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Oppenheimer (2023)
Good. But not great.
Oppenheimer, from Christopher Nolan, is a good movie. Why? Because despite its three-hours runtime, I never felt bored. The visuals are impressive, with much less Nolanesque mannerisms from the director of Tenet than I feared. The story is nothing less than thought-provoking. One time the film made me shiver: What if Oppenheimer and his fellow scientists would have accomplished their work three months faster? Would I even exist? And the perspective that Nolan takes is laudable: this is a film about America's inner conflicts and contradictions as much as it is about an American hero.
Is Oppenheimer also a great movie? No, I don't think so. The main reason is that Mister Nolan is not an "actor director", but one who is intrigued by the story he tells and by the way he tells it. This doesn't matter much for "story movies" such as Memento (which I adore) and Inception (which I enjoyed big time).
But it matters when he's telling us about a person -- a human being who is much more than the events which he has experienced during his lifetime. If Mister Nolan would be an "actor director", he had told Robert Downey to stop grimassing and to act instead: This is not a Marvel flick, dear Robert, an "actor director" would have kindly said. An "actor director" doesn't care for stars, but cares for actors. In Oppenheimer (the movie), the audience buzzed when Matt Damon entered the scene -- because he was Matt Damon the movie star, not the general he was supposed to portrait.
But probably of utmost importance, if Mister Nolan would be an "actor director", I might have learned to know Robert Oppenheimer and maybe would have even felt with him, and for him. I might have understood his perception of the world around him. The way Oppenheimer (the movie) presented the genius's math-based view instead reminded me of the populist way Ron Howard once used to portrait the economist John Nash in a "Beautiful Mind". Instead, I have to confess that I don't think that I understand and feel close to Mister Oppenheimer after the three hours I spent with him yesterday.
In essence, that's why Oppenheimer (the movie) is a good one, but not one that I will remember vividly.
Love Actually (2003)
Plain wonderful
Love Actually is nothing less than a small, wonderful, uplifting motion picture. Undisputedly, there are formulas everywhere around us, but this movie does some remarkable things with them. I found an honesty in this movie that is very rare in movie theaters these days, and I am still in a great mood, even two days after having been to the theater. And, besides, is a world where the British prime minister resembles Hugh Grant not worth a try? Go and see this genre gem!
THT
Tatort: Taxi nach Leipzig (1970)
A true classic
This is a real classic and, at least in its category as a made-for-tv movie, nothing less than a masterpiece. The film was the first one of numerous full-length episodes of the still-running tv-series "Tatort". Set in Leipzig, by that time a metropolis of East Germany, the film tells the story of a cop from Hamburg (West Germany) who mostly off-duty follows the tracks of a kid that died near the Autobahn at Leipzig. It is not the thriller elements that keep the viewer attentive and interested, but the people in the film and the way there story is told. No character clichés, excellent acting, good camera-work - and, not to be forgotten, a fascinating clash of two Germany cultures. It's a quite one, but far above the average of tv-movie making. A proficient film and a time document at the same time.