#i feel like a party pooper

[nitrateglow]

Scattered thoughts on Oppenheimer (2023)

First, Cillian Murphy is INSANELY good as the titular character. There's a Shakespearean ambiance to the way he plays the part: he's arrogant and flawed, but also conflicted about his role in the creation of a weapon that might destroy the world. Every single moment felt so genuine.

That's not to say the rest of the cast was lacking. With the exception of a weirdly hammy Gary Oldman as President Truman, everyone was fantastic, with RDJ as the standout. My only disappointment is that Florence Pugh and Emily Blunt didn't get much to do. Their relationships with Oppenheimer aren't quite as developed as I would have liked. They're both good with what screentime they have at least, particularly Blunt.

The visuals are spectacular-- not just the explosive stuff but also the way Christopher Nolan uses shallow focus during some of the more psychologically intense scenes. I'm thinking of the scene where Oppenheimer tries giving a speech after the bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: it's like he's trying to rouse his patriotism, but the horror of what's been unleashed prevents him from sharing in the communal joy around him.

However, there were a few things I didn't like. First, the score. It was fine in and of itself, but I hated how relentless it was. A lot of the scenes involve people talking and the score just pounds away beneath all of it, even when the scene itself is lowkey. Nolan almost NEVER lets the scene just play out without the music. It drove me nuts.

Red Letter Media's review of Oppenheimer discussed that too, and they made a little parody trailer of 12 Angry Men with that annoying ass music under it just to show how out of place it is:

Second, while I was glad the movie never dragged, it also felt like all the action was playing in fast-forward-- like I was watching a clip show from the middle of a long-running TV show. The movie never takes time to breathe.

Also, if you aren't intimate with the history being portrayed, the action can be a little tough to follow. I read the basics on Oppenheimer's life yesterday and I think if I hadn't, I would have been confused at points.

Overall, this is a pretty good biopic, well-acted and beautifully shot. I'm sure it will snag some Oscars. However, I did think it fell short of being a great movie and tbh that might be the result of the pre-release hype for me.

7.5/10

[sanity-is-for-the-sane]

I need to move further into the woods.. the neighbours are partying again. It wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t partying like SpongeBob in Jellyfish Jam. The walls are literally pulsing from their base and there is no escape. 😩

[indigo-greer-collins]

spoilers(?) about the recent caller audio. cw: mentions of death, survivors guilt, angst. depictions of panic and more

i might be ruining the angst here but i don’t think the date was even in the right headspace to be genuinely upset at sweetie or start blaming them for what was going on. he sounded frantic and terrified, on the verge of tears.

his mind probably wasn’t thinking very rationally. he didn’t have the time to brew in any kind of anger towards sweetie, he just wanted to be let out the bathroom 😭everything about the situation just kept getting weirder as his mind and body caught up to the fact he was actually in grave danger

as the life left him he was probably thinking things along the lines of

“oh my god this is it”

“i’m never gonna get to see my family or friends again”

“what is happening right now”

“i thought i had more time”

he was probably witnessing his life flash before his eyes. just throwing whatever little life and strength he had left to that instinct of trying to survive

and then he didn’t, survive

so! now sweetie bears all that resentment, and guilt and horror, and regret instead. he didn’t get the chance to think that it was all sweetie’s fault

but sweetie does! so! i think it’s still angsty?

[vaguely-concerned]

ah. ok. so from what I'm seeing from some shadow of the erdtree spoilers, fromsoft has doubled down on some incredibly troubling tropes that were already present in the main game and that they really should know better than to employ this way. there's some really ugly history attached to the themes and ideas they're presenting here, and playing it this straight is both irresponsible and annoying. disappointing at best, objectively not funny.

the fact that they decided to publish this dlc during pride month, though? fucking hysterical

[alldragonsaregood]

your boops arent turned on so...

boopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboop

Alas, we are a sideblog, and I’m not seeing a setting to allow booping here

Anyways, Dragons don’t “boop”, we HAROMPH!!!

[isablooo]

every time i blink theyre doing another terrible adaptation of a gothic novel will i ever be free

[valictini]

What i find funny about my post about Etoiles' obsession with saying that the codes who attacked the eggs were from the Feds is that... so many ppl seem to romantize the shit out of Etoiles on this issue.

It's awesome to read these takes, it ticks all the boxes for a very good story... but I really don't see it that way lmao

Like, all the analysises I read seem to hinge on the assumption that this obstination is a rp thing, but I'm pretty sure that this is a cc!Etoiles thing.

He's just convinced he's right, despite all the clues, 1) because lbr, he's not the most attentive when given instructions/clues and consistently gets things wrong because he just rushes when reading stuff... and 2) because he reads a lot of dumbass takes in his chat, which means that nowadays he just assumes his chat is wrong or writing fanfictions whenever they try to argue about this specific theory lmao

Also, I think he lets himself be stubborn about it because, ultimately, even if he's wrong? it doesn't really change anything. He already knows the resistance is shady.

Learning that they attacked the eggs in the past won't stop him from still working with them and won't change the fact that the second the resistance fucks up, he's out. He'd be surprised and disapointed to be wrong but yeah, he'd shrug it off easily.

He really doesn't have an unwavering loyalty towards the code at all. He just loves them because they've been fun to fight and have given him a good challenge.

Sure, he'd love to have 100% trust towards them, and he does feel a warrior's bond with them. He was DELIGHTED when he got the confirmation that they were working against the Feds... but he also knows they're just tools. Tools that obey to their weilder. So if the weilder is bad, the code will be bad. And he doesn't mind that! He understands that the codes are all different!

I think his only concern is to make sure that they never completely fall into bad hands, and for now, he'd rather the resistance (gray area) have them than the feds (confirmed bad guys).

Again, so fun to see everyone giving him the "lonely misunderstood warrior clinging to someone who's Like Him" treatment... but i can't help thinking that it's not that deep.

Idk, maybe I'm being too meta about it, maybe etoiles is actually cooking up a codetoiles slow burn lmao

[baby-xemnas]

I don’t know how but it clicked for me when looking at your art— bepo first appeared in the comics like two weeks before the official premiere of kung fu panda, and im willing to bet a million to one that Oda saw a kung fu panda promo and decided to put that in somewhere. he’s literally a kung fu polar bear 😭

its believable since he is known for saying that he came up with supernovas in one evening, law included

[f1cha0s]

Now seriously guys it’s almost worrying how many news outlets put out the story about the fernando/taylor thing but as if it was an actual rumor like it was based on something without even mentioning that it was a joke that started on twitter. 😵‍💫 makes you think about how many bullshit articles are out there that people take as facts just because a “respectable” news outlet put it out

[underscore-jude]

i take back any and all narrative critiques i had of firebringer when i was a bougie 14 year old thinking i knew my shit. this is par for the course in terms of starkid's narrative cohesiveness and the chorn twist is the funniest fucking thing ive ever seen

[loving-delusions]

gonna do some big boy college student stuff tmrw. wish me luck...

(theres gonna be venting in the tags as always......)

[urdeadbestfriend]

ok pros and cons time. i got invited to a nye thing that would be a couple of close friends + some of their sort-of friends that i also know and have hung out with before (and don't really like). but there's no concrete plans, the most likely idea is going into the city for fireworks but that would be so crowded and kind of a hassle with 10 people especially bc where are we going to get reservations on such sort notice. and also the past few times i've hung out with my close friends it's suuuuucked and i end up leaving early. but also i don't want them to think i'm avoiding them AND if i don't see them now there's a good chance we won't all be free for at least 6 months. and i kind of have nothing going on for the next couple weeks anyway and will be spending a lot of time alone at my place (not necessarily a bad thing) so do i suck it up and maybe have a bad time in order to spend time with them while i can (if i don’t go i’ll just be vegging at home)... keep in mind there will be vodka involved so that will make things much better or MUCH worse.

[stormyoceans]

I NEED THIS STAPLED ON THE INSIDE OF MY EYELIDS AND TATTOOED ON MY BODY AND CARVED INTO MY HEART AND SEARED ONTO MY SOUL AND INJECTED DIRECTLY INTO MY BLOODSTREAM. AND ALSO HANGING ON EVERY SINGLE WALL OF MY APARTMENT

[ehszter]

just what i needed thank you

[loderlied]

i haven’t seen them as often but y’know what jokes about gort i also hate besides the making fun of him being middle aged ones. the “he’s so dumb” ones. like it’s. it’s like making ginger jokes about a character who’s fucking blonde lmao. he’s one of the smartest important characters stats wise if we exclude a possible tav/durge. it’s truly like. are we seeing the same enver gortash here. mechanical genius since birth politician/inventor enver gortash.

(not talking about gameplay related jokes like stacking explosive barrels around him. i mean about his actual character.)

[clevervonskelli]

Okay, so hear me out:

The showrunners have made this the Buck & Bucky Show and made all the changes or narrative choices with the result of (at times, purposefully) sacrificing both authenticity and storytelling for a guaranteed, uber-shippable pair who will compensate for any criticism against the show by drawing in a solid number of people interested in watching the two gorgeous leads make eyes at and sacrifice for each other. That's why they're purposefully going with (what looks like it's going to be) a very typical "I'll stall, you go, save yourself!!" situation compared to the boring truth* of one of them being put in charge of security on the march.

*Lies!! IMO there is SO MUCH nuance to Egan being unable to run away from the march with Cleven simply bc he had the responsibility of military order and leadership to deal with.