mancy

I posted my thoughts on the movies in their respective megathreads already so I won’t repost them. But it comes down to the simple fact that Christopher Nolan and his gimmicks drive me insane and I’ve never been a fan of his albeit technically impressive filmmaking.

Also it’s hilarious that you’re complaining of Barbie’s wokeness just cause what, it’s written and directed by a woman? Nolan can learn from that and perhaps add a female writer to his arsenal. He sucks at handling female characters and Oppenheimer is a prime example of that. Talk about wasted opportunities having Emily Blunt and Flo Pugh and relegating them to a mere drunk housewife and a pair of breasts. Actually every time I think about how Pugh’s character was handled I knock the movie down a couple more points. 🙄

I watched both within a few days of each other and liked Barbie way more than Oppenheimer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Just found a bug, not sure if it’s already been reported: if the comment thread is longer than I think like 4 posts, when I click “x more comments” it doesn’t actually open the rest of the thread.

You sound nice.

Yup happening on my phone as well. IPhone 13 mini running iOS 16.6.

Malick! The Tree of Life was something special.

Hmmmmm interesting. Thanks for the explanation!

Ah noted. Thanks.

Ok but I don’t think we need to copy Apollo exactly.

10/10, no notes.

Well actually no, some notes. I didn’t fully buy into the Mattel/Will Ferrell part of the story and generally found those scenes superfluous.

But everything else was kind of perfect. Production design was amazing. Greta Gerwig’s also got such a keen eye for these dazzling set pieces that were fun and exciting. Screenplay needed a bit more punch-up, as I thought some jokes fell flat, but honestly most of it was clever and delightful. The movie also had no business being as emotionally-affecting as it was.

Margot Robbie crushed it. What a vibrant but introspective performance. Her best work so far I think.

I didn’t love it.

I respect the technical mastery on display here. But this is my problem with a lot of Christopher Nolan movies: it’s devoid of any emotional connection. I just felt empty and hollow at the end of it. Didn’t help that the first 30 minutes felt so disjointed and the pacing really struggled. I’ve never been a fan of his sound editing/mixing and same applied here. It was loud and bombastic but half the time I couldn’t hear the damn dialogue. The movie was way overscored and I rolled my eyes at some unnecessary inserts and on-the-nose exposition.

I also hated the way female characters were handled in the movie, just like most of Nolan’s previous work. I’m very iffy about the screenplay and editing too. The movie didn’t need the typical Nolan-esque non-linear format; it actually took a lot away from it.

On the other hand, it was a god damn tour de force from Cillian Murphy and equally excellent work from Robert Downey Jr. Emily Blunt was also stellar in a very limited role and she made a meal out of what she could. Should be easy Oscar nominations for Murphy and Downey.

Oh but that lead up to the final Los Alamos test was thrilling and expertly executed. Downey also crushed the last act of the film.

Definitely some good stuff here but I’m underwhelmed by the overall product. But I say that about every Nolan movie, save for I guess The Prestige and Memento, and to a lesser extent, Dunkirk.

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