Oppenheimer

Annotation for KRRR! 2024 by Matěj Svoboda

A nuke goes off in Krnov, and not just any nuke. This one will be aseven-second, nearly billion-dollar bomb. Christopher Nolan's last film managed to shine not only at the most prestigious film awards, but also in the cinemas. And it showed that this director is one of Hollywood's biggest celebrities whose name alone can sell almost anything to audiences. Even a three-hour half-black-and-white biography, something that at first sight does not look very appealing.

But Nolan has managed to make Oppenheimer an event. The fact that during the actors' strike, when film stars were not allowed into the media, Nolan himself was making the rounds of every possible talk show, promoting his new film wherever he could. There was also the unexpected connection to Barbie and the emergence of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, with audiences turning out in droves to see the bizarre combination of a serious drama by a great director and afeminist comedy based on the popularity of famous dolls. Everybody made a profit.

At its core, Nolan's new film is a biopic in the style of "life and work plus some of that balancing act". Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer helps create a bomb that may serve as the basis for something that will destroy the world in the future. And now he has to live with it. Surely that would be enough for a Hollywood biopic routine, but Nolan goes much further not only in story, but more importantly in form. Aside from the actual making of the bomb, the uncertainties of playing God, and the personal triumphs and losses, there's also the actual consequences of Oppenheimer's actions and efforts to discredit him.

However, comparable to his earlier films such as Memento, Dunkirk and Tenet, Nolan combines several timelines and imaginatively blends them into one rather complicated to watch but ultimately impressive whole. Where most filmmakers would be content to have their biopic be academically polished, the actors oozing emotion and everyone dressed in clothes appropriate to the era in which the film is set, Nolan attempts to go more in-depth. And the story, which could easily have ended up as just another boring Oscar-nominated film, gets formally convoluted, complicated – and surprising to the audience – in Nolan's own way.

Irish actor Cillian Murphy, who was working with the director on his sixth film here, also shines in a leading role for the first time under Nolan's direction, and deservedly walked away with an Oscar a few weeks ago. His fellow actor Robert Downey Jr. won that as well, and Oppenheimer also won Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Music. And Nolan himself ended up taking both the coveted Best Director statuette and the most valuable one for Best Picture.