Oppenheimer goes with a bang at the BAFTAs

Winner of Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor is something of a Royal Flush in the high stakes game that is the academy awards. Oppenheimer’s hands down the best film of the year.

Rent or Buy

An epic biographical thriller written, directed and co-produced by Christopher Nolan, the movie stars Cillian Murphy as the American theoretical physicist credited with being the “father of the atomic bomb”. Based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film chronicles the career of Oppenheimer, with the story predominantly focusing on his studies, his direction of the Manhattan Project during World War II, and his eventual fall from grace due to his 1954 security hearing.

The film also stars Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife “Kitty”, Matt Damon as head of the Manhattan Project Leslie Groves, Robert Downey Jr. as United States Atomic Energy Commission member Lewis Strauss, and Florence Pugh as Oppenheimer’s communist lover Jean Tatlock. Kenneth Branagh also does a quick cameo, but then doesn’t he always.

At just over three hours long (9 seconds over) the movie is a pretty big commitment time-wise, so if you’re watching it on Amazon make sure you’ve stocked up on snacks. Production Village: 5 stars.