Oppenheimer Absolutely Dominated The 2024 Oscars

The 96th Academy Awards have come and gone, and the night's victor was absolutely "Oppenheimer," Christopher Nolan's epic chronicling the primary developer of the atomic bomb (Cillian Murphy), which won seven Oscars during the ceremony.

It's doubly impressive since 2023 was a dang good year for movies. Surveying the Best Picture nominees, both veteran filmmakers like Martin Scorsese ("Killers of the Flower Moon") and promising new artists such as Celine Song ("Past Lives") stand in its ranks. But really, "Oppenheimer" was the achievement of the year — and yes, without any disrespect to Greta Gerwig or Margot Robbie, I'd even put it ahead of "Barbie," its unofficial "Barbenheimer" double-bill picture.

The triumph of "Oppenheimer" looped back around from feeling inevitable to uncertain to ensured once again. The film opened to rapturous reception (seriously, when was the last time a three-hour-long R-rated drama took home nearly $1 billion?), but it was a summer release. Would something come along in the typical Oscar months of autumn to dethrone it? Once award season picked up in earnest, it was clear "Oppenheimer" had this in the bag. At the Golden Globes, for instance, it won Best Picture, Best Director (for Nolan), Best Actor (for Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (for Robert Downey Jr.), and Best Score (for Ludwig Göransson), presaging its wins on Oscar night. "Oppenheimer" was also /Film's best movie of 2023. 

And it deserves them all! If you think it's gauche or boring to praise something that's so plainly already a winner, then more power to you, but from where I'm standing, "Oppenheimer" is a masterpiece. I think history could even leave it as Nolan's best work.

The 95th Academy Awards saw "Everything Everywhere All At Once" take home both Best Picture and Best Director (well, specifically, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won the latter). "Oppenheimer" has done the same, netting Nolan his first Best Director win (he was nominated for "Dunkirk" back in 2018) and becoming his first film to take home the top prize.

Nolan makes mostly action movies (regular viewers, by which I mean those who don't obsess over movies, know Nolan's name because he directed Batman pictures). But "Oppenheimer" is an adult drama that wrings most of its suspense through dialogue (aside from the explosive Trinity test). Is it winning a sign that Nolan had to get more "serious" to finally win big? I wouldn't say so, because it's still undeniably a Nolan picture; no matter how it adapts not only real history, but the Oppenheimer biography "American Prometheus" (by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin).

The film's cross-cutting between a layered timeline is a Nolan trademark (see: "The Prestige," "Inception," and "Dunkirk"). This time, the changes (weaved together by Oscar-winning editor Jennifer Lame) are signified between color ("Fission") and black-and-white ("Fusion"). The themes baked into the text are Nolan's pet fascinations too, from the weight of great ability to how mankind eagerly reaches for dangerous technology.

"Oppenheimer" may technically be lacking action compared to some of Nolan's past movies. Even "Dunkirk," previously his most "serious" effort, was a war film. However, a lack of action does not mean a lack of spectacle. Shot in 65mm film (and partially on IMAX), the images of "Oppenheimer" (photographed by the Oscar-winning Hoyte Van Hoytema) look huge and the score by Göransson booms like the orchestra of the gods. ("Can You Hear The Music?", which seamlessly transitions from a piano tune to an ethereal one, is the highlight.)

Indeed, the film performs like a symphony, with each player doing their part (no matter how small) flawlessly. To ensure no player goes overlooked, I must shout out Emily Blunt's performance as Oppenheimer's wife, Kitty. She may have been defeated for Best Supporting Actress, but it was only through the strength of her competition. Blunt doesn't have a thankless role so much as Kitty had a thankless life (minding her husband's self-destructiveness to save her family from embarrassment). Her verbal sparring with attorney Roger Robb (Jason Clarke) is just as sharp as any part of Murphy or Downey's performances.

I know I've been effusive, but it's been a while since a film electrified me like "Oppenheimer" did, and clearly, I wasn't the only one affected by it. J. Robert Oppenheimer grew horrified by his historic creation onscreen and in reality, but Nolan, Murphy, Downey, Göransson, Hoytema, Lame, Blunt, and the rest of the film's crew should be eternally proud of theirs.