News Summary

• The trailers understandably focused on the drama surrounding the birth of the atomic bomb leading up to the Trinity Test, but I had hoped that the film as a whole would follow the book's arc and include Oppenheimer's subsequent fall from grace.
• For instance, the truth about whether a young Oppenheimer really injected cyanide into an apple intended for one of his professors (future Nobel Prize winning physicist Patrick Blackett) is hotly debated by historians, but it was not invented for the film.
• Audiophiles, take note.Clocking in at three hours' running time, with many scenes featuring a bunch of white men sitting around talking about physics and defense strategy, Oppenheimer is the antithesis of what is usually deemed summer fare.
• There are two basic storylines, and the film shifts back and forth between them; Nolan has never been one to strictly adhere to a chronological timeline.
• It's my pick for best film of 2023 thus far, and a worthy addition to my growing list of films about the atomic bomb.Oppenheimer is now playing in theaters.
• In fact, that later, darker part of Oppenheimer's life provides the lens through which his earlier successes play out in Nolan's film.