn’t always work is informative. I find his dialogue generally not to be the strongest part of his films. Nothing’s wrong with it, exactly, but it never is his strongest part. I doubt anyone associates him with wordplay and subtle wit. Honestly, I don’t know if there would be room for that. His films are always high concept, and almost always a new concept in a similar-feeling direction of exploration.

No, he feels more like a researcher to me than anything else, or like a physical anthropologist. He finds an idea that hasn’t been explored and hones in on it, finding what will crumble and what’s solid. His work feels like one direction of a dig into the buried world of all possible uncreated stories, discovering something new but also entirely his own each time. No one else seems to be looking in quite the same place or have the same angle of research. He will continue to discover new work and bring it to us.

His style of film-making is not likely to be replicated by anyone else in the near future, and I’ve suggested it’s not just about the technique or creativity but about the angle of intellectual inquiry. They are large films, but they are also some of the smartest, and his thinking is unique, and his ability to translate that into a compelling story is equally unique. It’s not often that someone comes along who can discover that there is a story related to a nuclear physicist that is so compelling in visual and narrative form that it can compel an audience to spend three hours in the world of Oppenheimer and enjoy it as much as they learn from it.

Who knew this story was here to discover not just in book form but as effective cinema that will also sell tickets? What an extraordinary story he picked out as well, with a very characteristic style of storytelling involving multiple timelines—but here, unlike in Tenet (which worked extremely well for me but not as well for others) or even Inception, both of which are as intricate as the workings of a handmade watch, the story is tremendously simple.

This makes Oppenheimer for me his best film to date. The material here is more complex than Tenet and more interesting than Inception but it’s told in a way that all of this complexity works with a grounded narrative that anyone could understand. It would be hard to miss the story here. It’s very clear in the first two thirds of the film, and it pivots in the last in a way that you would literally have to close your eyes and ears to miss.

The narrative arcs are simple. The material is complex and fascinating. And through some manner of sorcery, or alchemy, or excavation, Christopher Nolan has discovered how to make a film like this and have it be extraordinary.

And that is why I do not want to live in a world without Christopher Nolan.

Strongest recommendation to everyone.

Some Lists:

🎬 Christopher Nolan
🎭 Drama Ranked | 💥 Thrillers
🏆 2023 Ranked
🌟 96th Academy Awards Shortlisted Films Ranked
💎 Slightly Hidden Horror Gems and 🌱 Candidates
📽️ Viewing Next 🗂️ Index of Lists

Looking for something else? Consider:

Four Daughters | Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person | Red Rooms | Beyond Utopia | Naga | When Evil Lurks | Eileen | How to Have Sex | Journey to the West | Saltburn | 20 Days in Mariupol | The Holdovers | Leave the World Behind | May December | Dream Scenario | In My Mother's Skin |Anatomy of a Fall | The Red Queen Kills Seven Times | Tin and Tina