‘Oppenheimer’ Lavished With Critical Praise, Called Christopher Nolan’s ‘Most Impressive Work Yet’

Positively explosive critical reactions.

Beau Hayhoe

Jul 13, 2023

A viewing of the trailer for Oppenheimer, the historical epic depicting America’s race to build the atomic bomb, is enticing enough to warrant a closer look — and critics agree that director Christopher Nolan’s latest film is a stunning masterwork.

Early critical reviews for the film, which casts Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy in the titular role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb,’ are rolling in ahead of its July 21st theatrical release (the same day as the hotly anticipated Ryan Gosling & Margot Robbie flick Barbie, in case you haven’t heard).

It’s already been called “arguably Nolan’s most impressive work” by Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, with a flurry of critics taking to Twitter after the film’s Paris premiere earlier this week.

Writing on Twitter, Total Film critic Matt Maytum called the historical thriller a “character study on the grandest scale,” praising Murphy’s performance as “sublime.”

Jonathan Dean of The Sunday Times offered up praise for the frankly stacked supporting cast, which boasts appearances by everyone from Robert Downey Jr. to Matt Damon, Dane DeHaan and Emily Blunt.

Dean called the picture an “audacious, inventive, complex film to rattle its audience.”

If early reviews are any indication, and as the hype over Oppenheimer builds to a fever pitch, it might be wise to race to get tickets for Nolan’s latest highly touted epic.

Mentioned in this article: Christopher Nolan Cillian Murphy Entertainment movies Oppenheimer Summer Blockbusters