Jeremy Hoffman

Only Christopher Nolan could take a truly fascinating story from history, and coat it in such an overwhelming thick layer of Nolan-ness to leave the viewer more bewildered than engaged. Watching "Oppenheimer" felt like watching The Prestige, Memento, and Interstellar simultaneously: too loud, too jumbled, too long. Overwhelming spectacle but lacking actual intimacy with the characters. Typical Nolan, in other words. There are some flashes of good moments. But the whole thing just doesn't come together in any coherent way for me. Somehow in three hours, Nolan didn't find time to get me to care about any of the characters *or* the focal events of the movie (two confirmation hearings). He tried to turn it into the Prestige or Memento and I just don't think it worked for this story.