‘Oppenheimer’ is hands-down the best movie of 2023, and should explode onto the Oscars scene next month. Here’s why
Oppenheimer is without a doubt the best film of 2023, and as sure a bet for best picture as you’re ever going to see at the Oscars.
It’s surprisingly undervalued even at 93% on review aggregator RottenTomatoes.com – but that says more about critics who shouldn’t be critics than it does the film. In style, direction, story, writing and acting it’s utterly flawless.
It’s hard to believe this wrenching tale of the making of the first atomic bomb has never really been told in a meaningful way in a feature film. But perhaps, as with the bomb itself, which shortened World War II’s bloody Pacific campaign, Oppenheimer’s release may have come at the perfect time – that is to say, having been put in director Christopher Nolan’s gifted hands.
Except for poignantly capturing the haunting conflict inside real-life lead scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the film deftly eludes over-moralizing our crossing over of the nuclear Rubicon – a dismal point of no return in human history, but inarguably an inevitable one. Instead, the film shifts the weight of its historical judgment on the U.S. government’s shockingly shoddy treatment of a man who helped his nation beat the bad guys to the bomb and end a war it didn’t start.
The amount of drama Nolan captures in one film belies the movie’s admittedly lengthy running time: He uses a quickened gait and often lightning dialogue to get it all in, even at three hours. If you’re like me (albeit watching comfortably in my loveseat at home), you’ll be astounded at how quickly the time flies. Normally I’d watch part of such an epic and come back to finish it the next night. Not with Oppenheimer. You’ll binge on this very moving picture. Nolan’s expert pacing, as well as the sheer suspense of the story, will demand your full attention in one viewing.
And you can look directly at it, no special eyewear needed.
Oppenheimer amassed a much-deserved 13 Oscar nominations by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It should easily win March 10 for best picture and director. Cillian Murphy should probably win for best actor (though The Holdovers’ Paul Giamatti is one of the great actors of our time and a crowd favorite), while Robert Downey Jr. warrants serious consideration for best supporting actor. Emily Blunt’s role may not be substantial enough to garner a win for supporting actress, but she’s delightfully sharp-tongued and facially expressive as Oppenheimer’s wife.
Count me among those cinephiles who, nearly annually, are disaffected by best-picture nominees. Not this year. This film about an awful, unavoidable turn in history is one for the ages.
