Well, I'll just quote from ch. 3 of American Prometheus and let you guys decide.
Late that autumn of 1925, Robert did something so stupid that it seemed calculated to prove that his emotional distress was overwhelming him. Consumed by feelings of inadequacy and intense jealousy, he "poisoned" an apple with chemicals from the laboratory and left it on Blackett's desk. Jeffries Wyman later said, "Whether or not this was an imaginary apple, or a real apple, whatever it was, it was an act of jealousy." Fortunately, Blackett did not eat the apple; but university officials somehow were informed of the incident. ...
[T]he university authorities immediately informed [Robert's parents] of what had happened. Julius Oppenheimer frantically—and successfully—lobbied the university not to press criminal charges.
"Christopher Nolan’s bio-pic is so intent on being a morality tale that it misses its protagonist’s complexity"
That's an odd criticism, considering the complex picture Nolan paints of Oppenheimer is perhaps one of the film's greatest strengths.
Brody is a hack to me. I feel like he saw this movie late, after the fact, didn't really want to see it and went in to it ready to hate it and that's exactly how his review reads.
I'm looking at his reviews on MC
GOTG 3 - 40
Blackberry - 50
Air - 50
Creed III - 60
The Little Mermaid - 70 granted I haven't seen it but cmon.
I try not to single out critics it is their opinions after all but this guy has some bizarre, not quite Armond White level but close reviews
A hallmark of Nolan’s method—as in such auteur-defining big-budget works as “Inception” and “Interstellar”—is to take the complexities of science, turn them into sensationalist science fiction, and then reinfuse the result with brow-furrowing seriousness. The last step is often achieved by means of chronological or visual intricacies that render objectivity as deep subjective strangeness; strip away such effects, however, and one sees characters conceived in simplistically sentimental terms that are pure melodrama.
Respectfully, this is a flimsy argument. I’d argue Interstellar is one of the few sci-fi films that take scientific visualizations seriously, to the point that it has influenced the popular image of black holes in media. This isn’t “deep subjective strangeness” or “sensationalist” sci-fi.
In Oppenheimer, if Nolan is really conceiving characters “simplistically sentimental terms,” he’d put in many more domestic scenes where he’s suffering from the AEC prosecution. American Prometheus opens with Oppenheimer collapsing in his bathroom in 1953—isn’t it saying something that Nolan doesn’t include this?
Does anyone know the quote about Kitty before she testified? You know, fools and adolescents...
The one Oppie says to Garrison? Can't recall exactly, but I thought it was something like "Only fools and adolescents would presume to know about someone else's marriage, and you're neither." Probably a "Mr. Garrison" in that quote as well, but really I need to either see this film again or get the screenplay.
Does anyone know the quote about Kitty before she testified? You know, fools and adolescents...
The one Oppie says to Garrison? Can't recall exactly, but I thought it was something like "Only fools and adolescents would presume to know about someone else's marriage, and you're neither." Probably a "Mr. Garrison" in that quote as well, but really I need to either see this film again or get the screenplay.
I thought Brody retired? Anyways he is the definitive example of a pompous, pretentious critic that people loathe.
Nah, Brody rules. Rarely agree with a thing he says, but few are as knowledgable or thoughtful in what they have to say.
I think he's completely right, for instance, that Nolan's films are all essentially melodramas.
-Vader
I feel like even Nolan himself would agree. Not that I know much about Brody or his critiques, but I'd argue the melodrama is kind of necessary to Nolan's style of filmmaking.
Interstellar feels like the most melodramatic of his films, especially with the whole "love connects us all" message at the end. Conversely, I'd say Oppenheimer is the furthest from traditional melodrama so far. Insomnia might be another one, perhaps because they're both set in more "realistic" worlds or situations.
Then there are times when he almost overdoes it, and it dips into parody, like "including my son!"
Like, I love this dude, but there are times when I'm convinced he actually needs a writing partner. Any time he's written a film entirely on his own, it's like he has less restraint on his more Nolany ideas.
I shouldn't have called Brody a hack because he's got a veteran, respected history as a critic but his reviews of some of the better movies this year comes off as grumpy to me. It is what it is for his reviews I guess.
granted I haven't seen it but cmon.
