New Zealand Listener

Nolan looses a nuclear blast

OPPENHEIMER

directed by Christopher Nolan

“Brilliance,” says J Robert Oppenheimer early in this epic film about his place in history, “makes up for a lot.”

Cillian Murphy, who plays Oppenheimer, well, brilliantly delivers the line with a wry smile. Being the father of the atomic bomb, as this ballistic boffin biopic reminds us, didn’t make him too great at life above sub-atomic level.

Brilliance at some thingsNolan’s approach. He’s done blockbuster science lectures before in fictional settings, with the theoretical astrophysics of and quantum physics in time-bending spy thriller , his 2020 previous film. That said, they were also his dullest works.

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