Film Review: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

Few blockbusters have borne so heavy a burden of audience expectation as Christopher Nolan’s final Batman caper, and the filmmaker steps up to the occasion with a cataclysmic vision of Gotham City under siege in “The Dark Knight Rises.” Running an exhilarating, exhausting 164 minutes, Nolan’s trilogy-capping epic sends Batman to a literal pit of despair, restoring him to the core of a legend that questions, and powerfully affirms, the need for heroism in a fallen world. If it never quite matches the brilliance of 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” this hugely ambitious action-drama nonetheless retains the moral urgency and serious-minded pulp instincts that have made the Warners franchise a beacon of integrity in an increasingly comicbook-driven Hollywood universe. Global B.O. domination awaits.

Even without the bonus of 3D, a technology Nolan has resolutely avoided while continuing to shoot in 35mm and 70mm, “The Dark Knight Rises” should continue the writer-director’s commercial hot streak following “The Dark Knight” and “Inception.” Pic’s B.O. reign will be sustained in part by repeat attendance and Imax ticket premiums; 72 minutes of the film (roughly 40%) were lensed using super-high-res Imax cameras, representing the most extensive and sophisticated use of the giantscreen format in a studio picture.

Once again writing with his brother Jonathan from a tale conceived with David S. Goyer, Nolan has more story obligations than usual this time around. The result is a nearly three-hour yarn that draws on key plot points from “The Dark Knight” before bringing the trilogy full circle, back to the origin story of “Batman Begins,” even as it ushers in a motley crew of villains and allies (not always easy to tell apart) inspired by Bob Kane’s original comics, and pushes the citizens of Gotham into new realms of terror and mayhem.

Initially, at least, the city is enjoying a period of relative peace eight years after the disappearance of the outlawed vigilante known as Batman, presumed responsible for the death of beloved law-and-order figurehead Harvey Dent. Yet the deception continues to weigh heavily on Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Bruce Wayne himself (Christian Bale), now a shut-in who spends his nights slinking, Hamlet-like, about the parapets of Wayne Manor.

While the ever-loyal Alfred (Michael Caine) supplies one of the series’ emotional high points with a tender expression of love and concern for the man he’s known since boyhood, it takes the intervention of several new characters for Wayne to return to public life. Two formidable women court his attentions: first Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), who’s spearheading an important clean-energy initiative, then Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a wily cat burglar who skillfully robs the billionaire playboy, and later has the nerve to upbraid him for his obscene fortune. There’s also John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a smart young cop who clings to his belief in Batman’s goodness, and turns out to share some of Wayne’s childhood traumas.

Yet the figure who decisively triggers Batman’s re-emergence is Bane (Tom Hardy), a vicious mercenary introduced seizing control of an aircraft mid-flight in a bravura opening sequence (Hans Bjerno handled the stunning aerial photography). Wearing a steel-trap-like gas mask to neutralize the pain of unspeakable wounds, this bald, hulking brute is a former member of the League of Shadows, the same “gang of psychopaths” that gave Wayne his own basic training. For this reason, Bane is also the franchise’s first major villain who turns out to be a physical match for Batman, something made brutally apparent in a pummeling scene of hand-to-hand, mask-to-mask combat.

The heavy artillery comes out just after the halfway point as Bane’s men take advantage of a well-attended football game to turn Gotham into a terrorist stronghold. There’s nothing particularly ingenious about their scheme (call it the Bane-ality of evil), which confronts audiences with the now-familiar spectacle of a city’s apocalyptic destruction. Yet it’s typical of Nolan’s approach that his evocation of mass chaos feels so trenchantly detailed, so attuned to the crisis’ human toll as glimpsed in the terrified faces of civilian onlookers.

As d.p. Wally Pfister’s camera scans the war-torn island metropolis, viewers see not just buildings but social structures collapsing; anarchy ensues as prisoners are released en masse, and various legal, political and financial chieftains are made to answer for their alleged crimes against the underclass. All in all, the picture impressively conveys a seething vision of urban anxiety that speaks to such issues as the greed and complacency of the 1%, the criminal neglect of the poor and oppressed, and above all the unsettling sense that no one and nothing is safe.

Nolan’s previous Batman picture tapped into a similar vein of post-9/11 distress. Yet while “The Dark Knight Rises” raises the dramatic stakes considerably, at least in terms of its potential body count, it doesn’t have its predecessor’s breathless sense of menace or its demonic showmanship, and with the exception of one audacious sleight-of-hand twist, the story can at times seem more complicated than intricate, especially in its reliance on portentous exposition and geographically far-flung flashbacks.

Perhaps inevitably, one also feels the absence of a villain as indelible as Heath Ledger’s Joker, although Hardy does make Bane a creature of distinct malevolence with his baroque speech patterns and rumbling bass tones, provoking a sort of lower-register duet when pitted against Batman’s own voice-distorted growl (the sound mix rendered their dialogue mostly if not entirely intelligible at the screening attended).

In a more gratifying development, the film reasserts the primacy of its title character and the general excellence of Bale’s performance, forcing Wayne to reckon once and for all with the alter ego he’s fashioned for himself and Gotham in the name of justice. If the point is that only a state of total desperation can push a person to greatness, Nolan movingly acknowledges the limits of lone-ranger justice, as Selina, Miranda, Gordon, Blake and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Wayne’s old friend and gadgets expert, come to play crucial and sometimes unexpected roles in the twisty drama.

Hardy, Gordon-Levitt and Cotillard, recruited for duty after their stints in “Inception,” are all on their game here, blending easily in a supporting cast anchored by old pros Caine, Oldman and Freeman. Perhaps the riskiest casting choice was that of Hathaway in the potentially problematic role of Selina/Catwoman, but although her kitty outfit reps a slightly more cartoonish touch than Nolan’s neo-noir aesthetic typically allows (if nowhere near as campy as those worn by Halle Berry and Michelle Pfeiffer), the versatile actress nails the sardonic, hard-edged tone necessary to make this morally ambiguous vixen a dynamic foil for the Caped Crusader.

Production designers Nathan Crowley and Kevin Kavanaugh opt for a grittier, more working-class Gotham this time around, a fully inhabited city of rundown street corners, public-works offices, bombed-out bridges and fetid sewers. While Chicago served as a recognizable template in the earlier two pictures, the exterior city shots here were achieved in New York, Pittsburgh and especially Los Angeles, whose downtown serves as the backdrop for a thrilling Michael Mann-style street chase marked by the appearance of Wayne’s latest vessel, a jet-helicopter hybrid known simply as the Bat.

Lee Smith’s editing maintains tautness and energy over the estimable running time, and Hans Zimmer adds a few ivory-tickling grace notes to his magnificently brooding score, still one of the most striking and definitive elements of this altogether exemplary studio franchise.

Michael Shannon Admits Reprising Zod in ‘The Flash’ Wasn’t ‘Satisfying’: ‘These Multiverse Movies Are Like Somebody Playing With Action Figures’

Michael Shannon has previously revealed that he was “a little confused” when he received the offer to join “The Flash” in a reprisal of his role of General Zod from “Man of Steel.” Now, the actor has revealed that those complicated feelings weren’t exactly resolved while making the new DC film.

In a new interview with Collider, Shannon got honest about the multiverse-traversing premise of “The Flash” and his own dissatisfaction with Zod’s arc in the film.

“I’m not going to lie — it wasn’t quite satisfying for me, as an actor. These multiverse movies are like somebody playing with action figures,” Shannon said. “It’s like, ‘Here’s this person. Here’s that person. And they’re fighting!’ It’s not quite the in-depth character study situation that I honestly felt ‘Man of Steel’ was.”

Shannon shared that he felt that “The Flash” was “all about Ezra [Miller].” Zod was “basically there to present a challenge” to the film’s star.

“I just think Ezra is a fascinating performer and actor. I can’t wait to see this performance,” said Shannon. “It’s a huge challenge. I don’t want to give anything away, but what Ezra has to do in this movie is pretty crazy. I think [they’re] up for the task.”

After Shannon’s initial confusion about being offered to join “The Flash” — after all, his character’s neck is snapped by Superman in “Man of Steel” — the actor made it a priority to get Zack Snyder’s blessing to return to play Zod. Snyder directed Shannon in “Man of Steel” which kicked off his own DC Universe.

“I was hesitant [to come back] because I wasn’t really happy about what happened to Zack Snyder in that whole deal,” said Shannon. “I talked to [‘The Flash’ director] Andy Muschietti about it, and I said, ‘Andy, look — I just want to get Zack’s blessing on this because it just doesn’t feel right without that.’ And Zack, to his credit, was very understanding. He gave me his blessing, and I went to do it.”

“The Flash” debuts in theaters on Friday.

The Original ‘Oppenheimer’: How the BBC Brought the Father of the Atom Bomb to Life Long Before Christopher Nolan (EXCLUSIVE)

Decades before Christopher Nolan set his sights on a movie about J. Robert Oppenheimer, a science-obsessed BBC executive ventured to America in 1979 to make a $1.5 million TV show about the father of the atom bomb.

Peter Goodchild began his career at the BBC in radio drama, but eventually migrated to the storied “Horizon” science unit to put his chemistry degree to some use. The division began experimenting with factual dramas in the 1970s, and after delivering a hit series on French-Polish physicist Marie Curie, Goodchild set his sights on the New York-born Oppenheimer.

“I’d seen a play on J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Hampstead Theatre Club way back in 1966,” the 83-year-old tells Variety from his home in Exeter, southwest England, where his Zoom background reveals a room teeming with books on heaving shelves.

“It was an amazing story, and I’d always wanted to do it,” Goodchild continues. “Someone suddenly presented me with a book about Oppenheimer and his relationship with one of his other scientific colleagues, which was an excellent story. I said, ‘I’d love to take it further.’ And we did.”

Goodchild’s seven-part 1980 BBC series “Oppenheimer” — with the physicist played by 40-year-old Sam Waterston, just years away from his Oscar-nominated performance for “The Killing Fields” — received seven BAFTA nominations and took home three golden masks, including best drama series. The show, which was co-produced with WGBH Boston (which contributed just $100,000), also picked up a Golden Globe nod for Waterston along with two Primetime Emmy nominations.

Viewed through a contemporary lens, “Oppenheimer” is astonishing. A BBC-produced series telling an American story, featuring a predominantly American cast? It simply would never happen now. The broadcaster’s ongoing fight to justify its license fee-based funding model — in which every BBC-watching household in the U.K. pays £159 ($204) a year to fund its content — means that most original dramas on the Beeb have a distinctly British flavor.

But back then, “the sheer volume of drama that was happening was extraordinary,” explains Ruth Caleb, then a plucky line producer on “Oppenheimer.” “It went beyond the insular; it was much more outward-looking.” BBC drama still is, in some ways, she hastens to add. “But for different reasons that are often commercial reasons. Back then, they were creative reasons.”

“When Peter put up ‘Oppenheimer’ as an idea, it was clearly an important subject matter, because it’s not just about the country we live in, but about the world that we live in,” says Caleb, who is still producing films and scripted series under her own banner. “I think they trusted that Peter would come up with something pretty special.”

The BBC’s “Oppenheimer” production in Colorado Springs. (Photo courtesy of Ruth Caleb)

“Oppenheimer” introduces the nuclear physicist during his time with the University of Berkeley physics department — a halcyon period for the listless scientist, who surrounded himself with card-carrying Communists (though never fully subscribed himself) and carried on with the troubled Jean Tatlock while falling for Kitty Puening, a married woman.

The bulk of its seven hours focused on the formation of the Manhattan Project and the Los Alamos settlement in New Mexico, with special attention paid to Oppenheimer’s tumultuous relationship with General Leslie Groves and other scientists such as Edward Teller (played by “Poirot” star David Suchet). A masterful depiction of the Trinity test in Episode 5 used archival material to convey the actual blast, but also relied on a huge, arid Colorado Springs set. The final two episodes focused on Oppenheimer’s post-war troubles, and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission hearing that stripped him of his security clearance, effectively severing his ties to U.S. government.

While much had been written by the late 1970s about Oppenheimer, who died of throat cancer in 1967, Goodchild and screenwriter Peter Prince spent a month in America researching the scientist. In addition to meeting a number of his academic peers — “They were happy to talk and talk!” says Goodchild — the duo also located Oppenheimer’s son Peter, his brother Frank and sister-in-law. (Kitty had died a few years prior, in 1972, while his daughter Toni died by suicide in 1977.)

“We got very, very strong images from his brother,” says Goodchild. “And then we went one Sunday morning to meet Peter. But when we arrived, he wasn’t there. Someone said he’s gone, but that he has these moods and may feel differently in an hour.”

So, Goodchild and Prince “hung out and wandered about” until he returned. “And he turned up,” the producer exclaims. “He wouldn’t let us in the house. He talked in a very—” Goodchild falters. “It was obvious life has not been straightforward for him.”

J. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves in 1945.

When the team began casting, they hired U.K.-based American actors, which helped to save money. A lead, however, proved elusive. All sorts of ideas were thrown at the wall — at one point, even “Psycho” star Anthony Perkins was in the mix — until Caleb suggested Waterston, who would need to be flown in from the U.S. where he’d been shooting a movie in Wisconsin.

“He was a dreamboat,” says Caleb. “Just the loveliest guy.”

Adds Goodchild: “I think we were paying him £1,200 a program. He liked the scripts, and said, ‘Yes, I’ll do it’ … We put him up in a house in Chelsea, which was around £1,200 a month, which seemed astronomical to us.” (Calculating for inflation, that’s roughly £6,500 per month.)

Waterston was worth the eye-watering Chelsea rent. His casting was considered to be a masterstroke due to his complex, unsentimental portrayal of Oppenheimer. One Manhattan Project scientist even remarked at the time that Waterston was “more Oppenheimer than Oppenheimer ever was.”

“My abiding memory of the production is how nice Sam Waterston was to work with,” screenwriter Peter Prince tells Variety over an email. “I re-watched a couple of episodes to refresh my memory and was reminded again how good Sam was as the actor: he was the complex Oppenheimer — charming, conflicted and driven.”

The show filmed between a studio in the U.K. for interior shots, and in Colorado Springs, where the Los Alamos project was constructed along with the vast tower that housed the atom bomb (pictured). “Everyone [tried] to be as authentic and near the actuality as possible,” says Caleb, who always had one eye on the $1.5 million budget — the equivalent of around $5.5 million today.

“When we were setting up Trinity, we hired this guy to make the bomb. And I knew that when we film, what you see in it is not the detail. But he did that bomb, which was hugely expensive, and every single detail of it was accurate — not that you ever saw it,” says Caleb. “I wasn’t pleased, yet he was so delighted that he managed to make this bomb exactly as it was. And all he got from me was a rather sour face saying ‘Yes, but you’ve gone over your budget!’”

Trinity was shot in three parts, with the American shoot completed over four weeks, followed by the studio work — which encompassed several control room scenes — and then other extraneous shots. Goodchild and Caleb detail a “pretty smooth” production that was primarily the work of the show’s gifted late director, Barry Davis, whom they describe as “fearsome” but someone who “knew what he wanted.” They also credit their editor Tariq Anwar, “who was brilliant,” adds Caleb.

Despite the show’s heavy subject matter, the team managed to eke out some fun on set. Toward the end of the shoot, when Suchet wrapped his final scenes as Teller and stepped out of the studio, “they delivered a cream pie into his face,” laughs Caleb. “I can’t remember whether it was Sam or someone else. But that demonstrates the good nature on the production. It was a happy production.”

Yet as one of Hollywood’s most visionary directors returns the A-bomb’s formidable creator to the cultural consciousness, the BBC’s “Oppenheimer” has become a largely forgotten production.

Sam Waterston (left) on the Trinity set.

Goodchild — who used his research to write a book on Oppenheimer that published alongside the series in 1980 — had some interaction with Kai Bird, co-author of the 2005 Oppenheimer biography “American Prometheus” that Nolan’s film is based on. However, neither he nor Caleb were contacted by the “Tenet” director or Universal Studios as the new film came together. In fact, the pair are full of questions about how the movie turned out, and how it compares to the series. “I wonder what attracted [Nolan] to Oppenheimer,” Caleb says.

Goodchild, meanwhile, is shocked to hear the film will open on the same day as Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” “Wow,” he mutters. “I’m going to be very interested to see how well it goes down.”

Though there are 43 years between the TV show and the movie, the similarities in approach to scenes between Oppenheimer and the main players in his orbit are striking, particularly certain conversations between the scientist and Groves and Teller. The BBC series may be of its time — devoid of Ludwig Göransson’s feverish score, Nolan’s propulsive direction and a massive IMAX canvas — and made for around 5% of the movie’s budget in real terms, but in many ways, its narrative structure and use of sub-plots that delve deeper into Oppenheimer’s inner circle make it a more holistic portrait of an unpredictable character.

Caleb at one point asks whether the BBC will bring “Oppenheimer” out of the archives to air alongside the movie hitting cinemas. With an estimated opening of $50 million this weekend and clear public interest, it’s a good question.

But for all its critical success, “Oppenheimer” appears to have been all but lost in the annals of TV history. In the U.K., it’s not even on the BBC’s streaming service iPlayer; instead, it’s available for purchase on Prime Video for around £10. BBC Studios owns the rights to the series, but Variety understands a “complicated” rights situation means the show may not be rerun anytime soon.

Those who do uncover the series, of course, don’t tend to regret it. When Goodchild’s neighbors visited New Mexico several years back, he suggested they visit the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.

“Not only did they do that, but they bought a DVD [of ‘Oppenheimer’] and took it home and watched it,” says Goodchild. “They came back and quite seriously said, ‘That was wonderful.’ After 42 years, it wasn’t something that got thrown at you very often.”

Cillian Murphy’s 10 Best Performances, Ranked: From ‘Peaky Blinders’ to ‘Oppenheimer’

Cillian Murphy quite literally wandered into acting. At the age of 20, he walked up to the door of the Corcadorca Theatre Company in his hometown of Cork, Ireland, and knocked. He told the person who answered that he’d be interested in getting involved in any upcoming shows, and the man suggested he try out for a new play called “Disco Pigs,” about a pair of reckless teenagers. It was Murphy’s first audition, and he got the part.

The Enda Walsh play was a big success, moving to larger and larger theaters and eventually leading to a film adaptation in 2001 from director Kirsten Sheridan. That film caught the eye of filmmaker Danny Boyle, then looking to cast a fresh face for his post-apocalyptic thriller “28 Days Later.”

The rest is history — or history in the making as, 20 years later, Murphy is continuing to seek out bold projects with some of the best filmmakers working today. That includes Christopher Nolan, who first brought Murphy to supervillain stardom in “Batman Begins” and who directs the actor in the titular role in “Oppenheimer,” now in theaters. It’s their sixth collaboration, and Murphy’s biggest role yet, playing the complex physicist and “father of the atomic bomb” over a course of several years and a three-hour runtime. It’s one of Murphy’s finest performances, which is saying a lot.

There isn’t a genre or a medium the actor has shied away from over the years. And while some films might not always work as a whole, Murphy always shines. He’s also a true actor’s actor, one who understands every role is integral and is comfortable taking on supporting parts. Here’s a look at 10 of his best performances from his career on stage, film and television.

This is how most of the world was introduced to Murphy — a pair of impossibly blue eyes fill the screen as his character, a bicycle courier named Jim, awakes from a coma in Danny Boyle’s heralded action epic. He’s been asleep less than a month, but a lot can happen in that time — including the complete collapse of society thanks to a virus called “Rage” that turns its victims into mindless aggressors. (Note that the Z-word is never uttered throughout the film.) It’s a star-making turn for Murphy, only 24 at the time, who not only carries the film but holds his own against such impressive cast members as Brendan Gleeson and Naomie Harris as fellow survivors. Jim is discovering everything at the same time as the viewer, and Murphy makes the perfect audience surrogate, taking everything in with a suitably shocked but level-headed demeanor. He’s not a traditional action hero, and that’s the point: He’s just an ordinary man trying to navigate an entirely new world.

Prior to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, films adapted from comics were a largely uplifting affair full of primary colors and bright locations. It’s easy to forget how much had to go right for “Batman Begins” to succeed, but it started with finding a villain who was as compelling as his nemesis. Though Murphy originally tested for Bruce Wayne/Batman, it was a stroke of genius that Nolan would peg him as Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka Scarecrow. With a charisma that can be both terrifying and seductive (which would become a Murphy speciality in years to come) Crane doesn’t need to showboat he’s the bad guy. Rather, he exudes a calm confidence, taking his time with methodical precision. Even the way he says the word “Batman,” drawing it out into two separate words, is chilling. It was wise of Nolan to include Scarecrow in the film’s two sequels — particularly in “The Dark Knight Rises,” where he pops up as a judge in a kangaroo courtroom with a smirk (“Exile or death?”) that shows he’s enjoying this almost as much as the audience is.

It would be easy to dismiss Wes Craven’s tight thriller — largely set onboard a red-eye flight in which a terrorist threatens a fellow passenger in order to pull off an assassination plot at the hotel she manages — because it’s so damn fun. But it’s also a clever, lean thriller buoyed by two actors toward the beginning of their film careers. Murphy is the perhaps too-aptly named Jackson Rippner while Rachel McAdams is his victim, Lisa Reisert. Part of the brilliance of Carl Ellsworth’s script is how the first few minutes play like a rom-com; two impossibly good-looking people meet cute at the airport and sparks immediately fly. Murphy understands that Rippner can’t telegraph evil — this is a man chosen for the assignment because he has deep resources of charm. They engage in a cat-and-mouse game throughout the flight that is so charged, don’t be surprised if there’s a part of you wondering if these two crazy kids can work it out.

From the beginning of his film career, Murphy refused to be pigeonholed, seeking out unique projects and interesting roles without much of a concern for box office results. The same year he made his supervillain debut in “Batman Begins,” he pivoted by playing Kitten, the transgender heroine searching for love and her birth mother in Neil Jordan’s adaptation of Pat McCabe’s novel. While the casting of a cis man in the role might raise issues today, Murphy’s portrayal is a loving homage to the tenacity and tenderness of the character. Kitten is charming and determined, and Murphy finds a joy in her life even when things take a dark turn. It’s also a chance for Murphy to reunite with some of his previous co-stars, including Gleeson, Stephen Rea and Liam Neeson – forming a powerhouse of Irish performers.

Murphy’s feature film debut is an adaptation of the Enda Walsh play in which he made his theatrical (and acting) debut. Murphy stars as “Pig” and Elaine Cassidy is “Runt,” a pair of teenagers who have been devoted to one another since birth. Pig is all raging id, completely unpredictable and prone to violent outbursts. But Murphy also shows his deep vulnerability and affection for his friend, particularly as their relationship begins to shift away from purely platonic. It’s a stunning debut, and Murphy’s raw talent and potential are on full display. So much so that the film caught the eye of an up-and-coming director named Danny Boyle, who would go on to cast Murphy in his breakout “28 Days Later” role.

Ken Loach is such a perfect fit for Murphy, it’s a shame the two haven’t collaborated on another film since this tale of two war-torn brothers during the Irish War of Independence. Murphy is Damien, a doctor who initially wants no part of the fighting, resigned to the idea that the war is unwinnable. But after witnessing several injustices, he impulsively joins the Irish Republican Army. Murphy portrays the transformation into a radicalized soldier who ultimately sacrifices everything for his cause without ever hitting a false note. It’s a heartbreaking, emotional journey that grounds the film, which went on to win the Palme d’Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and is regarded by many as Loach’s best.

Murphy has always been drawn to the written word, no matter the medium. So after headlining films from the likes of Danny Boyle and Neil Jordan, he made a point to return to the stage and had no qualms about signing up for a television series penned by acclaimed writer Steven Knight (“Dirty Pretty Things,” “Eastern Promises”). The actor is a perfect fit in Knight’s universe of morally compromised men you can’t take your eyes off of. His Tommy Shelby is a war veteran turned leader of the Peaky Blinders criminal organization. His work is all pragmatism: He’s often stoic as he manipulates and calculates. But he’s also haunted — both by what he’s seen in the war and by his deep and abiding love for his late wife Grace. Of course, Murphy is so magnetic, fans of the show often have to be reminded that he is actually a villain. Put aside the mass murder and corruption — I’m still not over him shooting that horse.

After five collaborations with Nolan, the filmmaker finally let Murphy take the lead — and it was worth waiting for. Murphy portrays the rise and fall of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist known as the creator of the atomic bomb. Murphy ricochets through time, portraying Oppenheimer in his young adulthood as a fragile student, his glory heading The Manhattan Project and his later years where he’s fighting the government that once heralded him. These three timelines are usually easy to distinguish from one another, but sometimes they flow together with no obvious way to differentiate –yet Murphy is always precisely where he needs to be. Though Oppenheimer is a mass of contradictions — he can be controlled yet irrational, naïve yet arrogant — he always makes sense through Murphy’s interpretation. He is particularly haunting playing Oppenheimer in his later years: Both physically and spiritually, you feel like you’re watching a man fading away before your eyes.

For this tour-de-force, Murphy went back to where it all began – not only the theater but specifically a play by Enda Walsh, whose “Disco Pigs” set Murphy on his journey as an actor. He plays Thomas Magill (never “Tom”) a loner and fanatic on a mission to cleanse his small Irish town of its sins. Murphy is the only actor on stage for the duration of the play, but this is not a staid affair — he literally bounces off the walls, hurls objects and races back and forth — all as he builds his story to a powerful crescendo. It’s exhausting just to watch, and yet you won’t be able to look away. It was produced by Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival and was filmed at the National Theatre. There are plans to show it on NT at Home. Keep an eye out, as it’s not one to be missed.

When citing Murphy’s collaborations with Nolan, it would make sense to favor “Dunkirk,” in which he offers a harrowing depiction of PTSD as a traumatized solider; or “Oppenheimer,” in which he occupies nearly every frame as the star of the film. But for me, Murphy is the lynchpin in one of Nolan’s best, most ambitious and most emotional masterpieces, the byzantine thriller “Inception.” He plays Robert Michael Fischer, the heir to a business empire whose unresolved daddy issues make him the target of a team of “extractors.” Led by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Dom Cobb, the thieves use dream technology to infiltrate the subconscious of a target to access information. Fischer is a man of few words and Murphy is fantastic at quietly communicating his pain and making you care for a character that is, in many ways, intended to be a cipher. Murphy shows that “best” doesn’t need to mean “most” — both in terms of the size of the role and the acting, delivering a sublime supporting performance that the entire movie rests on. Nolan is often accused (wrongly) of being a cold filmmaker. But the moment where Fischer finds closure with his late father is perhaps the most affecting gut-punch he’s ever delivered, thanks largely to Murphy’s beautiful performance.

Film Review: ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’

Who would win in a fight, Batman or Superman? Could the Flash outrun Superman? Could Superman craft a boulder so heavy even he couldn’t lift it? While “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” ostensibly seeks to tackle the first of those evergreen schoolyard hypotheticals, it’s the third that ends up proving the biggest litmus test for director Zack Snyder. Tasked with colliding the two most archetypal of American superheroes while also answering critics of his last outing, “Man of Steel,” and perhaps most importantly, paving the way for an extended DC Comics universe of films on which much of Warner Bros. future bottom line relies, Snyder has set a Sisyphean task for himself. That this very long, very brooding, often exhilarating and sometimes scattered epic succeeds as often it does therefore has to be seen as an achievement, and worldwide box office should be sufficiently lucrative to ensure future installments proceed on schedule. But amidst all the grueling work of saving the world and shouldering a franchise toward the heights, it would be nice to see these heroes, and this series, take a few more breathers to enjoy the view.

Proving that the placement of names in the title isn’t simply alphabetical, the first few reels of “Batman v Superman” are dominated by the Caped Crusader, with controversial casting Ben Affleck stepping quite comfortably into the role. That the film opens with yet another operatic depiction of the young Bruce Wayne’s most formative trauma is perhaps unavoidable — Thomas and Martha Wayne have been killed so many times in so many different media that their deaths may as well be one of the Stations of the Cross — but our first glimpse of the adult Wayne is hardly standard issue. Taking a civilian-level view of the cataclysmic destruction of Metropolis that ended “Man of Steel” on a contentious note, we watch as Wayne attempts to remotely evacuate his own Metropolitan Wayne Enterprises skyscraper, crippled by a wayward Superman (Henry Cavill) as he battles with General Zod just outside the frame. Despite his mad drive through the battle-torn streets, Wayne arrives just in time to watch, horrified, as a friendly security guard loses his legs and a young girl becomes an orphan.

Setting Wayne up as the film’s initial conscience is one of Snyder’s most interesting gambles, especially as his Batman quickly evolves into the most morally ambiguous iteration of the character yet seen on film. More than willing to shoot, brutalize and kill if the need arises, this Batman is still a figure of mystery in Gotham, and Snyder refrains from showing us the character in full cowl until surprisingly late in the game.

Fortunately, Affleck’s Wayne — here sporting salt-and-pepper temples and all the baggage of a man who, as faithful butler Alfred (Jeremy Irons) notes, “got too old to die young, and not for want of trying” — is a winningly cranky, charismatic presence even when out of costume. Diving headfirst into the sorts of detective work that Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy often short-shrifted, Wayne casts a skeptical eye on Superman while investigating a mysterious underworld figure named White Portuguese, his tracks traced by an equally mysterious woman (Gal Gadot).

Meanwhile, Superman has hardly recovered from the fallout of his chaotic battle with Zod when controversy strikes yet again. Though he’s been welcomed as a savior by most of Metropolis, in the course of rescuing Lois Lane (Amy Adams) from a terrorist interview gone awry, he’s blamed for the deaths of several African villagers. This attracts the scrutiny of the crusading southern Senator Finch (Holly Hunter), who heads up a Congressional Superman Committee, disturbed by the Krypton’s exercise of unilateral power.

She gains an uneasy ally in a cheeky young industrialist named Alexander “Lex” Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg, retaining his Zuckerbergian misanthropy from “The Social Network” and his stringy, Cobainian hair from “American Ultra”), who hopes to seduce her into allowing him to import a mysterious glowing green substance discovered in the Indian Ocean. Scarfing Jolly Ranchers, quoting Nabokov and showing up to formal events wearing a white blazer and sneakers, Eisenberg tackles Luthor as the brogrammer from hell, a chattily malevolent presence who provides the only real moments of levity in the film.

Juggling all of these strands while steadily beating the drum toward the battle promised in the title, Snyder sometimes loses track of his various allegories. Scripters Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer provide kernels of philosophical and theological quandaries throughout, while their nods toward contemporary political debates are more complex than the scattered visual gags (such as an anti-Superman protester waving an “Aliens Are Un-American” placard) might seem to imply. Yet the essential clash of ideologies promised by the central conflict — vigilante justice vs. self-sacrificing restraint, night vs. day, Dionysus vs. Apollo — never develops quite as forcefully as it should, and the life-or-death battle between the two icons ultimately comes down to a series of misunderstandings.

While “Batman v Superman’s” Dark Knight may be more of a pure punisher than some fans would prefer, Snyder’s conception of the character at least feels fully formed. Superman remains something of a work-in-progress. (If nothing else, it’s strange to see Clark Kent cast a more brooding figure than Bruce Wayne.) Daily Planet scenes are even more perfunctory this time around, and Adams’ Lois has plenty to do but little to say.

As a pure visual spectacle, however, “Batman v Superman” ably blows the hinges off the multiplex doors, and editor David Brenner does excellent work to comprehensibly streamline the chaos, capably captured by d.p. Larry Fong. Composers Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL are again key assets here, with Gadot’s theme in particular proving quite infectious. Snyder largely tamps down his penchant for hyper-stylized combat imagery until the end, when he stages a series of galactic battles that take style notes from sources as varied as classic WWE rumbles and Harryhausen creature features. As overblown as the lengthy showdown might become, Snyder gets closer than ever before to the chiaroscuro palette of classic comics, and even if his scrupulous efforts to avoid reopening “Man of Steel’s” collateral damage debates are a bit on the nose, at least he’s clearly received the message.

Iraq War Veteran and Author Draws Similarities Between Dunkirk and 9/11 (Guest Column)

In the days after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, I remember seeing the boats. Boats off all kinds. Civilian boats. Dozens of them. Rushing into the smoke and panic in lower Manhattan. They courageously pushed into the danger, to help their fellow Americans. They didn’t know if another attack was coming. They didn’t know if more planes were coming. They didn’t know if they’d die. They just knew people needed help — people who needed to escape what had instantly and shockingly become a war zone in Lower Manhattan. The scope of it all was mammoth. Beyond anything the world had ever seen. It was too big to capture on a TV screen. So was the breadth of the bravery.

It was a kind of unity and selflessness I’d never seen in my life. And in the 16 years since 9/11, we haven’t seen since. It reminded me of a quote I remember was posted in a classroom of my high school: “No one made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do little.” On 9/11, so many did whatever little they could do to help. Beneath the fire and carnage of 9/11 that most saw on TV, that’s what I will always remember about that time I was there as a first responder in the National Guard.

I wrote about it at length in my book, because it was often overlooked — and now — mostly forgotten. The civilian reaction on 9/11 in New York, at the Pentagon, and in the planes above, was a magnificent display of unity and cohesion across race, social, economic, and political lines that seems unimaginable in today’s nasty, divided times where too many Americans fill our days with cable news shouting matches, Facebook political attacks, and Twitter wars.

9/11 was the best of the true spirit of America. Our Pearl Harbor. Ordinary people — welders, doctors, firefighters, fast food workers — all chipping in to hand out water, help the traumatized, and dig for the dead. Ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things in the face of unprecedented circumstances. That’s also what happened in 1940 in Dunkirk — and why the groundbreaking, eardrum-pressing film by Christopher Nolan that bears the same name is so important — especially right now. At Dunkirk, thousands of courageous civilians, stood together, with hundreds of thousands of troops, to sacrifice their own future to change a history they might not live to see. They were all united by the connective tissue of crisis, to create a combined shield of resilience that would ultimately save the western world from tyranny. It’s a huge thing. That’s what war often is: a massively, unexplainably enormous magnitude of emotion and life that is almost impossible to process — much less recreate. When I stood on the pile at Ground Zero, my heart was crushed downward by the sheer size of it all. It was too big an experience to properly explain — you just had to be there to understand. That’s the challenge of any ambitious war movie, and that’s the challenge that “Dunkirk” has improbably met — and exceeded — in the way only a modern-day, Imax-fueled, Hans Zimmer-scored, Christopher Nolan-directed film could. “Dunkirk” is not a film, it’s an immersion. The confusion, the noise, the size — the indescribable size — Dunkirk masterfully pulls it off. I never served in World War II, but as a combat veteran of Iraq, I know a filmmaker gets the raw experience of war close to right when I have to give my fellow veterans with mental health injuries a warning about the possible triggers it contains.

“Dunkirk” is overwhelming, swirling, consuming. Maybe most of all: intense. Blasts made me jump awkwardly, like I was sitting in a horror movie, jerking side to side in my chair to see if the other people in the theater saw how much it actually just scared the s— out of me. The deep, swarming, disorientating cinematography is the hull, and the pounding, relentless, appropriately-too-loud soundscape is the engine, that the acting and the story drive like a crew running a well-oiled, modern aircraft carrier of an experience. Although centered around the English war experience, the important distance will feel short for most Americans. Their fight was ours to come. And like a great soccer match, the pain and thrill is universal. In a way the English know all too well, you’ll be stressed and holding your breath, painfully alternating from wincing to cheering, from the first minute, until the very last. From the moment the lights go down, the driving tension begins. And it doesn’t stop crashing into your chest until the credits roll, leaving you rattled and exhausted. But more alive. And in an importantly visceral way, just like combat.

For that alone, “Dunkirk” is a masterful salvo of a film that will forever contribute to the public understanding of war: a theatrical gut check for all times.

And in these times when such a small percentage of Americans are experiencing our post-9/11 war being waged worldwide, and as our president flippantly calls and orders for more of it, our nation needs this film now more than ever.

Paul Rieckhoff is CEO and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), an Iraq veteran, and the author of “Chasing Ghosts: Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier’s Perspective.”

Josh Hartnett as Batman? Christopher Nolan Says ‘Initial’ Talks Were Had, but the Actor Was ‘More Interested’ in ‘The Prestige’ Anyway

Josh Hartnett revealed to Playboy magazine in 2015 that he talked with Christopher Nolan about taking on the role of the Caped Crusader in the director’s “Batman Begins,” which launched Warner Bros.’ billion-dollar grossing “Dark Knight” trilogy. How far did those talks go before Nolan settled on Christian Bale instead? In a new interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Nolan confirmed talks with Hartnett took place, but his casting never got too serious.

“No, it never got that far,” Nolan said when asked if he screen-tested Hartnett for the role of Batman.

“I met with Josh and if I recall, he was a young actor whose work I was very interested in,” Nolan added. “I had an initial conversation with him but he had read my brother’s script for ‘The Prestige’ at the time and was more interested in getting involved with that. So it never went further than that.”

Hartnett was not cast in “Batman Begins,” nor was he cast in “The Prestige.” Both films starred Bale. Hartnett would have to wait over a decade to get his chance to work with Nolan, which he did in the upcoming “Oppenheimer.” Hartnett plays Ernest Lawrence, a nuclear physicist and the inventor of the cyclotron who becomes J. Robert Oppenheimer’s close friend at the University of California, Berkley.

Hartnett isn’t the only “Oppenheimer” actor with ties to Nolan’s Batman. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nolan confirmed his “Oppenheimer” lead Cillian Murphy screen tested for the role of Batman. Both men knew Murphy was not right for the part, but Nolan wanted Murphy to screen test in front of studio executives so they could see his acting chops.

“Everybody was so excited by watching you perform that when I then said to them, ‘Okay, Christian Bale is Batman, but what about Cillian to play Scarecrow?’ There was no dissent,” Nolan remembered. “All the previous Batman villains had been played by huge movie stars: Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Carrey, that kind of thing. That was a big leap for them and it really was purely on the basis of that test. So that’s how you got to play Scarecrow.”

“Oppenheimer” opens in theaters July 21 from Universal Pictures. Watch Nolan’s latest appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast below.

‘Dunkirk’ Takes $8.6 Million in Early International Openings

Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” has grossed $8.6 million from its first two days in 31 international markets.

France is the leading market with $1.8 million on 668 screens in its first two days, followed by South Korea with $1.6 million on its opening day on Thursday at 1,252 locations. The Korean results were in line with Nolan’s “Interstellar” and above “Gravity” and “American Sniper.”

“Dunkirk,” based on the 1940 evacuation of 300,000 stranded Allied troops from France, stars Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, and Harry Styles. Film critics have already offered extensive praise for the cinematography, direction, acting, and musical score.

Nolan shot most of “Dunkirk” in France and California. The Warner Bros. release has a price tag of $150 million.

Australia took in $938,000, including Wednesday night sneaks, on 535 screens for a 54% share of the top five films. The results are 45% ahead of “Gravity,” 33% ahead of “Interstellar,” and on par with “American Sniper.”

Russia debuted with $641,000 on 2,119 screens with a 42% share of the top five films. Opening day results are 6% ahead of “Gravity.”

“Dunkirk” opens in 15 more markets Friday, including Spain and the U.K. Thursday night previews in North America hit $5.5 million and the World War II epic is expected to gross at least $35 million in its opening weekend, topping openings for “Girls Trip” and “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.”

Steven Soderbergh Called the Warner Bros. Exec Who Disliked ‘Memento’ and Told Him to Consider Christopher Nolan for ‘Insomnia’: ‘Take the Meeting’

Steven Soderbergh recently spoke to Rolling Stone while promoting his new series “Command Z” about the origins of his friendship with fellow filmmaker Christopher Nolan. According to the “Traffic” and “Ocean’s Eleven” director, a Warner Bros. executive refused to meet with Nolan about a potential directing gig for the studio’s thriller “Insomnia.” The exec allegedly disliked Nolan’s “Memento,” which counted Soderbergh as one of its biggest fans.

“What happened was, I got a call from Chris’ agent, Dan Aloni, who I had known because he screened ‘Memento’ for me after it couldn’t find a distributor after being on the festival circuit for a year,” Soderbergh said. “Dan calls me up out of the blue and says, ‘Could you watch this movie? I have this client of mine who has this movie, and we think it’s really good, but nobody will pick it up and we don’t understand why. Maybe we’re all crazy.’ I see the movie and I think it’s a fucking instant classic.”

“Cut to months later, Dan calls me and he goes, ‘Look, there’s this script over at Warner, “Insomnia.” Chris is really interested in it, but Warner won’t take the meeting,’” Soderbergh continued. “And I go, ‘What do you mean they won’t take the meeting?’ And he goes, ‘Well, the executive there didn’t like “Memento.”‘ And I said, ‘Well, so what? Why won’t they take the meeting?’”

Soderbergh’s love for “Memento” inspired him to personally get in contact with Warner Bros. to advocate on Nolan’s behalf.

“I called that executive and I said, ‘Take the meeting. You’ve got to take the meeting,’” Soderbergh said. “And he goes, ‘But I didn’t like the movie.’ And I go, ‘Well, did you like the movie-making?’ And he goes, ‘Well, yeah, it’s brilliantly made.’ And I go, ‘Take the meeting.’ That is all I did. I knew Chris well enough to know that if he gets in the room, he’s going to get that job.”

“Memento” earned Nolan an Academy Award nomination for original screenplay, while the movie also picked up a nomination for film editing. The director was jostling to break into the studio world with Warner Bros.’ “Insomnia,” but it took Soderbergh’s help to land the job.

Based on the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name, “Insomnia” stars Al Pacino as a detective thrust into a cat-and-mouse game with a killer (Robin Williams) in Nightmute, Alaska, where it’s always daylight. The film, which grossed $113 million worldwide, started a career-defining relationship between Nolan and Warner Bros, which ended up giving Nolan the keys to the Batman franchise based on the success of “Insomnia.”

“It started a very fruitful relationship [between Nolan and Warner Bros.],” Soderbergh said. “But let’s be clear: one way or another, Christopher Nolan is going to emerge. If he didn’t make ‘Insomnia,’ he’d have made something else and still had the career he has. That was just a fortunate set of circumstances where I could get on the phone and advocate for him.”

Nolan’s latest directorial effort, Universal’s “Oppenheimer,” is now playing in theaters nationwide.

Christopher Nolan Says ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie’ Opening Together Is ‘Terrific’ Because a ‘Crowded’ Marketplace Is a ‘Healthy’ One: ‘We’ve Been Waiting’ For This

As thousands of moviegoers gear up for double features of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” one person taking joy in the “Barbenheimer” craze is Nolan himself. Although his movie will be battling “Barbie” at the box office, Nolan recently told IGN that “it’s terrific” to have both summer tentpoles open on the same day.

“Summer, in a healthy marketplace, is always crowded, and we’ve been doing this a long time,” Nolan said. “I think for those of us who care about movies, we’ve been really waiting to have a crowded marketplace again, and now it’s here and that’s terrific.”

Cillian Murphy, who stars in the title role of “Oppenehimer,” agreed with Nolan, telling IGN: “I think it’s great. I mean, I’ll be going to see ‘Barbie.’ I can’t wait to see it. I think it’s just great for the industry and for audiences that we have two amazing films by amazing filmmakers coming out the same day. Could spend a whole day in the cinema, what’s better than that?”

“I love the fact that people are talking about going to two movies in a weekend,” added “Oppenheimer” co-star Matt Damon. “Ben [Affleck] and I used to go to two movies every weekend, and I think people should do that.”

A third “Oppenheimer” cast member, Emily Blunt, called it “awesome” for the two movies to be opening at once as “the interest in the variety of what’s available is so awesome.”

While “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were originally pitted as rivals (most likely because Nolan left “Barbie” studio Warner Bros. after over a decade to make “Oppenheimer” at Universal), the two movies have started to uplift one another in recent weeks. AMC Theatres reported on July 10 that over 20,000 members of its AMC Stubs program have purchased tickets to see both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” on the same day.

“That more than 20,000 moviegoers have already made plans and purchased tickets to see ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ on the same day is a great sign that the growing online conversation around seeing both of these incredible films is turning into ticket sales,” said Elizabeth Frank, executive VP of worldwide programming and chief content officer at AMC Theatres.

“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” open in theaters July 21 from Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, respectively.