In line with the expectations of just about everyone, the first reactions to Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer are overwhelmingly positive.
The R-rated biopic starring Cillian Murphy as the Father of the Atomic Bomb — and based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin — recently hit Paris for its world premiere event.
And despite its borderline laborious three-hour runtime, there's been nary a complaint. Here's what the critics have said so far...
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#Oppenheimer is staggering in every sense of the word. Might sound nuts to say this about a Chris Nolan movie that isn't INCEPTION, DUNKIRK, or even TENET, but this could be his most formally daring work yet. Sharp script, impeccable sound design, and Cillian Murphy is a *force*
— Jeremy Mathai (@Somthin_Tookish) July 11, 2023
OPPENHEIMER is...incredible. The word that keeps coming to mind is "fearsome." A relentlessly paced, insanely detailed, intricate historical drama that builds and builds and builds until Nolan brings the hammer down in the most astonishing, shattering way.
— Bilge Ebiri (@BilgeEbiri) July 11, 2023
I was skeptical, but Oppenheimer has stuck with me since seeing it last week. Yes, it's 3 hours, but in a dense-Scorsese way and the last 20 minutes (why Emily Blunt clearly took the role) bring its three narrative threads to a moving conclusion. (1) pic.twitter.com/dEC4hLlYiF
— Gregory Ellwood - The Playlist 🎬 (@TheGregoryE) July 11, 2023
Christopher Nolan’s #Oppenheimer is truly a spectacular achievement, in its truthful, concise adaptation, inventive storytelling and nuanced performances from Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and the many, many others involved —- some just for a scene.
— Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) July 11, 2023
#Oppenheimer is my film of the year.
Christopher Nolan makes 3 hours fly in stunning form. Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. are incredibly strong.
The story is chilling in the tragic sense of World War II’s lack of humanity and on intimate human levels.
Stunning and scary. pic.twitter.com/TkxJeGfd5E
Am torn between being all coy and mysterious about Oppenheimer and just coming out and saying it’s a total knockout that split my brain open like a twitchy plutonium nucleus and left me sobbing through the end credits like I can’t even remember what else.
— Robbie Collin (@robbiereviews) July 11, 2023
A sign that French audiences loved #Oppenheimer is that they stayed in front of the Grand Rex theater long after the film ended to debate about it!
— Elsa Keslassy (@ElsaKeslassy) July 11, 2023
#Oppenheimer left me stunned: a character study on the grandest scale, with a sublime central performance by Cillian Murphy. An epic historical drama but with a distinctly Nolan sensibility: the tension, structure, sense of scale, startling sound design, remarkable visuals. Wow
— Matt Maytum (@mattmaytum) July 11, 2023
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Cillian Murphy is joined onscreen by an all-star lineup featuring Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, Robert Downey Jr as businessman/naval officer Lewis Strauss, Matt Damon as Lieutenant General and Manhattan Project director Leslie Groves, Florence Pugh as psychiatrist/physician Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie as physicist Edward Teller, Josh Hartnett as nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence, and Tom Conti as Albert Einstein.
Rami Malek, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Alden Ehrenreich, Gary Oldman, Casey Affleck, Jason Clarke, plus David Krumholtz are also set to make an appearance.
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is scheduled for release on July 21st of 2023 — the annual slot typically saved for Nolan’s flicks; roughly two weeks before the anniversary of Hiroshima — check out the latest trailer below.
There’s more where that came from: we watched and ranked every single Christopher Nolan movie. Check it out now.
