Oppenheimer (2023)
This was generally good, but not mindblowing. I am probably also biased since I am not really a fan of Nolan - with a few exceptions. Most of my qualms with it seems to be with his directing choices.
I am sucker for movies shot on film and the look of this is absolutely top tier. Great cinematic look and feel. I liked the script and the broken up narrative structure. I think it would have been a slog if it was told strictly linear, so the time jumps didn’t bother me. It helped with keeping things interesting throughout the 3 hour runtime. I found Matt Damon and Downey Jr to deliver really great performances, really getting to know their characters. Oppenheimer himself remained more of a mystery, which may be a point in itself, but since the movie is focused on him, I didn’t feel we really got inside his head or understood his motivations. However I do think Nolan intended it to be that way. I am fine with not getting all the answers.
My main issue lies with most of the editing and directing choices. Editing is best when it is mostly left unnoticed, but here it was very jarring many times. Super fast cuts in slow scenes, the overall pace of the film was somewhat exhausting and the constant need to add hyper intensive musical cues just frustrated me more than it added to the drama. Though this is just personal preference where I tend to prefer slower pace overall, but for fans of this particular Nolan style it delivers.
Rating: 3.5