We’ll have to wait a while to see what the critics make of Oppenheimer, but it’s got its first review regardless – from the co-author of the book that inspired director Christopher Nolan’s biopic.
Kai Bird, who co-wrote 2005 biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer with Martin J. Sherwin, gave an effusive response during a talk at the Institute for Advanced Study (H/T Variety).
"I am, at the moment, stunned and emotionally recovering from having seen it. I think it is going to be a stunning artistic achievement, and I have hopes it will actually stimulate a national, even global conversation about the issues that Oppenheimer was desperate to speak out about: about how to live in the atomic age, how to live with the bomb and about McCarthyism, what it means to be a patriot, and what is the role for a scientist, in a society drenched with technology and science, to speak out about public issues," Bird said.
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Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy as the eponymous theoretical physicist. Nolan, in a recent interview with Total Film, said he was "blown away" by his performance.
"You’re making a demand of an actor that very few actors in the history of film can rise to," Nolan said. "I will say that even with that confidence in him, he was continually surprising me on set every day. And when we got into the edit suite and were putting the performance together, and seeing the truth of it, I was absolutely blown away."
The cast also includes Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., and Florence Pugh. It releases on July 21 – the same day as Barbie, a scheduling conflict that’s been the source of much discussion online.
For more on what’s hitting cinemas – and streaming – in the coming months, check out our upcoming movies guide.
