Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer ranks as one of the director’s most profound and weighty films, with a message that’s hard to shake.

PLOT: During a pivotal time in World War II, Professor Robert Oppenheimer is chosen by the army to head up the Manhattan Project, the focus being creating the first nuclear weapon the Earth has ever seen. Gathering scientists from all over the world, Oppenheimer’s obsession with finishing the bomb before the Nazis has an overwhelming impact on his personal life, in ways both immediately obvious and impossible to predict.

REVIEW:  Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a startling, mesmerizing experience, not one easy to explain or sum up. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Nolan movie if it were, but the film sees the writer-director at the height of his powers as filmmaker and storyteller – not to mention nimble time-jumper. Perhaps the most important film of the director’s career thus far, Oppenheimer is an old fashioned Hollywood biopic/historical epic in the way it’s filled with great actors giving their very all in showy roles while an undeniably crucial chapter in our history is told with no expenses spared. Everything about the film appears to have been thought through to the very limit, from casting, to production design, to the (historically accurate) dialogue spoken by the characters. Nolan rarely misses a beat; in fact, he packs the movie to the brim with so much that at three hours it feels like he went with the truncated cut of the movie; it could have been even longer. To his credit, the movie never sags or bores; Nolan and his editor Jennifer Lame make sure our attention is always completely drawn to what’s happening on screen.

It’s a look at the life of one of history’s most polarizing figures. J. Robert Oppenheimer, of course, spearheaded the making of Fat Man and Little Boy, the two atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945 that killed thousands upon thousands, most of them innocent civilians. The film chronicles the life of Oppenheimer leading up to this event, and the long period after when he was under considerable scrutiny from both the public and his own government (the latter of which suspected him to be a card-carrying member of the Communist party). Naturally, Nolan isn’t content to tell this tale in a linear fashion, bouncing around Oppenheimer’s life pre-and-post 1945 in an effort to paint a complicated portrait of a man who was so consumed by his own genius that he can’t foresee the mammoth consequences being such a genius might bring. 

You know the classic Ian Malcolm line in Jurassic Park about scientists being so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should? It’s hard not to think of that during Oppenheimer while watching the character as he frantically goes about orchestrating the creation of the ultimate world-destroyer; he’s latched onto the idea of building the perfect weapon, the morality of the project is mostly theoretical. To be fair, it was the Nazis that he and seemingly everyone else had in mind when creating the bomb, but after their defeat it was an easy pivot to the Japanese in the waning days of their end of the war. When it is used, that’s when the light goes on. How the realization of what he’s done changes the man as he’s immediately thrust toward his next monumental assignment  – creating the hydrogen bomb – is just a part of this incredibly detailed and complex character study. 

The performances are uniformly strong, even if you could say a few verge on the theatrical. As Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy’s natural intensity and wide, magnetic eyes are a perfect match for the conflicted persona of this somber and thoughtful man. It’s far from the showiest performance in the movie but that’s necessary, since Oppenheimer is often depicted as a self-impressed introvert whose emotions are just moments away from bursting through his cool exterior. 

Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr. have all the fun as a blustery army general and one of Oppenheimer’s bitter longtime colleagues, respectively. It would not be surprising to see Best Supporting Actor nominations for one or both of them (Downey Jr.’s final scenes in the film in particular are quite impressive). Emily Blunt does her damnedest to ensure Kitty Oppenheimer isn’t just a standard movie wife with a hard-drinking, glowering interpretation of the woman who somehow stood by Oppenheimer despite his many failings. She has a handful of show-stopping scenes that actors live for. 

And there are so many good actors in supporting roles: Benny Safdie is a revelation as a hard-headed member of Oppenheimer’s team; David Krumholtz is excellent as one of Robert’s oldest and most cynical friends; Dane Dehaan is reliably creepy as a vaguely sinister military man who proves pivotal to Oppenheimer’s downfall; Macon Blair is terrific as the scientist’s hard-working lawyer. Not unlike Oliver Stone’s JFK – a movie that absolutely comes to mind several times during this one – it would seem as though every other role has been filled with a recognizable face; maybe an A-lister, maybe a familiar character actor, and yet it’s never a distraction. Even when it became pretty clear after a few seconds who was playing President Truman (I hadn’t known beforehand), the focus is on the picture, not the cameo.

If the movie has a noticeable fault its that it might be packed with too much information. This is a problem that could be fixed with repeated viewings, but based on one, there are times when a flurry of characters are mentioning names, details, places that we only have a slight understanding of, and it’s easy to get a little lost. Subplots and characters both minor and major jockey for position throughout and we almost need one of those graphs used to describe Nolan’s more complicated timelines to fully grasp who’s being talked about in conjunction with what. While you might think the movie is just about the making of the A-bomb based on the trailers, there are so many other important sections of Oppenheimer’s life that are touched upon, not least the which is his battle to prove he’s a loyal American and not a Communist who might be a spy for the Russians. Yet all those strands ultimately tie together, and when you step back and look at the whole, you have to acknowledge the many different parts were necessary.

Technically, the movie is nearly flawless. The sound design is extremely impressive – there are some legitimate jump scares in the movie as Nolan blasts us with sudden jolts – and Ludwig Goransson’s seemingly omnipresent score is as intense as anything Hans Zimmer has composed for the director (frankly it might be too intense at times). And of course, Hoyte van Hoytema’s gorgeous cinematography often steals the show, although not in ways you might expect. Nolan’s concerned with faces, reactions, as much as he is with pretty pictures, frequently showing us his characters in extreme close-up. A picture says a thousand words, and with this cast he’s always got a handsome canvas to work with. 

And the movie ends on a note of darkness that is already impossible to shake. It would be easy to say Oppenheimer is an anti-war film, but I think it’s more direct to call it an anti-ending-civilization-as-we-know-it film. No doubt Nolan wanted to shine a light on this difficult man’s life, but it’s clear he also has a statement, a simple one: what Oppenheimer set in motion can’t be undone, and if we’re not careful, wise, or lucky, this could all end in the blink of an eye. In that regard, it’s not just a really good film, it’s a pretty important one too. 

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Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers is getting delayed amid the SAG-AFTRA strike. The sports drama starring Zendaya is moving to 2024.

The fallout from the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike makes its way to the tennis court as MGM‘s sports drama Challengers defaults to 2024. Luca Guadagnino’s R-rated film starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist was scheduled to open stateside on September 15 after its Venice Film Festival premiere. However, with the strike timeline uncertain, the film is moving to April 26, 2024. In addition to postponing the film’s release, the Venice premiere is no longer happening.

Part of the reason for the Challengers’ delay is that Zendaya, who has a 200M social media outreach, cannot promote the film during the strike. Her immense popularity on platforms like Instagram will inevitably boost the film’s visibility by tapping into the targeted demographic for the steamy sports drama. To put things into perspective, Challengers garnered 150M global views in its first 24 hours. Talk about the film ignited 320 stateside conversations after the trailer was the most-viewed for an original movie in 24 hours.

Challengers stars Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy turned coach and a force of nature who makes no apologies for her game on and off the court. Married to a champion on a losing streak (Mike Faist – West Side Story), Tashi’s strategy for her husband’s redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against the washed-up Patrick (Josh O’Connor – The Crown) – his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. As their pasts and presents collide, and tensions run high, Tashi must ask herself, what will it cost to win?

According to the film’s official logline, Challengers follows “three players who knew each other when they were teenagers as they compete in a tennis tournament to be the world-famous grand slam winner and reignite old rivalries on and off the court.”

Guadagnino says Zendaya trained with tennis coach and former player Brad Gilbert for three months. During that time, Zendaya sharpened her skills on the court, learning to use momentum to her advantage, track a tennis ball with pinpoint accuracy, and smash any challenge with determination. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross composed the film’s score, adding tension and drama to the backdrop of this steamy love story.

Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers will take the court on April 26, 2024.

Producer/director Charles Band’s 1983 sci-fi film has connections to both Jaws 3-D and the classic sitcom Night Court

Over the course of a film career that stretches back 50 years, Charles Band has produced nearly 400 projects and directed several dozen – and in his memoir Confessions of a Puppetmaster (pick up a copy HERE), he says that one of the movies fans mention to him the most is the 1983 sci-fi film Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn… which happens to have fun connections to both Jaws 3-D and the sitcom Night Court.

Directed by Band from a screenplay by Alan J. Adler, Metalstorm has the following synopsis: On a desert planet, warlord Jared-Syn is trying to convince a tribe of mutants that he’s their messiah and gain unlimited power hidden in a crystal. Ranger Dogen and explorer Dhyana, who’s father was murdered by Syn, must stop him.

Band and Adler also produced the movie with Band’s father Albert Band.

The film stars Jeffrey Byron, Michael Preston, Tim Thomerson, and Kelly Preston – who was going by the name Kelly Palzis when she signed on, but chose the Preston stage name halfway through production. Also in the cast was Richard Moll, and Charles Band had this to say about him: “Another cast member was a gigantically tall, friendly young actor named Richard Moll. I wanted him to play Hurok, the leader of a tribe of nomadic warriors. Once we cast him, my effects guy told me that because of his elaborate makeup, it’d be much easier to shoot the big guy if he was bald. That was an easy sell for me—I mean, every six-foot-eight-inch nomadic warrior chieftain oughta be bald, right? It wasn’t an easy sell for Richard. “Oh god, this is going to devastate him,” his agent told me. “It’s pilot season.” Like every actor in Hollywood, Richard had high hopes for TV’s pilot season, and he also had a nice head of jet-black hair. I had sympathy, but I also had a movie to make. Plus, as I told Richard, being a tall bald guy was kind of an awesome look. I threw in another five hundred bucks, and Richard took the role and shaved his head. A bird in the hand, after all… Well, during the shoot Richard did indeed get a good audition for a new sitcom. And wouldn’t you know it, the producers actually loved him and his big bald head. To this day Richard is still best known as the bald, intimidating-but-gentle bailiff named Bull on all nine seasons of Night Court.“

Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn was released by Universal Pictures, and Band revealed that it was able to secure that distribution deal because Metalstorm was shot in 3-D and the studio was already planning to release a 3-D movie in ’83. Jaws 3-D. “I get a call from Bob Rehme, the head of Universal. We’d met a few times, and Bob liked me. Bob had heard I was shooting another 3-D movie, and as it happened, he was getting ready to go out with Jaws 3-D. He wanted something to send it out with. Back then, it cost a lot to outfit theaters with 3-D—you needed a special lens for the projectors and a special screen, so it made sense to follow one 3-D picture with another.“

Metalstorm was shot on a budget of $900,000 and Universal bought the distribution rights for $3 million. Jaws 3-D was released on July 22 and Metalstorm followed on August 19.

Are you a fan of Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

A trailer has been released for New Fears Eve, a slasher starring Felissa Rose, Dave Sheridan, Hannah Fierman, and Jeffrey Reddick

Last December, we learned that Jeffrey Reddick, whose horror credits include Final Destination, Final Destination 2, Tamara, Day of the Dead 2008, Dead Awake, and Don’t Look Back, is teaming up with fellow genre regulars Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp) and Dave Sheridan (Victor Crowley) to produce the slasher New Fears Eve. Now a trailer for the film has arrived online, and you can check it out in the embed above!

Coming our way from Blood Moon Pictures and producers P.J. Starks and Eric Huskisson, who previously brought us the anthology films Volumes of Blood, Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories, and 13 Slays Till X-Mas, New Fears Eve sports the tagline “The Doctor Will Slay You Now!” Huskisson is also directing New Fears Eve, which has the following synopsis: As the coming year approaches, three best friends reluctantly prepare for Hooper Industries’ annual New Year’s Eve bash. The clock ticks down and the body count rises as a psychotic murderer known as The Doctor is on the loose. This sadistic surgeon of death leaves Owensboro covered in blood as local police and FBI are forced to navigate through a maze of bodies left in his wake. Unbeknownst to the three best friends, their mandatory party is about to turn deadly when the killer sets his sights on them. December 31 becomes a party to die for when Leslie, Brian, Moses and their colleagues are trapped inside an inescapable building with a bloodthirsty madman hell bent on carving his way to midnight.

Reddick, Rose, and Sheridan star in the film alongside Lily Claire Harvey, Jay Woolston, Alyssa Rhoads, Roni Jonah, and Turner Vaughn, with Jesse MacDonald as The Doctor. Hannah Fierman (V/H/S/) is also in the cast.

The filmmakers have launched an IndieGogo campaign to raise finishing funds that will go toward post-production touch-ups like professional color grading and sound mixing.

Are you interested in New Fears Eve? What did you think of the trailer? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

I have enjoyed Starks and Huskisson’s other productions, so I look forward to checking out New Fears Eve.