Oppenheimer Early Buzz: Christopher Nolan Delivers An Explosive Hit

Christopher Nolan's historical epic looms, and critics who caught early screenings of "Oppenheimer" are sharing their first responses ahead of the film's theatrical release. Though the movie's title often gets uttered in the same sentence as its release day competitor "Barbie," it's obvious that Nolan's film about the life and horrifying creation of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer will be a whole different animal. With a three-hour runtime, a sprawling cast that could fill a room to fire hazard levels, and the first R-rating a Nolan film has earned in two decades, "Oppenheimer" is sure to leave a strong impression.

In fact, it already has: Critics who checked out "Oppenheimer" early seem to largely be wowed by the film's scope, tension, and talented ensemble. Based on initial responses, this is the type of impressive, mind-blowing movie that simply can't be boiled down to a tweet. That's no surprise, given that the subject matter — the creation of the atomic bomb — is so somber and the film's visuals, shot partly in black-and-white IMAX, are designed for maximum audience impact. Here's what everyone's saying about "Oppenheimer."

/Film's own Jeremy Mathai called the movie "staggering in every sense of the word," noting on Twitter that even after structurally and stylistically ambitious films like "Inception" and "Tenet," "Oppenheimer" still might be director Christopher Nolan's "most formally daring work yet." Associated Press writer Lindsey Bahr said the film is "truly a spectacular achievement," while Total Film's Matt Maytum said it's a "character study on the grandest scale" that "'left [him] stunned." The Telegraph's Robbie Collins perhaps put the mind-blowing effects of the movie in the plainest terms, tweeting that Nolan's latest is "a total knockout that split my brain open like a twitchy plutonium nucleus and left me sobbing through the end credits like I can't even remember what else."

Though many fans anticipating the release have been fretting about potential pacing problems in a film this lengthy, that doesn't seem to have been an issue for the first round of critics who caught the movie. Maytum and Sunday Times writer Jonathan Dean both praised the movie's tension and while Dean also called the movie "dense," Bahr actually noted that it's a "concise adaptation" of Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's "American Prometheus," the doorstop of a book on which it's based. According to Vulture's Bilge Ebiri, the movie's tension leads to a memorable conclusion. The critic tweeted that the movie is "incredible" and "fearsome," and called it "a relentlessly paced, insanely detailed, intricate historical drama that builds and builds and builds until Nolan brings the hammer down in the most astonishing, shattering way." I imagine Collins will be far from the only person left in tears.

As for the film's cast, lead actor Cillian Murphy has gotten a few shout-outs, but so has the rest of the ensemble. Bahr praised nuanced performances from Murphy along with "Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and the many, many others involved — some just for a scene." While Mathai called Murphy "a force" and Maytum says he's "sublime," Dean implied that his costars may have outshined him, saying, "Murphy is good, but the support essential: Damon, Downey Jr & [Alden] Ehrenreich even bring gags." I can't imagine what gags would look like in a movie about nuclear war, but that's just one more reason I'm intrigued to see this.

A few technical aspects of the film also caught the attention of critics. The Playlist writer Simon Thompson noted in a tweet that "Christopher Nolan's haunting opus is remarkable and [cinematographer] Hoyte van Hoytema's execution of his vision is breathtaking." Maytum and Matthai also praised what the latter called the film's "impeccable sound design." All in all, it sounds like this is a movie that's both enrapturing and — as is appropriate for the subject matter — distressing. As Dean writes, it's "an audacious, inventive, complex film to rattle its audience."

If you want to be rattled by "Oppenheimer" as soon as possible, you can catch it in theaters beginning July 21, 2023.