Honestly? Recency bias might be the only thing keeping Oppenheimer this low on the list. The movie is, and I don’t use this term lightly, masterful. Nolan’s portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father” of the atomic bomb, is as illuminating and visually stunning as it is haunting.
Cillian Murphy anchors the movie with the ability that Nolan has always trusted him to have, but the movie’s supporting cast, which includes turns from Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett, and Rami Malek, among countless others, allow the film to round into what is without a doubt one of the greatest biopics ever made. It’s hard for us to put anything ahead of the likes of Inception and The Dark Knight just because those are movies that feel like they anchor the modern film canon. But Oppenheimer could end up #1 on this list in the future.
