Review of Oppenheimer (2023) by Midwestmogul — 22 Jul 2023

Incredibly fast-paced for a 3-hour, dialogue-heavy biopic. I felt tense/on edge throughout the whole movie, which is a big accomplishment for a movie like this. The soundtrack, sound effects, and editing all play a big part in helping build tension throughout the movie. The Trinity test was well done, but the best scene of the movie was Oppenheimer's speech in the gymnasium, as well as the interrogation scene.

Overall the movie does a good job of examining what Oppenheimer was dealing with, both morally and politically. Murphy is great as Oppenheimer, but Downey Jr. steals the show in the last third of the movie as Lewis Strauss. It is an incredibly serious and dark movie, and does a good job of bringing you into considering the ramifications of the nuclear arms race and nuclear holocaust. There are minor issues with the sound mixing where the soundtrack was blasting over the dialogue, but this seemed to only be in the beginning of the movie. People who are interested in politics, geopolitics, and/or history will probably enjoy this movie more than others, but you need to pay close attention to the fast-paced dialogue from the very beginning or you can get temporarily lost.