Nolan’s Hat Problem

That hat. I need to talk about the hat for a short period of time. The porkpie hat which Cillian Murphy wears throughout Oppenheimer appears grayish-taupe under different lighting conditions. The camera work by Hoyte van Hoytema appears deliberate in his depiction of the hat. Too intentional. The brim never moves. Never. Even when the Trinity blast sends shockwaves through the desert. Which, fine.

The atomic anxiety epic that Nolan created through his filmmaking exceeds all expectations in its achievement. Murphy creates an extraordinary scene through his hollowed cheekbones and his watery blue eyes which Ellen Mirojnick pairs with powder-blue shirts throughout the film. The entire story emerges from the costumes. When Oppie's at Los Alamos, suddenly he's in whipcord fabric, playing sheriff of his nuclear town. The visual language dedicates itself completely to Western parallelism until you realize how clearly it is presented.

"I am become Death, destroyer of worlds" gets delivered mid-coitus, which is a choice. A weird one. Actually, wait. The more I think about it, the weirder it gets. Florence Pugh's there for maybe twelve minutes total, mostly naked, playing the depressed communist mistress while Emily Blunt drinks her way through playing the alcoholic wife. Neither gets to be a full person. The film runs three hours and somehow can't spare five minutes to let these women exist beyond their relationship to Murphy's tortured genius routine.

But those conference room scenes. Van Hoytema and Nolan crammed their massive cameras into this tiny space with six actors sweating under prosthetics and somehow made bureaucratic hearings feel claustrophobic in the right way. The black-and-white sequences marking Robert Downey Jr.'s perspective should feel gimmicky but Downey's so venomous as Lewis Strauss that you forgive it. Almost.

The Trinity sequence stands as the most memorable part of the entire experience. Scientists dragging lawn chairs into the desert, slathering on sunscreen to watch their apocalypse test. Matt Damon asking about the chances of igniting the atmosphere and Murphy responding "near zero" with this perfect non-comfort. The whole thing lands weird. Nolan uses practical effects instead of CGI to create his scenes which include close-up footage of magnesium experiments that produce a spine-chilling effect when the explosion occurs. Mirojnick used bright reds and yellows and greens to dress the audience in the auditorium scene which made Oppie's mental collapse appear authentic. Color doing the narrative work again.

Murphy carries this thing. His absence would reveal how Nolan uses historical names as subtle clues throughout the story ("What's this place called?" "The text presents two main points about Los Alamos and scientists who introduce themselves through Wikipedia-like content. His stage presence creates a dual impact through his intense performance and total mental collapse which maintains audience attention throughout the entire production despite the poor script. Which it does. Frequently.