Director: Christopher Nolan

Screenwriters: Christopher Nolan

Produced/Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon

An American epic of atomic proportions, Oppenheimer follows the titular scientist’s (Murphy) life over the course of three crosscutting storylines that chart his experience before and after the creation of the bomb, the intense hearings that scrutinized his ties to the United States and supposed Communist affiliations, and the later Senate confirmation hearings to nominate Lewis Strauss (Downey Jr.), a politician with a deep resentment of Oppenheimer, as Secretary of Commerce.

Christoper Nolan has outdone himself once again. He has managed to make a three-hour biopic–about a troubled historical figure whose world revolves around quantum physics and the creation of a bomb–a thrilling cautionary tale that keeps attentive audiences engaged until the very last haunting shot.

Unlike most conventional biopics, Oppenheimer presents its story threads non-linearly, in alternating   color and black-and-white sequences. The film follows Oppenheimer’s point of view as an optimistic college student to the emotionally scarred man in the aftermath of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as he meets other visionaries of his time, such as Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, and Edward Teller, and encounters admiration as an American hero and later dissent as a possible Communist. The story also covers his unique relationships with the troubled and tragic Jean Tatlock, as well as his wife Kitty, a high functioning alcoholic who is loyal and headstrong during the most trying moments of “Oppie’s” life. Meanwhile, the film shows the Senate confirmation hearings of Lewis Strauss, a politician who discusses with a young aid his contentious rivalry with Oppenheimer, and actions that were taken to deal with it.

The entire cast is made up of acting giants, from the lead roles to bit parts that are only featured for one scene. To write about all of them would be to spoil their surprise appearances. It was not a Marvel movie that had the most cameos this year—it was Oppenheimer. For me, the highlights of the film were the two main point of view characters. Cillian Murphy is haunting as Oppie, a role that required him to capture both the man’s wild youthfulness and later hollowed out personality. His piercing blue eyes and distressed face stay with the audience long after the film. And Robert Downey Jr. nearly steals the show as Strauss, a dignified and conniving politician who monologues about how much he admired Oppie and eventually came to despise him. This is not Tony Stark—Downey Jr. slips into a role that is lively and full of hatred, but also composed and well spoken, truly believing that his ideology is the right way to deal with the US’ political issues. In his eyes, in his sequences in the film, he is the hero of the story. I will be shocked if Robert Downey Jr. does not get his second Oscar nomination next year.

Oppenheimer is a long film and requires the audience’s full attention to be enjoyed. It is three hours of dialogue heavy, politically laden exchanges that jump back and forth across three different periods in the titular scientist’s life, and if a person is unable to follow it, they will be confused and bored.

This story is a thriller, but quite unlike Nolan’s earlier thrillers such as The Dark Knight and Inception.  There is little to no action, and the main bomb detonation is only a slim thread within the larger tapestry. Oppenheimer’s intensity and gravitas comes from the fact that this story actually happened, and that many of the political and philosophical issues central to the events are still relevant today. Similar in tone as the HBO series Chernobyl, Oppenheimer hits the audience hard with perturbing thoughts of what we are capable of doing as humans, back then and now. Nearly the entire theater room where I saw the film was left stunned and emotionally exhausted as the credits rolled.  Oppenheimer is the scariest type of horror story—one we know that is real and forever impacted our world.