Tag: Christopher Nolan

Oppenheimer (2023) Review

On By troubledproductionsIn ReviewLeave a comment

Quick Synopsis: A comprehensive look at the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, focusing mainly on his developing the atomic bomb, and the post-war treatment he received.

This is a BIG movie. It’s been advertised for over a year, to the point where I was genuinely starting to get a bit fed up with it by September last year. That level of hype usually only leads to disappointment. Added to that, I’m not THAT big a fan of Nolan as a writer; I’ve found his last few films to be incredibly well-made, but lacking any sense of genuine emotion. I’ve also had issues with his sound mixing (ESPECIALLY in Tenet) because he sometimes has the dialogue incredibly quiet in an attempt to make the audience “lean in”. Oppenheimer has a lot of two things: talking, and explosions. I didn’t have as big an issue with sound in this as I have previously, but that might be because I watched a subtitled version.

Whilst I’m on that subject I have to say something to cinemas; if you have a subtitled screening of a popular film, have the trailers beforehand be subtitled too, otherwise you’re only providing half an experience.

Anyway, back to the review. Oppenheimer had another issue going against it; we all know how it ends. Nobody is sitting watching it and wondering if they’re going to successfully create the bomb; the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are pretty infamous. So I was curious how this was going to work; especially with it being 3 hours long.

I’m glad to say it works. And a good reason for that is obvious if you look at the title; Oppenheimer. It’s not about the bomb per se, the narrative arc is not based around the device, it’s around the person building the device; with a lot of focus on how he was treated post-war. Spoilers; he was essentially demonised because they suspected he was a communist and traitor. They set him up in a sham hearing and revoked his security clearance to ruin his career. It’s incredibly disturbing to see, especially since “but he thinks employees should be paid in money and not kind words; communist!” style headlines can still derail a politician’s chances in modern America. We never really had that issue over here during the cold war; we didn’t derail a war hero’s life just because we suspected they were left-wing; nope, we did it because they were gay, because we’re kind!

It’s actually an outstanding watch. It’s not as complicated as it could be; part of that is because Nolan casts recognisable faces in small roles; Creepy Casey Affleck appears for a few minutes, as does Remi Malek, Gary Oldman, David Dastmalchian etc. This really helps the audience remember who the characters are; because we recognise them so they’re all distinctive. That is needed as there is A LOT to unpack here. Despite it being three hours long, it still moves very quickly at times, to the point where there are not that many places where you’d feel comfortable zoning out. Whether it’s important dialogue, historical references, or even just remarkable visuals, every scene has a reason to exist.

About the visuals; this is Nolans’ best visual feast so far. It’s astounding what he’s pulled off here, especially when it was pretty much all done without CGI. The test explosion is a big deal, so if it didn’t seem big, the film would collapse. Thankfully, it seems impressive. I think Nolan could have done a better job of showing the effects of it though. We get Oppenheimer hallucinating what happened, but it almost feels like the effect it had on the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is sidelined for the personal drama. I get why, but it does feel like it’s really understated the horrific effects it had on civilians.

Overall, this is a remarkable film, and one that I feel really gains something from being seen at the cinema. But like a lot of Nolans’ work, I’m not really in a rush to see it again. I will say this though; Cillian Murphy NEEDS to be nominated for Best Actor next year. He gives everything to this performance, and it says a lot that even when a large explosion is happening, you can’t take your eyes off him. I would recommend seeing this; just make sure you go to a subtitled screening, and maybe take ear protection.

Tenet (2020)

On By troubledproductionsIn ReviewLeave a comment

I’ve seen quite a few films since the cinemas reopened, some good, some very very bad, but this is the first “cinema” film. The first film where I felt it needed to be seen on a big screen to be appreciated.

I feel Nolan is aiming his films squarely at cinema use now, which I really appreciate. I love how his films are ambitious and full of spectacle, with jaw-dropping practical effects (in this one he actually crashed a plane). On the downside I think his characters tend to feel a little flat. With the exception of the main characters, nobody in his films tend to stand out as particularly well written. That’s definitely also the case in this one, the main character is literally called The Protagonist. It’s weird as it’s got a lot of big actors in it, but they barely do anything. There are a lot of actors in this film who are not really needed. Michael Caine, for example, is in a single scene which could be cut entirely from the film and it wouldn’t effect the plot. It would effect the enjoyment of the film though as it would take away from the excessive runtime. It’s two and a half hours and you feel every moment.

Make no mistake, this is a BIG film, and you will be amazed, but you will also be slightly frustrated. Not so much at the plot which isn’t anywhere near as clever as it thinks it is, not so much at the complete lack of character development, and not even at the handwaving of the science integral to the plot (seriously they just say “don’t try to understand it), but you will be frustrated by the audio. It sounds like they’ve just made a song go backwards, I don’t know if they actually did that or not but that’s the definite intention they meant. Now in Inception they slowed down Non, je ne regrette rien until it was unrecognisable, and that worked. But melodies don’t always work backwards, they’re jarring and uncomfortable to listen to, so if you have your entire soundtrack be like that it’s just kind of annoying. Also, the sound mixing is atrocious so a lot of the time dialogue is impossible to understand. I wasn’t going to mention this at first as I thought there’s a chance it might have just been an issue with the cinema I saw it in, but then I saw other reviews mention it. So either every cinema in the country has got it wrong, or there is an actual problem. Supporting the “it’s an issue with the film, not the cinema” theory is a post from sound designer Richard King who has worked with Nolan on seven films (including this one). He said:

“He wants to grab the audience by the lapels and pull them toward the screen, and not allow the watching of his films to be a passive experience.”

Far be from me to criticise Nolan, but what the fuck is he thinking? I know they did something similar in The Wire, where they had characters use a lot of slang and didn’t explain it, so that people would have to pay attention to it. But that’s done realistically, people do speak in slang, and they don’t often understand it. Watching a film where they intentionally muffle the dialogue is not the same. If reality was like that then 50% of conversations would consist of the words “sorry, can you repeat that?” It doesn’t make you lean in to the film, if anything it frustrates you so you lean out. You don’t make a film entirely in shadows “so the audience has to really focus with their eyes and get drawn in”, no, you make shit that people can actually see (I understand darkness is an effective tool in film, I’m not talking about singular scenes and motives, I’m talking about in general).

None of that can compare to my biggest issue with the film: I just didn’t give a shit. I didn’t care about the characters, I didn’t care about the plot, I just did not care at all. I was completely passive when viewing it.

I get I may be one of the few people who didn’t love this film (and after the response to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, I know my viewpoints don’t always match the general public), but I did like it. The performances were good, visually it was superb, it had a great concept, and the fight choreography was incredibly unique. The plot….I feel if I watched it a second time I’d notice lots of foreshadowing and realise how intelligent a lot of that is, I love when films do that. The only issue: I don’t particularly want to watch this film again. I don’t want to spend another 3 hours in a cinema, and I don’t want to watch this at home. It just…..it did absolutely nothing for me. I felt the same way about Interstellar to be honest, and Dunkirk. I sat there thinking “this is an absolute masterclass in film-making that I will never ever have the desire to watch again”.