Early critics are blown away by Oppenheimer

More than three hours and 11 miles ago, Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated new film Oppenheimer began its world premiere in Paris, which means a handful of lucky jerks have now seen the movie and you, probably, are not among them. We say “lucky jerks” because, at least based on early reactions that could’ve been influenced a bit by the big crowds or the built-in hype of seeing a big movie from a big director, Oppenheimer is apparently really damn good. Or, as Telegraph critic Robbie Collin put it, Oppenheimer is “a total knockout that split my brain open like a twitchy plutonium nucleus and left me sobbing through the end credits like I can’t even remember else.” (That’s the kind of line you think of during the movie and then excitedly tweet as soon as you’re outside.)

Writer Bilge Ebiri said the movie is “incredible,” going on to say that, “the word that keeps coming to mind is ‘fearsome.’” The ending also apparently involves Nolan bringing “the hammer down in the most astonishing, shattering way.”

The Sunday Times’ Jonathan Dean highlighted the supporting cast, particularly Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., and Alden Ehrenreich (who “even bring gags”). He also tweeted that it’s in his “top three” of Nolan films, alongside Memento and The Prestige. Lindsey Bahr of the Associated Press called it a “spectacular achievement,” highlighting how “dense” it is and saying it’s “as tense and exciting as Dunkirk.” Also, the “big moment” is “awe-inspiring.” (We’re trying to go in totally clean, so we have no idea what that could possibly be referring to.)

This bodes well for anyone doing “Barbenheimer” double-features (not that Nolan is interested in such things) since Barbie also received an overwhelmingly positive response from early screenings.