speeders
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Post by speeders on Jul 20, 2023 1:07:49 GMT
Didn't see a thread yet so here we go. I feel like I'm in the minority on this board given I wasn't anticipating this as much as most it seems. I was open to it but the marketing didn't really appeal to me, but in the last week I finally started getting hyped. I however ended up loving it but there's a lot to unpack and it will take me a while to digest. It's very dense and information (even exposition?) heavy and does a lot of time hopping I found quite hard to keep track of (esp. in the first act) and I think I definitely need to rewatch it to fully grasp some of the plot points and information laid out. Easily Nolan's most mature and important film in my opinion. I think will hover around my top three of his filmography. Cillian Murphy has not wowed me yet (I have not seen Peaky Blinders but it is on my list!) but he did here, esp. in the films closing moments. He sells Oppenheimer's internalized anguish remarkably well. The Oscar feels his to lose at this point, but it might be too internalized and unshowy for the Academy to embrace. Robert Downey Jr. is second best in show, and I also enjoyed Blunt (but would've liked far more screentime for her to fully make an impact), Conti (as Einstein!), Ehrenreich and to my surprise Matt Damon. All the famous faces (like Rami Malek, Casey Affleck etc.) in the film border on getting distracting though. I really loved the minimalistic score. The sound is simple but done really well. Cinematography subdued for Nolan and works. I think this will be divisive (and esp. more so post-Oscar noms, get ready for many "anonymous Oscar voter" hot takes). In front of me was a group of 16 year old dude bros, and one of them disappointingly exclaimed "I didn't know anything about it except he told me it was about bombs." I will say, I can't really imagining being a double bill with Barbie (which I haven't seen yet!) doing this any favors, but that's just me. Let the discourse begin. Very excited to hear the board's take.
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Post by Pavan on Jul 20, 2023 4:29:33 GMT
In front of me was a group of 16 year old dude bros, and one of them disappointingly exclaimed "I didn't know anything about it except he told me it was about bombs." This was bound to happen due to the Barbenheimer thing and it has me worried too. I hope my screening isn't bombarded with insufferable teens.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jul 20, 2023 5:00:38 GMT
In front of me was a group of 16 year old dude bros, and one of them disappointingly exclaimed "I didn't know anything about it except he told me it was about bombs." This was bound to happen due to the Barbenheimer thing and it has me worried too. I hope my screening isn't bombarded with insufferable teens. I haven't booked tickets yet (I know, what kind of Nolan fan am I??), but this is actually making me consider waiting a few days before seeing it.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Jul 20, 2023 5:22:01 GMT
Imma take a Nooner sometime this week so I avoid dummies.
And save some cash.
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Barbie
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Post by Barbie on Jul 20, 2023 5:56:41 GMT
How was Florence Pugh?
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Post by mhynson27 on Jul 20, 2023 9:45:58 GMT
Yeah...the potential to avoid annoying teens is one of the things that I'll be reminding myself of as I not so patiently for the 30th.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Jul 20, 2023 12:12:11 GMT
Imma take a Nooner sometime this week so I avoid dummies. And save some cash. Yep, I’m doing a 10:30am show on Friday. Would be shocked if audience isn’t my style
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speeders
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Post by speeders on Jul 20, 2023 14:11:30 GMT
She is given very limited to do, has maybe 5-6 minutes of screen time max. She has like three nudes scenes and then dies. The portrayal of Blunt's character isn't that much better. She also has limited screen time (the portrayal of her alcoholism felt like a high school play to me) and doesn't really have that "Oscar clip" to really make an impact (but I'm also relieved they didn't shoehorn one in). You never really understand their relationship or what they mean to each other and what the dynamic is. This definitely didn't pass the Bechdel test if you wanna get into that.
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Post by mhynson27 on Jul 20, 2023 14:19:38 GMT
She is given very limited to do, has maybe 5-6 minutes of screen time max. She has like three nudes scenes and then dies. The portrayal of Blunt's character isn't that much better. She also has limited screen time (the portrayal of her alcoholism felt like a high school play to me) and doesn't really have that "Oscar clip" to really make an impact (but I'm also relieved they didn't shoehorn one in). You never really understand their relationship or what they mean to each other and what the dynamic is. This definitely didn't pass the Bechdel test if you wanna get into that. Weird. I've seen plenty say she has a bonafide Oscar clip towards the end. Part of the hearing I believe.
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speeders
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Post by speeders on Jul 20, 2023 14:33:23 GMT
She is given very limited to do, has maybe 5-6 minutes of screen time max. She has like three nudes scenes and then dies. The portrayal of Blunt's character isn't that much better. She also has limited screen time (the portrayal of her alcoholism felt like a high school play to me) and doesn't really have that "Oscar clip" to really make an impact (but I'm also relieved they didn't shoehorn one in). You never really understand their relationship or what they mean to each other and what the dynamic is. This definitely didn't pass the Bechdel test if you wanna get into that. Weird. I've seen plenty say she has a bonafide Oscar clip towards the end. Part of the hearing I believe. Really? I quite am surprised by that, she has a few moments towards the end but they're all very, very brief and hard to pinpoint an actual "Oscar moment" (but like I mentioned, I do think that's a good thing and hopefully ushers in a new era of performances getting recognized by something other than the flashiest oscar clip). I do think she has a shot at getting in (and it's about damn time). But I would've liked to have seen more development and screentime for her character.
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Post by Billy_Costigan on Jul 20, 2023 15:15:58 GMT
Before I see Oppenheimer, he's my Nolan ranking. I don't see the top 3 changing any time soon.
1. Inception 2. Memento 3. The Dark Knight 4. Batman Begins 5. The Prestige 6. The Dark Knight Rises 7. Interstellar 8. Dunkirk 9. Following 10. Tenet 11. Insomnia
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Jul 20, 2023 18:30:13 GMT
I’ll take a stab at rankings but so many of these could shift around for me on any given day.
1. Memento 2. The Prestige 3. Inception 4. Insomnia 5. Dunkirk 6. Batman Begins 7. The Dark Knight 8. Interstellar 9. The Dark Knight Rises 10. Tenet 11. Following
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Feesy
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Post by Feesy on Jul 20, 2023 20:53:12 GMT
About to see Oppenheimer in about an hour and a half. I’m a little excited. Perhaps too excited. My Nolan rankings, minus Tenet and Following since I haven’t seen them:
1. The Dark Knight (10/10) 2. Inception (10/10) 3. Memento (10/10) 4. Dunkirk (10/10) 5. Interstellar (9/10) 6. Batman Begins (8.5/10) 7. The Prestige (8/10) 8. The Dark Knight Rises (8/10) 9. Insomnia (7/10)
Kinda like his movies.
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Post by mhynson27 on Jul 21, 2023 0:04:22 GMT
1. The Dark Knight 2. Inception 3. Memento 4. The Prestige 5. Interstellar 6. The Dark Knight Rises 7. Dunkirk 8. Batman Begins 9. Tenet 10. Insomnia 11. Following
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Post by futuretrunks on Jul 21, 2023 0:26:28 GMT
1. The Dark Knight 1. Interstellar 3. The Prestige 4. Inception 5. Insomnia 6. Tenet 7. Batman Begins 8. Memento 9. TDKR 10. Dunkirk
NS: Following
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Post by countjohn on Jul 21, 2023 1:40:15 GMT
Seeing this tomorrow night after work. Getting dinner at a great Chinese spot first and the theater I'm going to has giant things of staburst minis now so I am looking forward to that with it being such a long movie. Not seeing Barbie.
Nolan ranking since we're doing that-
1. The Dark Knight 2. Memento 3. Dunkirk 4. Interstellar 5. Inception 6. The Dark Knight Rises 7. Batman Begins 8. The Prestige 9. Tenet
NS Following or Insomnia
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Post by stephen on Jul 21, 2023 1:41:02 GMT
Nolan's JFK, albeit more flawed than that effort.
Cast ranking:
1. Downey, Jr. 2. Safdie 3. Affleck (probably boosted by me listening to Last Podcast on the Left but that character is fucking riveting) 4. Clarke 5. Damon 6. Murphy 7. Ehrenreich 8. Hartnett 9. Branagh 10. Krumholtz 11. Goldwyn 12. Blair 13. Pugh 14. Conti 15. Dastmalchian 16. Malek (lol I expected him to be silent for the whole movie till his big scene) 17. Oldman 18. Blunt (she really needs to stop playing alcoholics because it plays to her worst tendencies)
Nolan ranking:
1. Dunkirk 2. Memento 3. The Dark Knight 4. Oppenheimer 5. Inception 6. Batman Begins 7. The Prestige 8. Interstellar 9. Insomnia 10. The Dark Knight Rises 11. Tenet 12. Following
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Post by finniussnrub on Jul 21, 2023 1:58:35 GMT
Wholly great, Nolan's best since The Dark Knight, at the very least.
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Post by finniussnrub on Jul 21, 2023 2:59:36 GMT
Also acting MVP Murphy followed by Downey Jr. (so great to see him not doing Tony Stark), and any critic who said Blunt (though I didn't hate her or anything) should lose their licensure.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 21, 2023 6:25:10 GMT
Great movies - and Oppenheimer is on several levels - technical, visual, sensory, contemplative etc. - "great" or great enough, often enough anyway - can usually be summed up by an early scene and always, 100% of the time the very last scene. So it is here - although the early scene to me the reconsidered potential murder via a tampered with, poisoned apple and the last scene an improbably specific revisited dialog with Einstein could be rewritten in ways that would make the film MORE interesting...... "Rewritten" is the key because what this wildly ambitious, overstuffed movie has is a screenplay issue where a whole bunch of people talk in ways that seems less weirdly connected to the detours of human life........it is a cruel or ironic cosmic joke that Nolan made one of the greatest and ruthlessly lean movies (Memento) and this which when looked at side by side seems made by a guy who swallowed the earlier artist. Still, by the time it gets to a wrap up where you notice specifically how gently Nolan ends it - it's hard not to see that award ceremony as metaphorical to maybe give him - and Murphy? - his victory lap / reward - maybe Downey too, who has an ace, seething paranoid speech at nearly the same point that ties to the ending .......one of those "great movies overwhelmed by real life" things which is never what I like about the movies anyway - Schindler's List, JFK, Nixon etc. .........it will never be "my Chris Nolan movie" (that's his first 3 for me thanks) but that's ok.....it's thrilling enough....... Oppenheimer belongs to history after all....
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Post by Pavan on Jul 21, 2023 10:11:15 GMT
Not his best but a top-tier Nolan flick. A complete departure from his oeuvre that demands unwavering attention and even a slight knowledge of the mid 20th century history from its viewer. Don't know if the writer in Nolan deliberately made it this dense (one could make a case for it to be more economical) but the director in him operating at peak powers guided me through its jumping times and rough terrain all while creating tense, awe inducing sequences and a final act that would make Sidney Lumet proud. To simply put its Nolan's A Beautiful Mind meets JFK with a Sorkin-esque approach to dialogue.
The cast is uniformly great with Downey Jr. standing out. Murphy is a bit subdued, but he is mostly great too. Of the supporting cast i liked Benny Safide and Jason Clarke. I didn't like Blunt as much as others did. From the techs its Jennifer Lame who delivered the most. Heck of a job from her shaping this dense biography into a captivating thriller. Hoytema's pretty great too. The black and white photography was sublime. Had mixed thoughts on Gorransson's score. It was darn good at times evoking melancholy and dread in the film's intimate moments but also overbearing at times.
I do need a rewatch to fully grasp every ounce of this mammoth that puts Nolan amongst the pantheon of modern cinema's greatest directors- 8.5/10
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Post by Pavan on Jul 21, 2023 10:22:27 GMT
Nolan needs to do a horror flick asap.
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Archie
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Post by Archie on Jul 21, 2023 14:44:33 GMT
One great scene in an ocean of mediocrity. Sorry, but Nolan was the wrong guy for this.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 21, 2023 17:17:14 GMT
One great scene in an ocean of mediocrity. Sorry, but Nolan was the wrong guy for this. I liked it a lot - reviewed it above in the thread ^ - but a lot of people are going to feel this way and that it's just endless talking .......I mean it's as exposition heavy as any movie I can think of in the whole MAR era maybe .......(?)
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Barbie
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Post by Barbie on Jul 21, 2023 18:53:08 GMT
She is given very limited to do, has maybe 5-6 minutes of screen time max. She has like three nudes scenes and then dies. The portrayal of Blunt's character isn't that much better. She also has limited screen time (the portrayal of her alcoholism felt like a high school play to me) and doesn't really have that "Oscar clip" to really make an impact (but I'm also relieved they didn't shoehorn one in). You never really understand their relationship or what they mean to each other and what the dynamic is. This definitely didn't pass the Bechdel test if you wanna get into that. Well that’s disappointing. I knew she had limited screentime time and why but to be reduced to just [redacted] scenes sucks
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