Where I Watched it: In Theatres (Regal)

English Audio Description?: Yes

Narrated By: Laura Post

Well, that was an experience. For those of you who notice I do not review content while in theatres a lot anymore might catch, I actually went for Oppenheimer. mostly because i am an invited guest on a podcast I’m recording next week, and i was specifically asked to watch Oppenheimer. Not only did I need multiple headset replacements, but the headset audio quality sounded like laura Post was talking to me from beyond the grave. I get better quality and consistency at home. I don’t have to keep sending headsets back, and i certainly have never gotten Tinnitus from any of those films, which I now have. Fantastic. The theatre had the volume set at “permanent hearing loss” on the volume scale, and my companion and myself were the only two in the entire theatre.

Luckily, the film is great. I’ll keep reminding myself of that as I continue to deal with this hearing condition for possibly the rest of my life. I’m actually reviewing this a week late, and it has not gone away. but the movie has stayed with me. That’s for sure.

it certainly is a different breed of Chris nolan, then again, so was Dunkirk. Well, I suppose so was insomnia. Then you have The Prestige, which feels totally different, and suddenly you realize Nolan doesn’t really have a thing. he just has a style, one he continues to establish in the most tried and true formula by working with people he trusts to work with. here, he’s directing his own script, and I truthfully cannot find a fault.

Tenant was my least favorite Nolan film since Following, so this is quite a bounce back. Nolan manages to take the biopic genre, and mix it with the courtroom thriller genre, and add a little touch of apocalypse in there. The characters are plenty, played by a laundry list of talent a mile long, and the dialogue flows like Nolan has been carefully studying the works of David Mamet and Aaaron Sorkin. He’s never really relied so much on dialogue before. his scripts are solid, and he has memorable lines, but the consistency of maintaining the action of a scene that is just a conversation is less his style. He revels in being able to show you his skills, instead of allowing the actors to nuance their way through complicated walk and talks.

But that’s exactly what happens here, and why some actors might get Oscar love. nolan has only gotten one acting nomination before out of his films, the posthumous win for Heath Ledger. Now, Oppenheimer is a frontrunner, and it has a lot to do with Nolan’s talent really having aged to perfection.

Oppenheimer likely won’t ever be the “favorite” Nolan film, because it’s less rewatchable. But, fans of the more beloved memento, Inception, or his Dark knight trilogy will find new levels of Nolan. It’s what he failed to do with Tenant, a film that dealt with the perception of time, which he had already played with in interstellar.

There’s something here that really has Nolan on fire, as he has a perfectly edited three hour film, which is almost impossible to achieve. To run for three hours, at this consistent of a pace, without slowing down, makes for an intense experience. it’s possible he ruins that with aggressive and overused sound design, but that could also be my theatre. If I saw this at home, with the rest of the films, i would have had leveled sound that wasn’t trying to dislodge one of my organs, and the audio description would have been balanced.

That’s the rub here, is that I really am here to advance the conversation of audio description, but what I got was technically terrible, and not the fault of Laura Post. My sound quality, when it wasn’t cutting in and out, sounded like a film from the 1940’s that had not been preserved or restored. And that was when it wasn’t cutting out. If theatres can’t invest in actual accessibility, why should we continue to invest in them?

instead, I’ll tell you that the dialogue driven script would likely keep anyone interested. The audio description luckily really came in for me during the bomb test sequence, the biggest visual achievement in the film. The rest of the time, I was being impressed by the acting of Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon, and the rest of the cast.

Murphy has played some wild characters before, so it’s hard to say he’s never been better. Here though, it’s like he’s finally coloring inside the required lines, in a way that the Oscar’s might finally notice. And for Downey Jr. And Damon, both of them have a lot of gravitas and sincerity in their respective performances. I’d be happy with either or both getting the nomination.

For my money, Oppenheimer is easily going to be a top 10 film of the year. it will not be my Best Picture, because I can tell you now that a few more months with this ear thing, and I’ll have a hard time even keeping it in my top 10. But right now, before I get too removed, this is an achievement for nolan, who still lacks an Oscar for Directing or a Best Picture win, both of which this should be a serious contender. Nolan is already inspiring the next generation of directors, and this is the most Oscar friendly he’s ever been. On top of that, it is a true triumph, and serves as a reminder in these politically charged times that we should not let history repeat itself.

P.S.- If you can spot Gary Oldman, good for you. I did not know that was him until I looked at IMDB. I won’t say who he plays, but i would have never guessed it.

Final Grade: A (Though if Nolan wants to pay for me to see an ENT, I’d be OK with that.)