Their combined success is pretty breathtaking, with Barbie grossing over a billion dollars and Oppenheimer likely to cross that mark soon enough incredible for a historical biopic.
But what of their artistic worth? Me, I suspect the lustre of both will fade. Barbie is a fun film, with some big laughs and enthusiastic performances. As for Oppenheimer , well… Christopher Nolan is a good director. There are some astonishing set pieces, which everyone is still talking about, and I admire it for that. The editing is dazzling. But I finished the film feeling I knew little more about Oppenheimer than the little I already knew, as well as baffled by why Nolan felt the last hour of interminable hearings was necessary to help us understand him — why was his loss of security clearance such a big deal, to Oppenheimer or to us?
Not good enough for an ostensible film-of-the-year. Plus it delivers better set pieces along the way. But what do I know? I was delighted to share my favourite film of the year with most publications this year, for the first time perhaps since Moonlight.
It was, in fact, the best directing I saw all year — subtle, plus visually and emotionally rich. I may come back to change the list when I finally see it. Like a master filmmaker, Celine Song knows exactly where to place the camera to maximise audience emotional engagement and interest. It helps that those actors are so superb at letting you into their secret lives — John Magaro as the husband too, whose central bedroom scene changes the dynamic of the film in a fascinating way, questioning the narrative and reframing it to allow for even more sympathy for him we already like him quite a bit.
Believe the hype: everybody loves it for a reason. Mixed reactions are of course inevitable for a film so tonally strange: despite the uncomfortable subject matter, quite a few scenes are played for laughs. A tale of American Evil in its purest form: the true story of the murder of Osage tribe members for their oil money in the early 20th century becomes a parable for all the evil committed by white Americans against indigenous populations before and since.
