r/movies • u/SidonIthano1 • May 04 '23
In 'Oppenheimer,' Cillian Murphy leads a Nolan epic Article
https://apnews.com/article/oppenheimer-cillian-murphy-christopher-nolan-9b162a6d378d2e27fd718aa4f4d57a1a837
u/tennisdrums May 04 '23
features a starry cast including Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, Matt Damon as Leslie Groves Jr., Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, Gary Oldman as Harry S. Truman
Man, if I was told I was playing the lead role and these were the supporting actors, I would have some serious imposter syndrome stepping onto that set.
578
u/fire-lord-momo May 04 '23
Not if you're Cillian Murphy
→ More replies (3)65
u/amaluna May 04 '23
Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if he did still feel that way. Obviously he's an outstanding actor but those are some very serious heavyweights that have been in huge movies going back several years to when he was acting on a smaller scale.
Again, not saying he should feel that way or any way in particular but I wouldn't be surprised if be did. If anything it's a testament to his own hardwork over the years
92
u/dvd_00 May 04 '23
Man is a theatre lad. Doubt he will feel it. He has been lead material for a super long time but hasn't received anything. Look at leaky blinders.
69
u/HypocriteOpportunist May 04 '23
Leaky Blinders lol
→ More replies (1)15
→ More replies (4)4
u/deadscreensky May 05 '23
He has been lead material for a super long time but hasn't received anything.
He's been the lead in many movies — for example 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Red Lights — so I imagine he's fine with doing that again.
→ More replies (2)5
u/fire-lord-momo May 04 '23
Well, as per Cillian's recent interview, he said he felt confident going into it with Chris.
3
u/all_die_laughing May 04 '23
He's been working and leading movies way longer than Emily Blunt and probably had more recognition for a few years before RDJ's resurrection in Iron Man. He's also worked with Oldman a number of times so I'm not sure why he would be going into this with trepidation. He's been working for 25 years.
→ More replies (1)189
u/all_die_laughing May 04 '23
Maybe but he's been working for 25 years, has worked with the likes of Emily Blunt and Oldman before, as well as a few of the other supporting players, not to mention he's been leading a group of hugely experienced actors in Peaky Blinders for over a decade, it seems like the perfect time and production.
51
u/I_Speak_For_The_Ents May 04 '23
And has played the lead antagonist role with Christopher Nolan before
3
116
u/circumlocutious May 04 '23
“…and Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek, Casey Affleck…”
→ More replies (2)5
88
u/LivingDeliously May 04 '23
Cillian is great tho and loves a challenge. He’s probably very grateful for the experience and even though he’s getting older, I can imagine it has made him grow even more as an actor
→ More replies (2)35
u/JungFuPDX May 04 '23
lol he’s 46 - that’s prime time for men in films. Only women get older in Hollywood, men become more magnetic.
→ More replies (2)11
11
→ More replies (3)9
u/YeezyWins May 04 '23
My brother, the man is a fucking Peaky Blinder, do you think he cares about that?
563
u/FutureBondVillain May 04 '23
Peaky Blinders proved (to me, at least) that Murphy can absolutely lead any production. I've never seen him in a role where he didn't absolutely kill it.
326
u/Blue_Lust May 04 '23
28 days later proved that. 🤷🏼♂️
118
u/bluepenciledpoet May 04 '23
The wind that shakes the barley (2006) is his best movie and best performance.
29
→ More replies (1)5
u/DegreeSea7315 May 04 '23
Not many have seen that amazing film... He was truly excellent in it, as always.
→ More replies (5)52
u/circumlocutious May 04 '23
That was the film Nolan saw when he asked Cillian to audition for Batman. But people do tend to forget that he was in it!
27
u/Blue_Lust May 04 '23
I was just thinking, loved him as Scarecrow, but him as The Riddler would be spot on in the Pattinson universe.
10
11
13
u/WolfColaCo2020 May 04 '23
He absolutely sold Tommy Shelby to the point where I find it startling that there's not a single element of his personality IRL that resembles him. Like he seems to be the calmest, mildest man going in interviews
→ More replies (1)13
u/orangutanDOTorg May 04 '23
I couldn’t understand 75% of what people in that said bc I have shit hearing. I enjoyed the 25% I understood
→ More replies (5)27
u/mooslar May 04 '23
Now if only there was something that could help you understand what is being said on TV…
→ More replies (1)
192
u/-Sereon- May 04 '23
This is going to melt my face off
→ More replies (6)92
u/SrpskaZemlja May 04 '23
Wouldn't be the first time Oppenheimer had that effect on an audience.
→ More replies (1)9
1.4k
May 04 '23 edited May 04 '23
I have a feeling that Oppenheimer will earned both Nolan and Cillian their first Oscar.
862
u/I_am_so_lost_hello May 04 '23
I can't pinpoint a specific year he should've won but it is kinda crazy he hasn't with that filmography
254
u/Hydqjuliilq27 May 04 '23
Memento would have been my choice for best original screenplay in 2001, though I did also like Gosford Park and Amélie.
46
u/EliteBiscuitFarmer May 04 '23
Wasn't is adapted from his brothers short story though? So it would have been best adapted screenplay which usually has more competition. Still should have won, and maybe it's still an original screenplay because Jonathan Nolan was also a writer of the screenplay?
24
3
u/Hydqjuliilq27 May 04 '23
It was nominated at the Oscars as original
3
u/EliteBiscuitFarmer May 04 '23
Oh you're correct! Apologies! That's interesting, I wonder why it didn't meet the criteria for adapted?
5
u/GiantRobotTRex May 04 '23
It actually came out before the short story. His brother pitched the general idea of the story and then Christopher started working on the movie while his brother was still writing the short story.
4
u/HorrorBusiness93 May 04 '23
It took a while to figure it out- but I do think inception is his best film. People tend to dismiss it… but it really is a banger
19
167
u/Alive-Ad-4164 May 04 '23
It’s the Kobe mvp conundrum all over again
→ More replies (1)72
518
u/mrnicegy26 May 04 '23
Nolan should have been won and been nominated for The Dark Knight. 2008 was a weak year for film and no other film that year had made as much of an impact as that one did.
155
u/BellotPatro May 04 '23
The Dark Knight not getting a nod resulted in the expansion of the Best Picture category. There is something to be said for a movie that changed the Oscars, even if it didnt get recognized.
→ More replies (4)24
u/apitchf1 May 04 '23
I heard someone say we need a 10 years later impact on pictures category type thing and I think it’s a great idea. Like so many times something wins and is just forgotten about and then there are others that have a huge cultural impact but weren’t recognized with awards at the time, even if recognized as great
27
131
u/MarcusXL May 04 '23
Nolan is a frustrating director. His movies are consistently above average but consistently flawed.
52
77
u/Wellhellob May 04 '23
Thats the charm. Like how he say in Prestige. Audience wants to be tricked. Nolan is like a magician. If you dont wanna be tricked there are glaring issues but if you wanna let Nolan lead you, its awesome experience.
→ More replies (7)→ More replies (12)86
u/myaltduh May 04 '23
Yeah I mostly loved Interstellar until the final act when things just got too weird and convenient for me to take it seriously anymore. I’d say even The Dark Knight has a hard time making the final confrontation with Harvey Dent feel like anything but awkward anticlimax. Even if it’s a good scene, it’s position within the film as the last thing that happens never sat well with me.
15
7
u/quitegonegenie May 04 '23
Oldman's monologue rescued the end of The Dark Knight.
→ More replies (1)38
u/TizonaBlu May 04 '23
Last third felt like a different movie. It's like at the end of LotR, Doraemon shows up and says "let me give you a lift to Mordor" and the movie ends.
→ More replies (11)3
u/KingSweden24 May 04 '23
Ah, but the last scene with Dent is the thematic summation of the film. It’s not typical compared to the usual story beats of a superhero movie. It’s more of a denouement than a climax (because really how do you top the dueling boat finale)
Really though the entire last 40 minutes of TDK towers over most MCU climaxes in the 15 years since, and it’s hard to see what could claim the top spot. Only the endings to Avengers and Infinity War come close
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (3)3
u/dachaotic1 May 04 '23
I agree that the confrontation scene with Harvey did not feel like a true climax, but I think it does a good job of setting up the final police chase scene with Gary Oldman's memorable speech "hero Gotham deserves but not the one it needs". Without that scene Oldman's speech just doesn't land the same, I think.
→ More replies (1)183
u/wotown May 04 '23
Slumdog Millionaire is an amazing movie
38
u/bitoreo May 04 '23
i love slumdog and watched it recently but man that movie did not age well in terms of "vibes" ig. you can tell it was made in 2000s with the weird/bright/saturated cinematography and the weird ass cuts and direction boyle does. on the other hand, the dark knight feels like it could have been made mid to late 2010s
41
u/Joooooooosh May 04 '23
Does a movie need to be timeless to be good?
I’ve never watched Die Hard and thought, “I wish this was a bit less 80’s”
I only just watched Slumdog recently and thought it was great.
Everyone seems to love the Dark Knight but I think the key that it’s a really good superhero movie but just a decent movie otherwise.
10
May 04 '23
Does a movie need to be timeless to be good?
It helps. But in Slumdog's case it doesn't, as the whole racist and imperialist stuff is worse.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (5)177
u/mrnicegy26 May 04 '23 edited May 04 '23
I mean do people even remember Slumdog Millionaire as well as they do The Dark Knight. Like I am an Indian and most of my Indian friends dislike Slumdog Millionaire and think Dark Knight is better than it.
176
u/brokenwolf May 04 '23
Dark Knight is still the all star from that year. I remember Benjamin Button, The Reader and Revolutionary Road also pining for awards and Dark Knight has held up so well.
The one really underrated movie from that year was Doubt. That was Viola Davis' coming out party.
40
u/darkeyes13 May 04 '23
One of the reasons why I remember the nominees from that year is because of Hugh Jackman's opening number at the Oscars.
I watched Frost/Nixon and I remember liking it as well.
→ More replies (2)3
3
u/KingSweden24 May 04 '23
Doubt honestly should have cleaned up that year, especially if the Academy wasn’t going to hand it to something as “gauche” to their sensibilities as a superhero movie
98
u/hrgilbert May 04 '23
There’s no Oscar for most memorable movie though. Or cultural impact. Super hero movies are very unlikely to earn a best picture nomination, let alone a win.
→ More replies (17)→ More replies (20)25
21
u/caninehere May 04 '23
I mean no other movie made as big of an impact as Avengers Endgame the year it came out. It doesn't mean it deserved Best Picture.
36
u/Ser_Dunk_the_tall May 04 '23
I think they worded it poorly. The Dark Knight is vastly superior in quality to Endgame and I say that having really enjoyed Endgame.
→ More replies (13)3
u/mattholomus May 04 '23
2008 was a great year for film, it's just that the Academy didn't really notice what was great about it.
From what was nominated...
- 'Milk' is still Gus Van Sant's best film. It deserved the Best Picture Win.
- 'The Reader' deserved acting noms for Winslet, but she won this one as a consolation for not winning earlier. It didn't belong in best picture. I think her 'Revolutionary Road' performance that same year was better.
- 'Frost/Nixon' had good performances, but Best Picture? Not quite.
- 'Curious Case' was a real sweeping Hollywood romance and I can admire it for that. But its script was too much of a Forrest Gump retread. Fincher should have gotten recognition the year before with 'Zodiac'.
- 'Slumdog Millionaire' was good, but contrived. It deserved the nomination, but not the win.
What should have been in the best picture race...
- 'The Dark Knight' should have been in the Best Picture race, and probably should have won even against 'Milk'.
- 'Wall-E' should have been a Best Picture nomination.
- 'Revolutionary Road' is a brilliant film that never got the recognition it deserved.
- 'Doubt' should have been in the running.
- 'The Wrestler' is a fantastic film that could have been nominated too. Heck, even 'Changeling' was great.
It just seemed like the Oscars looked in the wrong direction totally that year. If we were to keep the '5 movies' rule they had at the time, I think a more reasonable middle ground for nominations would have been:
- The Dark Knight
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Milk
- Wall-E
- Curious Case of Benjamin Button (though if I had any say it would be Revolutionary Road in this spot)
→ More replies (2)17
May 04 '23
I still can't understand why he was not even nominated for Best Director for Inception.
→ More replies (4)36
u/stillthemind May 04 '23
The Dark Knight, Inception & Interstellar. Nolan deserved to be nominated or win best director for all of those; best picture as well imho.
→ More replies (9)→ More replies (23)3
u/ExoSierra May 04 '23
Dark Knight, Inception, and Interstellar were all worthy of at least noms and maybe even wins in some categories.
221
u/Slightlydifficult May 04 '23
The fact Interstellar didn’t win best original score completely ruined the Oscars for me. I didn’t hate Grand Budapest but it’s score was nowhere near as magnificent as Interstellar’s. I doubt Hans Zimmer will ever be able to top that masterpiece.
97
u/eidbio May 04 '23
Interstellar had one of the influential scores of the last years. You can clearly feel it inspired the score of many movies and shows.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (1)24
u/DarthArterius May 04 '23
Hans has too many amazing scores to pick from but I'd argue Dune is at least on par to Interstellar's (could be recency bias tbh). I can't even imagine anything from Grand Budapest but with Asteroid City coming I've been meaning to revisit a few of Wes Anderson's movies.
19
u/SpicyAfrican May 04 '23
Dune’s score is great but Interstellar is on another level.
→ More replies (4)28
u/TheSteelWolf3 May 04 '23
I thought the dune score was amazing and appropriate to the source material but also entirely forgettable. It really doesn't hold a candle to his other soundtracks..but that's my opinion. Be it Nolan collaborations, lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean.
→ More replies (2)84
u/theIngloriousAlien May 04 '23
He should have won with "The Prestige", at least for the screenplay. That is one of the brilliant screenplays I have seen in movies.
→ More replies (7)53
u/hotfakecheese May 04 '23
The Departed won that year (for best adapted screenplay. Pretty stacked list that year for adapted screenplays - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/79th_Academy_Awards
17
u/theIngloriousAlien May 04 '23
Wow, The Prestige wasn't even nominated? Also, you are indeed right, this list is already stacked!
12
u/JustsharingatiktokOK May 04 '23
Damn... Children of Men came out in a rough time for noms.
Would have absolutely trounced a year or two prior or after.
→ More replies (1)49
u/Lelle3 May 04 '23
I think Killers of the Flower Moon is going to be a juggernaut at the Oscar’s.
→ More replies (21)→ More replies (21)18
u/FrickinNormie2 May 04 '23
The movie isn’t even out yet, why is everyone saying this?
→ More replies (1)5
126
u/circumlocutious May 04 '23 edited May 04 '23
One of Oppenheimer’s biggest draws as a movie may well be the huge social and political resonance of its themes today. Not just in terms of nuclear weapons, but other scientific developments - think godfather of AI resigning last week - where there’s a rapid impetus to develop technical solutions followed by a ‘woe is me, look what I’ve done’ narrative (already memed). If it sparks dialogue and discussion on a wide scale, that’ll get people interested.
Not to mention the fact that this will be anything but a ‘slow burn’ biopic as people are saying. The source material is intense, fast-paced, jam-packed with events.
→ More replies (1)
40
u/jetstobrazil May 04 '23
I’m really curious how big of a role Feynman will have in this movie, and who would play him. He has such a distinct voice and characteristics it would be nearly impossible to nail his portrayal as an actor
21
u/circumlocutious May 04 '23
In the source material he was a known as a practical joker during the Manhattan Project with a tendency to wind up Army security…
11
u/givemethebat1 May 04 '23
It’s Jack Quaid apparently.
3
u/Cultural_Hippo May 04 '23
For some reason there are two actors cast as Feynman on imdb. Jack Quaid and Alden Ehrenreich. Not sure which one is accurate. I am personally hoping for Alden.
→ More replies (2)9
u/SomeCatsMoreCats May 04 '23
He was a pretty junior dude, I think he spent most of his time coordinating the women who operated the adding machines.
We may see him as a tertiary character in scenes with Bethe, but how big a role could Bethe have?
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)5
u/Sixshot_ May 04 '23
We better get an extended scene of him going hard on the Bongos or it's a 0/10 from me.
→ More replies (1)
598
u/Beautiful-Mission-31 May 04 '23
This headline is dumb as shit.
‘In John Wick 4 Keanu Reeves leads a Chad Stahelski action film’
‘In Killers of the Flower Moon Leonardo DiCaprio leads a Martin Scorsese Mystery’
‘In this movie, the lead actor leads this kind of film by this director’
245
u/FiendinOnThemAltoids May 04 '23
To be fair the point of the article is that while Cillian Murphy regularly works with Nolan, he’s never had a leading role in one of his films until now
→ More replies (2)69
u/Beautiful-Mission-31 May 04 '23
That is what they are getting at, but the execution is very very poor
→ More replies (2)42
u/IsRude May 04 '23
The word "finally" before "leads" would have made it less ridiculous.
→ More replies (1)26
u/Omagga May 04 '23
It's the Associated Press, that's their job.
You rather "Cillian 'Slay Me Daddy' Murphy Finally Leads in Nolan's Fucktabulous Epic 'Oppenheimer' and It WILL Make You CUM"? Because what we really need these days is more clickbait
18
u/sicklyslick May 04 '23
redditors: internet is full of garbage clickbait AI generated crap news headlines!
AP: factual and simple title.
redditors: this headline is dumb as shit
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)4
35
→ More replies (12)16
u/MegaMarioSonic May 04 '23
It's APNews. Honestly i appreciate it doesn't say "you won't believe who is the lead for Oppenheimer, the answer will make you blow you're fucking brains OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT
42
14
u/jonsbryhill May 04 '23
i’m really wondering about what the movie will be like. it certainly can’t contain the usual high octane nolan action sequences, i feel like it’s gonna be 90% dialogue and i’m curious to see if he can pull that off.
→ More replies (4)12
24
55
May 04 '23
I’m still kinda surprised both Barbie and Oppenheimer are coming out on the same day. I thought one of them would budge and move back a week or two
18
u/u2aerofan May 04 '23
Counter programming is highly profitable as a practice. Plus the whole internet is full of “seeing both/double feature” comments. It will be an insanely profitable weekend.
3
u/willstr1 May 04 '23 edited May 04 '23
Exactly, the general audiences will be different enough (I expect along some solid gender lines in middle America) and the people who will want to see both will mostly be us movie nerds who have no problem with a double feature or going to the theater twice in one weekend.
60
u/caninehere May 04 '23
They probably figure the audiences are different enough.
But as someone who will eventually see both I'm definitely picking Barbie over this first.
33
u/bomkum May 04 '23
As if Cillian Murphy isn’t also a complete doll hehe. I’ll be watching both the same weekend most likely!
5
May 04 '23
Both of them come out a couple days after my birthday, so I'm thinking of just getting my friends and seeing Oppenheimer in the afternoon, getting dinner at a nice restaurant, and seeing Barbie in the evening to celebrate. Also thinking of making us dress up in theme, with suits for Oppenheimer and all pink and Hawaiian shirts for Barbie.
3
u/LynchMaleIdeal May 05 '23
I feel like ‘Barbie’ is more of the fun afternoon flick and ‘Oppenheimer’ is the late night epic - but that sounds like a great plan!
→ More replies (4)8
→ More replies (1)8
u/running-tiger May 04 '23
Warner Bros. is releasing Barbie, and the studio and Nolan seemed to have a bit of a falling out after Tenet. Maybe one of them is looking for a bit of petty revenge (don't know which release date was set first)
9
u/ChamBruh May 04 '23
Man gets tasked with creating bomb. Gets shocked when bomb gets used in exact intended way
28
187
u/OneManFreakShow May 04 '23
As Nolan said last week in Las Vegas, “Like it or not J. Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived.”
Well that’s a ridiculous statement.
306
u/mikeyfreshh May 04 '23
I mean it's true. Nuclear weapons fundamentally changed the planet and shaped the last 80 years of history in a more profound way than literally any other invention
75
u/KnotSoSalty May 04 '23
Oppenheimer was important to the Manhattan project but nuclear weapons would have been developed one way or another. Einstein, Szilard, or Fermi all undoubtedly played more key roles. Had any of them died young the bomb would have been delayed for years. Had Oppenheimer not joined the project there were other candidates; Lawrence or Fermi for example who could have done the same job if not as well.
He is important and fascinating but not the most important.
Klaus Fuchs could arguably be called the most important man of the century except for Hitler. He made key discoveries, some of which are still classified. The information he passed to Russia accelerated the Russian bomb program and defined the Cold War.
→ More replies (6)16
u/Preserved_Killick8 May 04 '23
Gonna have to disagree with Einstein there, other than maybe a general advancement of science type perspective. But if you’re gonna go down that road then why not Newton?
As I recall it took the Roosevelt administration a couple of years following the letter to actually order work in earnest on the bomb, and I believe that was only after the US had entered the war and the British supplied some more tangible proof that it was feasible in the form of the MAUD report. This is my amateur opinion but it seems like if Einstein never wrote his letter the bomb may have been delayed a few months? If that.
→ More replies (2)33
u/AWizard13 May 04 '23
Counterpoint: Napoleon Bonaparte existed. Not an invention, but a person who had a massive butterfly effect on the two centuries after him. What he did would lead to the cause of World War I, which led to World War II, which led to everything now.
Also, Napoleon is probably not the most important person in history either. Because he was caused by the other events that preceded him: French revolution, American revolution, the seven years war. I mean that's also primarily Europe focused. Tons of shit happened before and elsewhere and everything folds into the next thing which folds into the next.
Honestly one of the most significant people ever, who you could probably say who could take the title of most important ever is Gutenberg with the printing press... but of course there was wood lock printing in China and Korea.
10
u/Basic_Loquat_9344 May 04 '23
Maybe the lesson is the people are not as important as the ideas and the movements, which would likely find new hosts to exert their will if these people never existed.
→ More replies (1)84
u/hrgilbert May 04 '23
Well he didn’t say the most important person of the last 80 years, he said of all time, which is a much bigger claim.
And even that is debatable.
45
u/Brown_Panther- May 04 '23
And Openheimer didn't singlehandedly create the bomb. He was the leader of Manhattan Project and worked collectively with other scientists to make it work. Why should only one person get the sole credit for it?
→ More replies (2)11
u/hrgilbert May 04 '23
Good point. I'd personally argue that the internet has had a far bigger impact on the world than nuclear weapons has. I'd argue the same about smart phones and social media as well.
133
May 04 '23
[deleted]
107
u/ndnbolla May 04 '23
What about the Big Bang, if that didn't happen, there would be no nothing.
144
u/crazyguyunderthedesk May 04 '23
Young Sheldon is the most important person in the history of the big bang theory.
18
41
u/TonyWonderslostnut May 04 '23
In a thread about the most important person in history
Comments about the Big Bang, implying it was caused by a person
Accidentally makes the case for God on Reddit.
→ More replies (1)11
→ More replies (4)22
5
u/OneManFreakShow May 04 '23 edited May 04 '23
It’s not true. The last 80 years is not “ever” and even then I would say that’s wrong.
→ More replies (35)3
22
6
5
55
u/LuchoSabeIngles May 04 '23
Jesus Christ has entered the chat
→ More replies (2)29
u/Dear-Bandicoot7087 May 04 '23 edited May 04 '23
This is ultimately the correct answer. Even I think Jesus is the most important person in history, and I’m an atheist.
→ More replies (10)55
18
u/GoBSAGo May 04 '23
Al Gore invented the internet. Checkmate, Nolan.
15
u/cthd33 May 04 '23
That will be Nolan's next movie.
14
→ More replies (15)3
u/saluksic May 04 '23
That’s a tricky award to hand out. Jesus/Mohammed/Buddha? Genghis Khan/Hitler/Napoleon? Borlaug/Wright Bros/Edison? Who?
→ More replies (1)
5
4
6
3
3
8
u/ValentinBang May 04 '23
Here comes the hype train. Hope it isn't as inert and pompous and Nolan's other works!
5
u/Ian_Favreau May 04 '23
Can’t wait for the next Nolan flick: Top Hat Monkey Goes West
→ More replies (2)
2.1k
u/Affectionate_Sleep31 May 04 '23
Barbie, Dune, Openheimer all coming out in one year.
I'm SEATED!