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It may seem a little crazy to think that anyone might be worried about spoilers for Christopher Nolan’s biopic about atom bomb pioneer J. Robert Oppenheimer, as played by Cillian Murphy. Maybe a few people reading this have actually read Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin’s American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy, on which it’s based. Really, it’s more about how Nolan tells the story of Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project with a stacked cast of actors and some of the best craftspeople in the industry. (And I will state in advance that I saw the movie a second time in IMAX 70mm before writing this, as there were things that confused and even bored me on first viewing that made WAY more sense a second time around.)

Oppenheimer may start like a typical biopic, hitting all the important benchmarks of Dr. Oppenheimer’s career, but bouncing around in time between those moments and some later in Oppenheimer’s career where there are a number of hearings, split between moments in color and others in black and white. (And if you see the movie in full-screen IMAX, you’ll also see that a good portion of the film uses the entire screen.) One of Oppenheimer’s allies seems to be Robert Downey Jr’s Lewis Strauss, who brings him post-WW II to Princeton to run the Institute of Advance Study, and this leads to a relationship that will be the core of the two storytelling threads.

If you know anything about Oppenheimer and his story, you may have an advantage, but for me, there were just way too many characters, and the first hour and 45 minutes seemed to be all this talk about science and communism, none of which I could really keep track of, nor would I realize how all of it plays a role and gets tied up in the film’s last hour.

Nolan deliberately avoids putting any sorts of dates or timestamps or locations on the film, as it bounces from past to “present” with much of the story being told through the hearings. To some, there may not seem to be rhyme or reason about the use of color or black and white, but it tells you right at the beginning what is going on. There are two stories: 1. Fusion and 2. Fission, and essentially, it’s telling two stories through the viewpoints of Oppenheimer and through Strauss, who is a critical character despite disappearing seemingly for an hour or more.

Oppenheimer’s flaws are never glossed over or candy-coated, and there are times when he doesn’t feel like a particularly likeable human. Nolan never shirks from Oppenheimer’s rep as a womanizer, including his relationships with Communist Jean Tatlock, as portrayed by Florence Pugh, an affair his wife Kitty (Emily Blunt) seems well aware of. It also touches upon the work done by so many Jewish physicists – something mentioned by “Oppie’s” good friend Isidor Rabi (David Krumholtz) – as one of the reasons why Hitler never turned to using a bomb as an advantage in the war.

After the first hour, we get to the Manhattan Project at the center of Oppenheimer’s story, building the Los Alamos scientific (and military) community, which will spend three years developing the atomic bomb, building up to the fabled “Trinity” test of July 16, 1945, where the first nuclear explosion is tested. That ends up being a critical and major turning point for Oppenheimer as everything we’ve seen before that is painted in a new picture after Oppenheimer is made Man of the Year by Time Magazine. That’s also where we begin to see his relationship with Strauss in a new light, and in that last hour, any trepidation about the slower pacing and talkie nature of the first two hours dissolves. 

A lot of the conflict from the last act comes from whether Oppenheimer can get his security clearance renewed due to possible connections to Communism, as he and those who know him are grilled by Jason Clarke’s Roger Robb, with parts reminding me of Aaron Sorkin’s underrated Being the Ricardos. 

Murphy gives the performance of his career, but he’s surrounded by so many great actors in both smaller and larger roles, that it’s hard to pinpoint just one… but I will anyway. The brilliant turn seen by Downey as Strauss is surely one that will be remembered when it comes to awards, and the same with Blunt, who pops in and out for a great moment or two, but then really drives things homes in the last act. Matt Damon is great as always as Oppenheimer’s military liaison, Gen. Groves, and Dane DeHaan has a great role as his second. Other great characters include Alden Ehrenreich as Strauss’ aide, Josh Hartnett (who I didn’t recognize on first viewing) as Oppenheimer’s Berkley supervisor, an equally unrecognizable Krumholtz, Benny Safdie as Edward Teller (a character who really grew on me on second viewing), and so many more. When you see the credit list, you’re likely to be floored by all of whom appeared.  (Wait, that was THAT actor as President Harry Truman?!? Whoa.) 

And then there are the crafts – the undeniably gorgeous score by Ludwig Göransson; the way Hoyte van Hoytema uses his camera to capture character interactions and glorious Los Alamos vistas with equal scope; Jennifer Lame’s exceptional editing; and the sound, which I believe will be an Oscar frontrunner, if only for the way it’s used for the Trinity test in terms of silence vs. the explosive force of the first A-bomb.

By the time you get to the end of Oppenheimer, you feel as if you’ve experienced something unlike anything else Nolan has done before, but also just a terrific and unique way of telling this story, in a similar way as Dunkirk was Nolan’s unique take on the WWII flick. No, it’s not all giant explosions, at least not the kind made famous by the A-bomb (and no gory graphic footage of Hiroshima/Nagasaki either), but Nolan uses his screenwriting and cast to make the drama just as powerful, and everything gets a callback in a way that makes far more sense later. 

Taking bits of A Beautiful Mind and mixing it with dollops of Amadeus and 12 Angry Men, Oppenheimer makes it undeniably clear what a masterful filmmaker Nolan can be when he finds a topic that truly captivates him and is more concerned about telling a story well then making something light and frothy for casual moviegoers. For that, you have Barbie. (I’m kidding.)

Rating: 8/10

Oppenheimer opens nationwide on Friday, July 21, with previews on Thursday night.

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