Movie Review – Oppenheimer

A staggering achievement

‘Oppenheimer’ is nothing like anything which has come to cinema before. To restrict the film as just a biopic is an understatement. Nolan does everything he does to perfection. The template is set right from screen one, through music, shots, timeline etc. It’s the most Nolanisque film, yet it’s the complete opposite too. Through craft he does everything he’s known for in his films and through art he touches the deepest of human emotion. Sorry to spoil it, but the silence at the end of film felt really like the end of it all, end of the world and in so many years of film watching, I’ve never witnessed anything like that in cinema halls before.

Right from screen one, Nolan gets you on hook, first through music and then that ever piercing camera. Together it gives a feel that it’s penetrating inside you. I watched it as a night show in big screen and I couldn’t sleep for a good couple of hours, i could feel my heart still racing. But mind you it’s not a thriller like ‘Interstellar’ or a non-thriller made like a thriller like ‘Dunkirk’. It’s one of the films were all the pieces come together. Post ‘Inception’ it felt like he was doing those back and forth shorts with that tension inducing music of his, for no real reason. But here it just felt apt.

Especially after a disastrous ‘Dunkirk’, a drama film, which was needlessly made a thriller, I had very little hopes for ‘Oppenheimer’ as it was a real story. Meanwhile by trying to prove his mettle, he went overboard in ‘Tenet’ I feel (which I haven’t watched it yet), and incurred the wrath of even people who normally would watch his film just for the entertainment factor.

Nolan has always come out as a guy who’d make you think and that was taken for granted by his fans, who mostly are fan boys, who get under your skin when you watch in A-list theatres like Sathyam or Escape. Just by the looks of it you can identify who are those smart asses who’ve come for his movies. They’d be explaining to one naïve guy or a new girlfriend about the formulas and equations. That herd was there for this film as well, with of course the other “cool guys who kalachify anything English” group. But this film was a slap on the face on everyone. It was a statement by Nolan saying, “don’t you dare reduce me to your level with your cheap antics”. And it was a statement not wanting to prove anything but only to outdo himself and make a truly staggering quality cinema. His march towards excellence.

It’s not necessarily a film where you need to understand everything but it doesn’t put you down like an ‘Inception’ or ‘Interstellar’ where the one who explains you gets an imaginary halo of being the know it all. The film can be enjoyed, no, enjoyed is not the word, it’s too less an emotion. The film can impact you in numerous ways, through moralistic questions, exposing your views, make you numb but more than anything, it gets you astounded by the way it was made.

I watched ‘Capote’ sometime back and thinking of biopics or otherwise, it was one of the truly beautiful movies I’ve ever watched. Not even taking into consideration the story and direction. Just by the shots and the frame, I’ve never felt this poetic in a while. So at the top of my mind, that’s the best biopic I’ve watched. But this film overdoes it. Because it couldn’t be restricted as just a biopic, not just another movie like ‘The Imitation Game’, which of course was lovely for its template. ‘Oppenheimer’ talks to you in much different ways and impacts you multifold with its show.

Recently I had a chance to watch ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’. I say “chance to watch” and not “watched” because it happened. There was something about ‘Rocketry’ which was putting me off. Even though the story was a strong one, it felt forced and the making was bad. While watching ‘Oppenheimer’ it showed, how through a good director, a similar story can be elevated exponentially. Direction is not just about shooting a story. It’s much more than that.

When talking about ‘Oppenheimer’, everyone talks about the bomb and the blast. But it’s not just about that. In fact it’s not at all about that. It’s not a stunt like much latest ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’, it’s the story to it. It’s like an enigma to which we’re going towards. In fact it’s philosophical. The blast was just a metaphor. Of course it’s made well and shocks you but the shock was more due to what had happened rather than how it had happened. You’re not awed by how well it was shot. You’re shocked by what it can do. If that’s not master filmmaking I don’t know what is.

Nolan blends Aronofsky in the form of the leading ladies, Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer (Emily Blunt) and Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) and Terrence Malick in the form of bomb (think ‘Tree of Life’). Emily Blunt looked bony, weak but with a heart of a warrior and Florence Pugh, was both enigmatic and sad. She felt like one of those Woody Allen’s Femme Fatale. Nolan has always had great female characters but the Aronofskian way of dealing them was something unexpected.

Coming to Cillian Murphy. In a world of McConaughey’s and Bale’s he doesn’t get noticed enough but its one role which I’m sure Tommy Lee Jones would have been proud of. He almost gets to the level of ‘There Will Be Blood’ but of course ‘Oppenheimer’ is not a film like that where it’s only about him. The makeup and the way he’s worked in his body was done to perfection, without any show off.

This is a once in lifetime film. In fact this phase from ‘Indiana Jones’, ‘Mission Impossible’ to ‘Oppenheimer’ could be the greatest one month for any Hollywood fan. But it was more than that for me. I felt like my life has become a complete circle by watching some of my most memorable characters on screen in a span of one month for one last time. It’s a phase where one gets to watch great films and probably, when I look back at old age, this might be the greatest phase of my movie watching. From Archimedes to Albert Einstein, I’ve seen it all. This part of my life, this little part, is called happiness.

Movie Review – Looper

A not so rigid thriller

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is kind of a minimum guarantee actor. You can’t watch a film so bad that you’ll feel like a waste of time. So ‘Looper’ was a safe bet even before watching. But when it had Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt to support it was more than just a safe film. ‘Looper’ feels Nolanisque for some reason, mainly inception, may be because of its opening dialogue I guess, “Time travel has not yet been invented but 30 years from now, it will have been. I am one of many specialized assassins in our present called loopers. So, when criminal organizations in the future need gone, they zap them back to me and I eliminate the target from the future. Loopers are well paid. We live the good life and the only rule is never let your target escape, even if your target is you.”

That opening dialogue pretty much summarizes the film, it is a great dialogue to start with, which comes in an important juncture in the middle and could be used for trailer as well. That’s some good writing skills. After the opening dialogue we get into a pretty dark setting where people kill with just no remorse. Actually, this is a film where you don’t feel a thing. It’s as if you’re living in future and getting used to the idea of how people get killed. In fact, Bruce Willis plays his part better than that of Gordon-Levitt. Thanks to the ‘Die Hard’ attitude, it works tremendously well.

The story is felt in a different way than it is written. When reading its even more harsh than what you see in the film, especially the ending of contract. So, there is no real motivation for being good in that society because eventually you’d know till when you’re going to live and how you’re going to die. The status difference is outright and no one cares. When the poor gets killed no one questions. The director conveniently had made both the look and feel of the film dark so that you don’t get to see much of what is happening.

Even though it’s a sci-fi film, except for the brief action sequences we don’t get a feel of sci fi. It’s very much a human film but a human who has retired to the happenings around him. There is no sense of remorse when anything happens. It’s only about survival. When Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) explains to kid about what has happened or when Sara (Emily Blunt) and Joe have sex, it’s just bland, there is no passion in it, it’s only temporary longing. Again, with no remorse. They don’t even explain what ignited the sudden act of passion.

I don’t know how ‘Looper’ works for sci-fi fan boys but for someone who’s not much into sci-fi it doesn’t want yourself to blow your brains and solve complex equations. In fact, there is a nice little dig when old Joe (Bruce Willis) remarks, “I don’t want to talk about time travel because if we start talking about it then we’re going to be here all day talking about it, making diagrams with straws”. Because that’s how film makers make films, the thrill of the film would revolve around solving the scientific mystery rather than human one. So, when a sci-fi film kind of demystifies that one, it was a good feel.