 I'd be pretty hard-pressed to not enjoy a good Scorsese movie, and I'm super happy to see him tackle a subject matter that doesn't necessarily fit in with what we're used to seeing from him. Yes, it's "woke," but it's done so with Scorsese's wonderful writing and direction over some of Hollywood's best actors, who include Scorsese's biggest go-to actors together on screen - Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. It also tackles a very disturbing subject matter that, until recently, we've all been ignorant of or just hadn't heard of due to others' ignorance.
As the film opens, we're given a little background into the success of the Osage tribe upon finding oil on their Oklahoma reservation. The tribe becomes extremely wealthy, but due to reservation laws, white "guardians" are to manage their money. Said benefactor is a guy named William "King" Hale (De Niro), who acts friendly toward the Osage, bestowing gifts, providing chauffeurs and other services, and speaking their native tongue. However, the audience understands from the get-go that there's something pretty "off" about this guy. Enter Ernest Burkart (DiCaprio), who comes to King, who's his uncle, for some honest work. King starts him off with a chauffeur job and asks for him to take special care of one, Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), which ultimately translates to "get to know her and marry her so we can get some of that money" (just to skip ahead). While things look dirty and underhanded as what seems to be a real love is blossoming between the two, one by one, her family starts getting taken out, which gets the attention of Tom White (Jesse Plemons) of the FBI, who, naturally, come to investigate. I won't go into any more detail about the story here, but one should know that this was all something that really went down. Scorsese does a good job of not glamorizing it with Hollywood style so much as to break our hearts and open our eyes to a long-ignored situation. This is adapted from a book of the same name, but here's a good Wiki article that covers it if you happen to miss out on the movie. But it is definitely worth the three-and-a-half hours of captivating storytelling and acting. That brings me to my next point of the film: the acting from everyone is pretty phenomenal here. If I were to have one slight nitpick about things, it would be that DiCaprio overdoes his exaggerated frown a wee bit throughout the movie. But it's still a great performance alongside the legendary De Niro, who we get to see wear those old-timey driving goggles in this movie, and whether intentional or not, it looks pretty hilarious. But for as great as those two always are, the most impressed I was with her acting in this was Lily Gladstone. It's odd to say, but Gladstone's performance here damn near outshines everyone, including De Niro and DiCaprio. She has quite a range she has to play, from mysterious but intriguing with a sense of humour all the way to physically sick and mournful, and she basically steals the show. But that's not to say that everyone else was bad in comparison by any means; everyone's wonderful in this, and as far as I'm concerned, Scorsese has struck gold again and continues his legacy of being a legendary filmmaker. As mentioned above, in true Scorsese fashion, this is indeed a long one at three-and-a-half hours. It's bound to feel that long to some. But for most, it seems to be that people are coming back from this saying that it didn't, and that's no surprise. Scorsese has a way of bringing you into his movies, where we constantly want to see what happens, along with any pleasant surprises he has in store. This film, though a different kind of Scorsese masterpiece, is still pretty much a masterpiece, and it's great to see that the legendary director hasn't lost his touch in making his audience feel the mass spectrum of emotions. 5/5
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 I will start this review by stating that I am more or less clueless about the history involving J. Robert Oppenheimer and everything surrounding the Manhattan Project. I went into this with the mindset that I may learn a thing or two, but I have to admit that these things get hard when the film unfolding gets pretty confusing. Perhaps not so much to history buffs who know about this stuff, but for clueless, little old me, I came out of this movie knowing what I already knew, and it certainly wouldn't be among my favourite films from Christopher Nolan.
Having said that, I would probably take this review with a grain of salt, as it seems to be one of the higher-reviewed movies of the year from other sources. I won't rip the movie apart for being "bad". But the simple fact is that this went a little beyond my overall understanding, and the way the film time jumps back and forth with timelines can make it pretty confusing. In some ways, however, this is to be expected with a Nolan film. He does not dumb things down for his audience; if you don't get it, you just don't. But I'll see what I can pull off here, despite several brain farts throughout the film. Beginning things in 1926, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) studies at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, where he eventually met Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh), who recommended that he studied theoretical physics in Germany. After completing his PhD, (and meeting Werner Heisenberg [Matthias Schweighöfer]) Oppenheimer heads back to America to spread the knowledge of quantum physics there. He starts teaching with only one student, meets his future wife Kitty Puening, ex-Communist (Emily Blunt), and shows us his womanizing skills by also having an affair with one Jean Tatlock, Communist (Florence Pugh). Fast-forward to 1942, after much more set-up, Army General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) recruits Oppenheimer to lead the Manhattan Project and develop an Atomic Bomb. With his Jewish background, Oppenheimer is especially fuelled to beat the Nazis in this race, knowing what destruction it would entail if the Nazis managed it first. Oppenheimer's dream team of scientists includes the likes of Edward Teller (Benny Safdie), Isidor Isaac Rabi (David Krumholtz), Enrico Fermi (Danny Deferrari) and David L. Hill (Rami Malek). From there, we know how things go, as history has informed even the simplest of us (mainly speaking for myself). The other end of this story is where I get completely lost because it has everything to do with politics and Communism, and I just plain suck at understanding these things entirely. As far as I can tell, it has to do with the eventual Cold War, where Oppenheimer's desire to cease research on nuclear bombs conflicts with the views of Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.). Many politics enter into it all, especially concerning Oppenheimer's past associations with Communism (hence mentioning it alongside his two love interests earlier). Politics tend to be, however, where movies lose me. I suppose it's easy to say that many others will watch this and get much more than I did out of it. But again, that's not to say this was bad. There was plenty for me to admire here regarding overall performances, the time-transporting set design, and the painting of Oppenheimer as a fallible human being. I'm sure it's easy for many to see him as "the guy who invented the nuke" and instantly put him in the villain category. So to the film's credit, this was a movie about the man and not so much what he accomplished along with the aftermath it caused. When all is said and done, this will end up being one of those titles everyone else will love, but I'll just say it was "okay". As mentioned earlier, it's far from my favourite Nolan film. I'm also not the kind of guy who believes Nolan can do no wrong, as I know some might. I find him to be sort of hit-or-miss, and the misses are primarily because I'm watching the film with a big question mark above my head. Sadly, this was one of those, although it WAS easier to follow than 'Tenet'. This undoubtedly has its audience, and I can't say anything truly negative against it because my only real dislike about it was me not absorbing it, which is very much a "me" problem. So again, take this review with a massive grain of salt. 3/5 |
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