NOLAN VOID 1.5: OPPENHEIMER

Season 12, Episode 2 continues TGTPTU’s paired exploration of the films of Sir Christopher Nolan with his most recent film OPPENHEIMER (2023).

 Running the risk of being considered by critics a “bomb,” Sir Nolan boldly moves away from genre pictures for his first biopic of a man who’ll/’d (pardon the time-wimey-ness) get mention in Sir Nolan’s preceding film (and anteceding in our season of NOLAN VOID coverage), namely, TENT: Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy) who led the development of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos but also may have stolen a fellow professor’s alcoholic wife (Emily Blunt) and had an affair with a murdered Communist (Florence Pugh) all the while really getting caught in the craw (as they say in New Mexico) of Rear Admiral Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.). This cast is supported by a murderers’ row of actors, including Matt Damon, Benny Safdie, Jason Clarke, Kenneth Branagh, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Gary Oldman, and over a dozen other familiar faces. 

Having left Warner Brothers, his home since INSOMNIA, after its handling of the release of Tenet, Sir Nolan’s first and only subsequent feature was released in the Summer of 2023 during the cultural portmanteau phenomena of BARBENHEIMER. Continuing a tradition that has not yet started in the podcast’s coverage (due to the nature of its temporal pincer movement), the film was shot largely (in dual senses of the term) on Imax, which because of the noise associated with these massive cameras meant Nolan would pull again from his experiences of his first film FOLLOWING to record dialogue separately at the time of the shoot. For flashback scenes of Strauss, special black and white Imax film stock had to be created.

Listen as in real time host Ken finds effective storytelling tips, co-host Thomas discovers his new drag name, and provisional host Ryan learns how to engage the mute button.

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.

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Letterboxd (follow us!):
Ken: Ken Koral
Ryan: Ryan Tobias