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Reviews

Dan Jolin, Empire:

Oppenheimer is based on American Prometheus, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s wide-spined biography of the theoretical physicist who "fathered" the atomic bomb.

Siddhant Adlakha, IGN:

A three-hour biopic that plays like a jolting thriller, Oppenheimer seldom slows down except to ruminate on questions of all-consuming guilt, as it imagines a vivid psychology lurking within its protagonist’s conscious mind, plagued by doomsday visions that serve as both warning and indictment for humankind.

Manohla Dargis, The New York Times:

[Director Christopher] Nolan goes deep and long on the building of the bomb, a fascinating and appalling process, but he doesn’t restage the attacks; there are no documentary images of the dead or panoramas of cities in ashes, decisions that read as his ethical absolutes.

David Sims, The Atlantic:

Nolan’s chief fascination, of course, is Oppenheimer himself, whom [Cillian] Murphy plays as a grand enigma — icy at times and effortlessly charming at others, sympathetic to leftist revolutionary causes but happy to bury those sympathies as he begins steering the Manhattan Project.

Nick Schager, The Daily Beast:

Murphy imbues the scientist with so many warring traits, impulses, and instincts — he’s peerlessly perceptive and blind to his own faults; ambitious and uneasy in the spotlight; self-possessed and ultimately unsure of his choices—that his countenance resonates as a topographical map of his increasingly harried soul. It’s a magnificent marquee turn from the Peaky Blinders star.

Christian Holub, Entertainment Weekly:

Robert Downey Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, Oppenheimer's rival for control over postwar nuclear policy, and uses his own considerable acting powers to carve out a sizable portion of the film for himself.

David Fear, Rolling Stone:

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Downey does some of the best work of his long career here…

[The supporting cast includes] Florence Pugh, and Emily Blunt, and Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Casey Affleck, Jason Clarke, Matthew Modine, Olivia Thirlby, Dane DeHaan, Alden Ehrenreich… it’s actually quicker to list who’s not in Oppenheimer.