"Oppenheimer"

     ☆☆☆½ 

The first time I saw Oppenheimer, in 70mm at a spectacular old movie palace, something was off. It might well have been me, but I came away feeling overwhelmed by Christopher Nolan's film—not in that sense of being overwhelmed by something spectacular and new, but overwhelmed as if I had been beaten into submission for three hours by a relentless, pounding score and rapid-fire editing that left me dizzy.

Now I wonder if part of my problem—which led me to not reviewing the film at the time, sensing I was missing something—was how I saw Oppenheimer. I'll never say no to seeing a movie projected on 70mm film, but that more standard cinematic version of Nolan's film felt claustrophobic and close-up. Now I understand why.

I've seen the film again in its "native" format of 70mm IMAX, and it's an entirely different experience. The story is still often confusing, the film still feels overlong and sometimes preposterously talky, and the non-stop score is still hypnotically distracting. Yet, opened up for the IMAX screen, particularly when Nolan has chosen to use the entire IMAX screen, that felt muddled and tight now feels free and at least mostly coherent.

Oppenheimer still bears all the hallmarks of being a Christopher Nolan film, and I'm beginning to realize a cinematic truth that Nolan and I aren't really on the same wavelength. He's so enamored by the mechanics of filmmaking that simple things like narrative cohesion aren't entirely important to him. At least in Oppenheimer the dialogue is almost always clear (something that's not often true in Nolan movies), and the story's non-linear structure works because if shorn of it, Oppenheimer might be tediously dull.

Most of the film is structured around three dialogue-heavy meetings: One in which J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) has his security clearance revoked; one in which Oppenheimer, Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) and other physicists meet to discuss the ramifications of nuclear arms; and a Senate hearing to confirm Strauss for a presidential cabinet post. It's hardly the stuff of mesmerizing drama, so Nolan mixes it all up with a more straightforward narrative of Oppenheimer's development of the team that created the first atomic bomb.

As in so many Nolan movies, the key to Oppenheimer is keeping up with the narrative time shifts, and this becomes slightly easier in the IMAX version, as Nolan uses both aspect ratio and black-and-white film to indicate different periods. There are double-crosses and triple-crosses and tales of espionage, and of course there's the development of the bomb itself, and the spectacular scenes involving the first Trinity tests. The history is portrayed by what we used to call an "all-star cast," an impressive roster of talent, some of whom get more screen time than others, and a few of whom feel terribly wasted, underserved by a screenplay that might have spent more time getting the words, thoughts and feelings as sharp as the visuals.

It all adds up to a film that is both more and less engrossing than it might have been if told more traditionally. Nolan's storytelling techniques make Oppenheimer a bit of a muddle sometimes—though its more confusing moments somehow seemed slightly more coherent on the massive IMAX screen—while his filmmaking techniques make the film an experience to be savored on the giant screen. IMAX really is the optimal way to see the film; Nolan's use of the format isn't a gimmick, even if it's unfortunately not easy to see the film in the combination 70mm film and IMAX he intended. If you're near one of the 30 movie theaters (in the U.S.) where that's possible, Oppenheimer is truly an event. If you're not, you may walk away wondering what all the fuss is about. 

Viewed July 25, 2023 (70mm) — Regency Village; and September 3, 2023 (70mm IMAX) — AMC Universal 16

1945 / 1625