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Oppenheimer

Aug 01, 202356 minEp. 430
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Episode description

We discuss the newest Christopher Nolan movie - 'Oppenheimer'


The story of American scientist, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.
Directed & Written by Christopher Nolan and Starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr & everyone else ever


What did you think of the movie? Where does it rank in the Nolan movie catelog? Are we dumb?



BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
We discuss the passing of Paul Reubens, the 'Loki' season 2 trailer & MUCH MORE!



Join the conversation on Twitter: @MACandGUpodcast

Transcript

Ripe in Peace comedy legend, Paul rubens Um, you're trying to get him into the Comedy Hall of Fame here, it's a little bit overselling. He created one of the greatest, most memorable characters of all time. That is true. That is true, But would you call him a comedic legend? I think based off that kind of like that is his brainchild. It's not just like something that was given to him. He made that character. I agree with you. I'm what the semantics were getting into here though, is

how funny really is pee Wee Herman? For you a bunch of people in the eighties and like we can also a man who made a pee Wee Herman. I do want to yes, I want to give my flowers right there because that was the first time I was ever noticed at my school. Is

for my final project, my final editing project. I made a YouTube video that has now gone It might still be on Facebook, but it was for Peewee's Flavored Condoms where I play Peewee Herman selling condoms and I would like to thank him for we're creating that character for me then to have some fun with. Yeah, this was this is what circa two thousand and nine, two ten, somewhere around there. Yeah, admittedly, neither of us and our

interests have grown and gotten stronger over the years. But in high school, despite the fact that I knew you played in instruments, I don't think and we spent a lot of time together in hockey albums, I don't think either of us knew we had like that arts her side to us. And so that was the first time that Peewee Herman video is the first time I realized that you were as weird as you are. And I'm like, oh,

okay, he's like he goes to art school. I knew that, but like, once I saw that, I was like all right, and then eventually, you know, through the years we sort of figured out each other's old own weirdness, and uh, that was that was the first time, legit that I realized that you you were goo. So once again, thank you for that. But also besides Peewee, he had one of the greatest one offs in television history when he played the I Think Austrian prince in thirty

Rock. It is one of the funniest episodes. He is so good in that episode. I don't know why I don't like thirty Rock as much as most other people. I'm not sure why I couldn't tell you why. Also, after the scandal, which, by the way, if that was modern day, that would have been like yesterday's news. Immediately he was mocked and ridiculed for like two years straight. He wasn't blackballed because he did find a way back into entertainment. He had to move on from like the children's stuff.

Obviously he did some Tim Burton stuff, but he kind of got a bum deal for that. We should probably talk about how innovative his character was in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Well, yes, that and also mystery Men. Oh is that the what I'm thinking of? Yeah, what you just said was the Sean Connery movie. Yeah, oh no, not that one. No mystery Men's Mystery. Yeah, mystery Man. It's the worst version of the Sean Connery movie. M mystery Men's a bad movie, right,

we could all acknowledge, but it did give us all star. I think I like mystery Men. Yeah, Cal's Nitt Ben Stiller, Janine Garofolo, the Waffler. You know how it is? Rest in peace, ri ip in peace? King? Is that what we say? Now? King Herman, King Herman, Oh, King Herman. That's a good one. It's not bad one. Three year, just three King of Queen Street entertain

Goo and I'm Mac. And the interim hill it was I was coming up with a mount rushmore of Herman's and I've got George Herman, Ruth Herman, Munster, pee wee Herman, and we need a fourth for the Herman guys. Get on Twitter right now and give us our fourth Herman, please, and we bring you friendship. And today Mac, we are here to drop the bomb. Oh you dropped the bomb. Um me Bibby, you dropped

the bomb. That was such an interesting use of that song in the movie, at the its most pivotal moment, we broke out into seventies disco. It was very bizarre. You thought it was, you know, a timely piece using all the music from the time. Today we're talking about Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer is a rated R biography, drama and history. I would add in there. I guess, I guess you can't call it a thriller, but it is thrilling at moments, and it makes you uncomfortable enough in some of

the highest moments in a good way. Yeah, I felt such great anxiety throughout the movie anxiety inducing. I think, is is that what we love? We love anxious movies, like yeah, but some people don't. I know, I was, I was saying, is we love Uncut Gems more than most and I love how like weird? And like, what's the word I'm looking for here? I'm doing the shacks forth? Yeah, squirmy.

I feel I feel squirmy watching this movie especially, and like there's not a ton to spoil here just because it is historical and we won't get into too much of the spoiler stuff until later. But like when they're doing the bomb test for twenty minutes, I'm like, m I think there's a difference though. The difference between this movie and a movie like Uncut Gems is this is anxiety inducing, whereas Uncut Gems is an anxiety driven. Anxiety drives that movie,

you know what I mean? So I sort of get I understood why people had an issue with Uncut Gems, But to you and I, that's what made it so great. And I think that's kind of you're getting at there. Yeah, And before we get started with this review, Mac, I am here to apologize. Oh yeah, I don't think I don't think an apologies. I'm gonna do it anyways, Mac, because he pooped on

the movie. Well over the last six months, whenever we got any news of Nolan being a little over the top with his description of this movie, or an actor talking about this movie, or the eleven miles of film, or anything else in news dump that we decided to have a little fun with. I'm sorry. It's all worth it and it's all true. Uh yeah, fair enough. I accept your apology, Christopher Nolan, accept your apology.

It's a little it was a little fair to start with the Nolan criticism because Goo, in the nine years since Interstellar, all we had gotten and Interstellar is an issue with some people love that movie, some people hate it. I find myself being more in between. Oddly enough, in the eight or nine years since Interstellar, the only two movies we've gotten from him is Dunkirk, a very critically acclaimed movie. I didn't love it. It was

a good movie. Not nearly Oppenheimer and Dunkirk in the same universe. Uh yeah, I guess you'd say so, because they're both roughly historically accurate movies. So it's in our universe and they come around the same time too, and then his most recent GOO was Tenant and Tenant. To me, it was the first time where I felt like Christopher Nolan took it too far.

Some people argued Interstellar did that, I didn't. I Actually I liked the conclusion to Miterstellar, you know, even though it's sort of meanders do you also love buzz Lightyear? So I'm big buzz Lightyear guy. Yup. Tenant was the first time where I was like, all right, we're doing too much, Chris, like drain it in. I still question if we saw that in imax first, not on our phones, would we have liked it

more? Right, because notably we watched it on our phones together. We shared a phone and we sat in a photo booth and we just did one of those uh no, because the the story of Tenant as interesting as it is once you realize what it is. And for me that was like thirty minutes after the movie was over and I finished googling stuff, and finally I never had to Google or YouTube more after watching a movie because that was confused, right, And then I was like, oh, all right, that's

fucking awesome. But I didn't get it during the runtime so I didn't get to experience that sort of euforic moment in the movie like I did an inception. An inception it has that euforic moment at the end, whatever way you want to believe how it ends, Tenant was devoid of that. Now. I'm sure some people did understand it, which is good for you, but that was made for such a small group of fans. And to your point though, watching that on home release, you are a little more distracted and

you are missing on some things maybe you should have picked up on. But man, that was too much. So that going into this movie we realized that there was gonna be an element of time manipulation here. You know what, there really wasn't. He does tell a nonlinear it's nonlinear, but it also kind of is like he still tells it in the points of like here's him in college, here's the bomb, here's after the bomb. It's a

nonlinear story. But he doesn't manipulate time in this for the first time and every other movie I've seen that Christopher Nolan has made, he manipulated except for that part in the middle where Albert Einstein is like, up and tim, are you read time travel? Did you find Einstein a little distracting at first, but then I really liked the portrayal by the end because at first I thought he was like some weird old guy like this oath who lost his hat.

Yeah, yeah, and then you realize he's actually he's like so all knowing that he's just like done going through it. Like when we first see him, his pants fall down and he goes, oh not again, pulls his suspenders up for me because of what I just said, how he doesn't

manipulate time, and it is mostly historically accurate story. I mean, I don't know what wouldn't be accord I'm just saying they're probably something in there, like the Internet hates the fifty star flags when there should have been forty eight. Okay, so the Internet. I know that his grandson hates the Apple part of the movie and says that never happened, but there's parts in books that says that it does, so I don't know. Also, it adds

a layer to the story. It sure it does. And all this is a roundabout way of me saying that this is by far Christopher Nolan's most accessible movie. And if you don't know what that means, it means you can watch this movie and understand it immediately, where in most other Christopher Nolan movies, even the Batman movies, get a little convoluted. There's no convolution in here. It's straightforward. What's put on the screen is meant to be understood

by you immediately. You don't have to overthink. You're ready for this. You can put this on the DVD. Because Christopher Nolan likes having hard copies of things. This is a film made for moviegoers. Yes, that's a good way of saying that. All right, I'm done, guys. I don't think that's making the cover because someone's gonna read that and be like, what the fuck does he mean by that? He made it more confusing.

I get it go. Speaking of Christopher Nolan, his catalog, this movie on Rotten Tomatoes says ninety four percent from the audience, ninety two percent from oh sorry, ninety four percent from the critics, ninety two percent from the audience, And amongst other Christopher Nolan movies, that is fourth highest, the three above it being Memento, Batman Begins in the Dark Night, which is

understandable. Great, yeah, and this um even though it has made for movie Goers is not quite a blockbuster, right, It's a film made one awards. It's closely it's it does marry the two things. Well, it's tied with the Prestige at ninety two percent. Just on Metacritic, this has an eighty eight. The second highest ever from a Nolan film Number one is Dunkirk at ninety four, the two behind to close out the Rushmore Dark Night

at eighty four and Memento at eighty three. So I would say going into this movie, first of all, it's very surprising, and I have some Nolan facts as we get on here. Can you think of a good name for that segment You're Nolan facts segment. It's very surprising to sort of think about as relevant as he's been in the film industry for do you know, Nolan, he has yet to get his flowers ge Really, you know what's gonna happen in six months? He's getting all the fucking flowers from so he's

gonna get it. I think that Murphy's gonna get it. I think that Downey Junior is gonna get it. I think that Blunt's gonna get it. I think there's a lot of awards happening here. Also, and I'm curious. I was talking to someone about this, but a lot of these movies that are coming out in the fall being delayed, how will that affect the oscar bait movies? Well, those also get pushed because if that's the case,

not a lot of competition out there. You could also see them, like they did a little in twenty twenty one, pushing off the oscars a little bit or opening up the window as to when movies could be considered for the twenty twenty four awards for twenty twenty three, So that'll be interesting to see what happens there, Like they'll be like, okay, up for Best Male Actor in a movie, even though I think this might be a female cocaine bear verse Killian Murphy. It's a mama bear right go. This movie,

of course, was written and directed by Christopher Nolan. And this movie that Nolan wrote is based on the book American Prometheus, The Triumph and Tragedy of Jay Robert Robert of Jay Robert Oppenheimer. And they do toy with that theme too, the whole Prometheus idea and sort of being like above everyone and controlling. Can I ask you this question? And you might not have these facts in front of you, okay, are they're the most words that have

ever been in the movie. Does this set the record? Because it's three hours of just talking. It is a lot of dialogue, But no, I don't think it. Probably it's probably nowhere close. It could be close. I wrote that book Goo, Hi Bird and Martin Sherwin, so credit to them for writing such a And and also, um, everyone knows Einstein and his association with the science behind the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb, that whole thing. Uh, No, one really knows this story. So

that's a really interesting component here too. Oppenheimer. You know, there's obviously some historians and some nerds that do know Jay Robert Robert Oppenheimer. I've heard the name before, but I didn't know a fucking thing about this story. Yeah, like I've heard the name, I've heard of the Manhattan Project. But like, this really paints a picture. Oh does it? Ever? Does it? And back to some Nolan facts here some hashtag fax Oh call it um like spell Nolan with a K and a W. Yeah, that'll

really get the folks. That's that's what the segments called his catalog Goo. Going back to the nineteen ninety eight, following two thousand, Memento two thousand and two, Insomnia two thousand and five, Begins two thousand and six, to Prestige two thousand and eight, The Dark Knight two thousand and ten,

Inception. It's interesting he made two of his best movies in the middle of The Dark Knight Saga twenty twelve, The Dark Knight Rises twenty fourteen, Interstellar twenty seventeen, Dunkirk twenty twenty tenet of all those movies, goo, would you say? And I have three questions here so you don't have to answer right away? Is this the best Christopher Nolan movie? Number two? Is it your favorite? Number three? Are those two things the same thing?

I mean, for me, it is because The Dark Knight is my favorite and I think is the best. I would say Inception, Okay, No, Inception is also great, so I think that it would be on the Mount Rushmore for me. Yeah, this is for sure in the top two or three of Christopher Nolan movie. I might like this more than Inception, but I think Inception visually is just bananas. So the thing I'll say to that, and I was thinking about this earlier, is much as I like

this movie. This movie doesn't like leave you with the feeling that Inception does. That. A lot of my favorite movies leave you thinking about this, that or the other thing and doesn't really change the way I view films, whereas Exception does a little bit, and to that point, the Dark Knight

does as well. This movie isn't meant to leave you with that feeling though, unless you really didn't know the happenings of like post war and Cold War sort of stuff, which then maybe it doesn't change your opinion thing on things. And of course, like during World War One, all that communism stuff is actually very interesting and there's a lot of people that obviously don't have never heard that or don't really know anything about that. Two. Yeah, that's

what I say. I just think I said during the war. But world War one, all right, whatever, I don't want the people to get at you. I don't want Reddit attacking one of the two great wars. Good Um, all of those movies that I just listed, which are some incredible movies, Good No. One is almost devoid of Academy Award nominations. Here he only has three Academy Award nominations. Goo, and I'll give you a guess as to what they are. Okay, so I am going to

guess Dark Knight. Nope, well okay, and I'm not called first of all. So overall, two movies he made got nominated for Best Picture, Memento and Inception. On an individual level, he only has three nominations. So you just told me the answer. No, okay, let's see here, I don't know. He has been nominated twice for Best Original Screenplay gou Memento and Inception, and only once for direction Dunkirk. That's insane to think

about. That's absolutely insane to think about all of those movies I named, and he got nominated Best Director once. He has more writing nominations than he does direction. I mean. But also think of the fact that he was able, like look at this cast of actors, that he was able to get that much talent on the screen because people want to work with him. Do you think, now this is fucking kind of overdone with notable actors and

actresses. But he has done the best job I think, taking very known actors and actresses and putting them in roles that you don't It's not distracting. It's in this movie in particular, there's like three or fourcastings that you were like, I can't believe that guy played that role so well. Is it a secret that Casey afflecks in this movie. I don't think it's a secret. Okay, he's definitely not build. He's not build. But like when he pops up, I was like, who who's this? And then you

see him, You're like, what's this happening? He's fucking great in that. Oh my god, he's amazing. I don't think I never would have thought he could play that role, and he does it so fucking everyone in this movie is amazing. If you have never heard of chrispher Nolan, you liked this movie. What he does have upcoming? Goo? At least this is what I AMDB says. I don't know how true this is in development is a remake of Memento. I don't think he's directing it. If anything,

he might have like a producing credit on or something. I don't know why that would be allowed to be remade. Came up twenty three years ago, and it just makes no sense. Let's get to Oppenheimer. Synopsis of Oppenheimer, the story of American scientist Jay Robert. I can't I have such a hard time saying the whole name Jay, Robert Oppenheimert Oppenheimer, stop saying Jay and his role in the development of the atomic bomb, and bear with

me as goo, just tease. There's one thousand actors and actresses in this. This stars Killian Murphy as Jay, Robert Oppenheimer, got it out. Credit to me, Emily Blunt as his wife, Kitty Oppenheimer, Robert Downey Junior as Lewis Strauss, and we'll get to this more in a little bit. One of the early things I saw is how amazing our DJ is in this role. And I have to say it's a little oversold. I don't think he's disagree. I think he's amazing in this. I think the way

that he do enough, I don't. I think the way that he turns off and on the charm in this is fantastic. He's very good, not nearly my favorite, especially in the supporting role. And then here we go Kenneth Branda as Neil's Bore, Tom Conti as Albert Einstein, which is a performance that definitely grows on you during the movie. David Krumholtz was very good as Izzy. Rabbi rab r Abi Rabbi. I guess that's how you say it. Matthias schwide Hoefer as Werner Heisenberg, which any Breaking Bad fan loved,

loved the inclusion of him in this movie. Also New Mexico too. People love New Mexico, Big New Mexico, face black and it's a big Breaking Bad movie. Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence, who I think was the biggest pleasant surprise of this whole thing. And he's fucking fantastic. His hair is a little distracting to me. He is easily the second best performance in this movie. Did you know that he was originally slated to play Nolan's Batman

and he turned it down. I after this movie, you can see how very easily he could play a batman, a stoic figure, because he does it in this just as a regular sign. And Nolan said to him, do this and you'll be getting a ton of work in Harte. It's like, I don't think I wanna Alex Wolfe as Louis Alvarez, Josh Zuckerman as Rossi Lomanitz, Florence Pugh is Gene Tatlock, Jefferson Hall as Hakon Chevalier, Brick Kyle is Barbara Chevalier, and they play a very important sort of plot

device in this whole movie. Matthew Modine as Vanavard Bush, David Desmalchin as William Borden, who was phenomenal in his sort of limited role, as well, Matt Damon as Lessie Groves. He is the major general of the Army Corps, engineers, the whole sort of second element to putting together this whole team. He's the Nick Fury of this movie. And I also think he was better than Robert Downey Jr. So if we're gonna do a power ranking of all the actors in this movie, I wouldn't have Ardie j second.

But he's still great in the movie. But he's the one that they're pushing forward to get the supporting nam and the award, and I think it's misguided blanking on the guy's name. But who was the one that was making the hydrogen bomb? Benny Safty. I think he might be number two. He's very good in this movie and then out of nowhere, like Emily Blunt is good in the movie and then she turns great like this. Yes, it's an incredible, incredible moment in the movie. Dame de Hans Kenneth Nichols,

who is traditionally very distracting, very distracting because he looks so weird. Not in this I don't know how they pulled it off, but he left his green face painted home. Dude, Josh Josh Peck Kenneth Brainbridge as in Drake and Josh's Josh. So it was kind of distracting where in his scene there was a window in the background and Josh is just in the window looking in.

He is the gentleman who sort of leads the Trinity Test there in New Mexico, which is to have Aspeck playing a major role in a Christopher Nolan and then when the bomb went off, hug me, brother. We could have written this movie. Jack Quaid as Richard Fineman that is of course Herey from the Boys, Benny Safty to your point as Edward Teller him Goo. Rammy Mallick is David Hill for ninety seven percent of this movie. He's silent, and I said, best pstic has ever made. And then when he

finally speaks, also great. So credit to this movie for getting me to not hate Rommy Malick. Casey Affleck is Boris pass who Goo and I already talked about being incredible number two or three. This movie is his performance after performance and it's led by Kelly and Murphy is in all three hours of this movie, Kelly and Murphy is. I didn't want to say it to you right away because I'd have to go and do some research, but I would say, for sure in the top ten acting performances of all time, and

you could even move them up to that top five is range. You'd have to obviously think about that more. You know, what it is. What it reminds me of it it's not apples to apples, obviously, because this is a completely different movie. But it reminds me of how Rayleiota and Goodfellas

it's so hard to separate the performer and the character that they're portraying. It's kind of like that, how they just dominate the screen the entire movie, and to your point, at different ages, and you feel the nuanced difference in the acting at those ages, which is just so fucking Oppenheimer. In the background of the interrogation scenes, in the background of those court scenes, he's just so good. Yeah, just watch him in the background, the

stoicism. It's got these big, wide, gaping empty eyes for him to be able to convey the kindness still to all his co workers even after they kind of put him down. Yeah, it's truly impressive because even like his wife doesn't want to and he's still able to do it. Well. They play it as this all knowing person that wants to learn more and understand more. Yeah, that's essentially all he wants to do on every level of his life. Yes. Good. The final three here before we get into this

movie even further. Gary Oldman plays Harry S. Truman and cheers up the screen quite a bit. When my favorite scene of the movie it is. I I almost laughed out loud. I liked when he was leaving the room and he was like make sure that no, no, come back to my office. When he handed him the tissue, I was like, fucking amazing. Yeah, because he goes from buddy buddy to he flips the switch where he's like, all right, this fucking guy sucks. Yeah, that was

the line in the movie. Guy sucks finally, and he drops the Southern accent too. Jason Clark as Roger Rob and our pal Han Solo himself Alden Aaron Right gets the Senate aid, there he the shitty eating grin that he conveyed was fucking phenomenal all time, shit eating grin. Uh. Do before I get into some of the historical stuff about this movie, do you want to speak about the movie before I speak for like three minutes here? Let's see here, I like, on the cover of Times after he dropped the

bomb. Uh, the the cover title said bomb Daddy, so they referred to him asks all right, good mute, Mike. Mute is Mike. The movie, even though it's billed as the story of Robert Oppenheimer and how the atomic bomb was built, is like so much more than that on every

other level. It gets so deeper than that. Um. It gets into like the American feeling and how the people were thinking and doing um in that distinct time post World War One, during World War two, before the war is over and the war is won, and how all of those influences end up in like I guess, three distinct groups, and how the politics surrounding that affect how the bomb comes to be and how that team is put together.

And that's super interesting to see, like Damon and Killy Murphy going through that with everyone else and how they sort of commit, and that's where Damon's magic comes in here, is he's so good at being this general that's sort of hard asked with Oppenheimer and the scientists, but on the back end, he's actually kind of sleazy and he's helping them out as much as and sneaky. He went to m I T right, Yeah, so he also kind

of understands everything they're talking about through a certain degree. So the influence is all that surrounding politics and the era has on the bomb making, I think is the true magic of this movie. Of course, Killy Murphy's great, but it truly captures like how the normal everyday person is feeling, and it gets into the communist party and whatnot, and then you have like your classic conservatives and the conservative scientists, which is how Josh Hartnett's Ernest Lawrence plays to

this. Like he has such a hard time marrying his personal beliefs in mixing that with the essence of what his job is, which is to push boundaries and really not believe what you're told. But then in his home life he's kind of doing the exact opposite of that, and so that's where the conflict comes between Oppenheimer and Lawrence is that very essence, Like Oppenheimer's like, hey, what we're doing here, Well, why don't you apply that at home?

Because it seems like you're doing the very opposite of that, and and that's like to me, that's my favorite relationship in the movie is the heartnet Kille and Murphy stuff. There's some great scenes in there, and that's what this movie does a good job of showing too, as how Oppenheimer sort of uses his scientific brain and basically applies that to every level of his life. And how little he actually had to do with the making of the bomb.

Yeah, he just put together the team. Yeah really, and then manage the team and had the idea to build a town, to build this bab and keep everyone there for so many years. Let me ask you this question, and I believe this one hundred percent. Is while they're in that town, they are in the town for three years, and at one point they they look around and every woman there is pregnant. Yeah, do you believe that they are all Oppenheimer's babies? It's just fucking everyone. He likes to

put his dicks in it, dude. That's one of those little small touches. That really gives the audience a full understanding of what's going on in that town. And like how isolated they are is just they have nothing to do but work, get home, drink, and then fuck each other. That's it. Think of all the pandemic babies, right, It's that similar,

very similar to that. And back to like Oppenheimer dabbling, He has his toes in a little bit of everything because he believes talking about all the women he's been Yeah, he's dabbled in all the women, but he believes it's his job to explore and investigate everything, including religion and thoughts on God and

that whole thing. And ultimately it's what becomes is undoing because the American politics and politicians don't want people asking questions, and all Oppenheimer does is question everything. And that's obviously been a back and forth in American politics for a really long time. But they do a perfect job personifying that with Oppenheimer in this

movie. One of the big things in here, and I don't I don't know if people really realized how popular this was during World War Two, but the American Communist Party had some real movement there in the in the nineteen thirties and forties during this war, and it was it was hush hush, but it was also very known by everyone. And that's why the FBI is investigating the Communist Party, because they and their head said, oh, the Communist

Party here must be tied to Communists in Russia, communist elsewhere. So there's this whole red scare thing that goes on in this movie and is done so well in the third act of the movie. But like you don't you've never really seen that represented on screen the way this movie does it, and it doesn't necessarily apologize for any of it, but it humanizes those people and shows you the thought process and all of it where it sort of came more from

like critical thinking that it was anything else. Really there was. There wasn't as what's the word here, It wasn't as nefarious as it's been played out in American history. Yeah, I can absolutely see that. It's a lot

of a lot of questioning. The Cold War comes about obviously post World War Two, And they also do a good job in this showing how even during the war, even while fighting the Nazis, the top American politicians and warmongerers were way more scared of Russia than they ever were of Nazi Germany, which is like really funny to think about and how true it really was. And

uh, there's three distinct timelines in this movie. It's Oppenheimer that lab Los Alamos in nineteen thirty nine to nineteen forty two, building up to the Trinity test. And then you have the nineteen fifty four security Clearance hearing, which is the whole Red Scare stuff with the council that Strauss appoints because he is in charge of the Atomic Energy Commission, and he ends up learning stuff about

Oppenheimer to use against Oppenheimer. And then finally the third timeline that really just takes place in the third act is the nineteen fifty nine Senate confirmation for Lewis Strauss. And I would say the one the biggest the tractor for me during watching this movie was that third act and during this sort of center confirmation.

So I disagree. I was really pulled into that because just the overall trial, and you know, is he un American of Oppenheimer, especially after now he's dealing with that grief and the guilt put it in quotes of what he's done, and he no longer he didn't have control over the bomb, and him and the other scientists they made the bomb to combat Nazi Germany, not

Japan, but he also loved the fame. To your point, that's also another thing they illustrate quite well in this is the remorse that some of the scientific community has creating this big weapon and then three weeks later it's dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima and immediately they're like, oh, fuck, all this scientific work we did, all these breakthroughs, just led to a couple hundred thousand deaths, civilian deaths, And there's a rally in this movie that is really

really powerful. Yeah, and the fall out of that, And that's something I underestimated going into this movie to show as much as they show post bomb and how that really plays out, and sort of this remorse of being so gifted in the Manhattan Project that half the scientists have and half of them don't have them move on and create the hydrogen bomb. But like, to me, the nineteen fifty four stuff and that security hearing and how they dip back

in to the timeline was awesome. It was the strous stuff in the Senate confirmation that I didn't care as much for it, because I also felt like the nineteen fifty four stuff laid the groundwork for what was going to happen in nineteen fifty nine. And obviously this is historically accurate, so a lot of people knew that, but you knew he was getting rejected at the end of that, so it wasn't I think it took a little too long to get there. Nah, I think it paced itself out pretty well. I'm on

the pacing. I'm on the side of pacing the final act here. I did check my phone once and listen that again. It's a small, small detractor to what is a pretty incredible movie here. But good, let's let's get it into the gaunlet let's get to do the gauntlet mac fun factor and it was fun to learn. Yeah, you know, it's a good way.

It's fun to learn things that happened. And like, my favorite era of history is post World War One up and through the Cold War, because it's really the dynamic there is incredible, because it's all the fallout from World War One that leads to World War Two, that leads to the Cold War arms race. And this taught me some things that I had never known before satisfactor and I would say, come uppings. Uh, And this is sort of what I was just referring to. Um. Maybe some people found the

Strouss stuff much more satisfying. It didn't quite hit from me. It hit for me bore Rometer, and I think this is for a three hour movie, wonderfully edited, and it keeps this breakneck speed throughout the entire movie. You did have to put a caveat in there, four three hour movie. Oh fuck you dickhead. You you did it. You said it, not me. Go check the tape. You said it post Trinity Bomb. I

checked my phone once about ten minutes after. It'll be like, all right, I need to see how deep we are in here, because what's happening right now isn't that interesting? Yeah, you picked up your phone and you texted me and you said, I wish that Oppenheimer was played by Shelton from the Big Bank there did. That's the one thing. I'm like, that seems weird, but I'll check it out and your Rise movies. To this

movie's credit, it wrote me back in. Yeah, when I thought I was kind of it was kind of losing me, it wrote me back in. But Unfortunately, I did check my phone Halloween. Will this movie wage over time? And I guess there's only one way to go. Yeah, it being a three hour movie, it has to wait in a little bit. But this is a movie that maybe it'll wait after the second time.

For me, I want to see it again. That's how good. But also with that fast paced dialogue, you might have missed something or were you at one of those screenings where people kept on complaining that they couldn't hear a lot of the dialogue. No, I didn't know that was a thing I've heard people complaining about, like the sound mixing. I heard every piece. What is what is happening to people? Yeah? I know I didn't hear that complaint. That's maybe if I watch it with close capsuling, maybe I

missed stuff. I don't know. Aquator it's better than Aquaman. Oh yeah, it's it's almost offensive to even mention that pants Tan City Excite bike Mania. The whole builds up to the bomb really got me going. The last like ten twenty minutes before the Trinity test is so fucking like anxiety inducing in your life. Even though you know it successful, watching it play out still

gave you a bit of anxiety and go. Also for me, I thought a top three or four scene in this movie was Emily Blunt's testimony in the ninety four Council hearing. That was fucking incredible, great scene. And of course when he dropped the bomb, he looked at the other scientists and he said, bazinga, he dropped a Mike. That's one of you know, when Mac and I remake this movie with Sheldon from the Big Bank Theory, it was his idea Max credit Union, who are you giving credit to?

I'll give credit real quick to Josh Hartnett because I want to see Josh Hartnett and more dramatic roles like this. But credit here to again Killian Murphy putting on one of the best, and if someone said it was the best, I wouldn't argue it. Performances of all time. Yeah. I like when Hartnett said to Murphy, I've been here for forty days and forty nights because everyone just started quoting all of their movies. That's he made everyone pregnant.

Actually, that's like when everyone when his friend there, he looks at him and he goes, there's ten things I hate about you. It's like in that movie. No, No, the other guy there, his friend from the train who always gave him food hot dogs. Mac And for those of you TARTI to the Mac and Goop party. We rate everything on a forty hot dog rating system. Mac I already said this this is a film for moviegoers, and unlike a lot of biopics, there is no role in this

movie. There's no performance in this movie that is distracting. Like we have had so many biopics over the past decade where it's really good, but there's one person that overdoes it and you're like, I cannot take this. Yeah, So to your point, distracting in a way that's un human like,

distracting in a way that's never actually happened. Yeah, Like, this movie does such a good job with powerful but subdued performances and almost every single care Like I think the most out of place guy is probably Josh Peck just because we know him as Joses. But it's still done so well that I just

fucking overlooked. It didn't bother me. And of course, speaking of the main star of the movie, I've already made the comparison to like a Raliota and Good Fellows, where it's just such a dominant performance and his eyes, the way that he is able just to stare off and have that empty it punches up the grief and the conflict and of just of the consequences of what he's dealing with. It's also like he has this Orson Wells like voice that

works perfectly in this movie. Yeah, it's quietly intimidating. How do you feel about his clothes? About those high waisted pants. I love the high waisted pants with the tie that comes down to the nippless, Like right here, that's it. I liked Emily in this movie. And then I loved Emily Blunt in this movie, Like she built it up slowly where you're like, Okay, let's see where this is going, and then she just absolutely crushes it. Yeah, and she almost like she almost didn't get enough screen

time, if that makes sense. And then just the build above the nuke absolutely works for me. Gave me the old tanglies. I love that. The music of this movie, the score of this movie, I don't know if it stands out per se, but it really does build up the drama of what's going on. I've already talked about the editing. I think the editing is so good to tighten up this movie and still have it be pretty accessible for the three hours. The use of black and white to tell the

different sides of the story. Maybe the black and white and we've already kind of seen the theories of it. The black and white, and I believe this is what actually happened, as opposed to everything in color is Oppenheimer's point of view, so things can be a little bit skewed. Nolan spoke about,

Yes, okay. So that's why I think I got it from the black and white is the objective you from outside of Oppenheimer how the world sees him, and the colored version is Oppenheiber's view how he sees the world. And then just the questioning and the interrogation as the backbone of the movie really kept it moving. I got it at forty hot Dogs. Whoa is this your second second forty of the year the fourth forty and two years? Am I giving out too many forties? Wow? Maybe? Who knows? Who

cares? Uh goo? This movie is mash is on the cover of Mac and Goose poster. I don't know, dot dot dot who cares? This movie is an absolute masterpiece. I think objectively, one of the greatest movies ever made. And so initially when I was leaving the theater, I was toying with the idea of, like, how it's not a forty dog movie, because when the movie is so good, you have to weigh it against

other forty dog movies and what might knock it down and whatnot. So I was thinking about, you know what, I did check my phone, that third act didn't quite hit as much as as maybe it should have. And then, of course, anytime there's nonlinear storytelling, and this is the thing in every Nolan movie, it's a staple of Christopher Nolan. It can get it could be a little annoying at times, and it was a tad annoying a couple of times in here, but they pick it up enough when you

jump back that you're like, all right, never mind. So you're just so invested in what's happening on the screen at almost every waking moment that it's just really hard to knock this movie down. The dichotomy here is so interesting. You have these scientists on the leading edge of discoveries. They're working so closely every day together, side by side, to achieve a common goal yet

and their personal lives some of them couldn't be further apart. So like toying with that and really diving into that, which they do, I think is what makes this movie so good and what takes it from a run of the mill biopic and makes it a forty hot dog movie, an all time great movie. The relationship between Api and Ernst Lawrence in this movie is the most interesting relationship to me. Second, of course, also, I love how everyone calls API. Yeah that is nice. Yeah it's too long. Yeah,

he's a hockey player. I really loved how no one plays with this idea of struggle for power and for knowledge on every level in Oppenheimer's life. Yea, every single scene, and it's as simple as husband versus wife, all the way to the biggest stage of controlling who's in charge creating this atomic bomb. It's just it's so well done. Like I said, Kellian Murphy is your best actor for this year, and if he doesn't win, we'll

fucking riot. It's it's just he's that good. I'm not even going to entertain anyone else at this point in the years, not even over again. Another detracting a small one. I don't think Robert Downey Junr is the best supporting actor in this movie. However, he's gonna get nominated and maybe he'll win, so that kind of a noise to shit out of me again, Matt Damon was better, Josh Hartnett was better, I think to your point, Benny Safti was better. So he's really good. He's just not the

best supporting actor in the movie. And of course, when Blunt finally gets her moment, I thought that was better than anything. Robert Dunning. I think that's gonna win her an award. It might very well might go. This is a forty hot dog movie. I just is annoyed as I was with a couple of things in the third act. Everything else is so good that it's just it's impossible to not give this, at least for me, forty hot dogs. So I haven't tied as the top movie on the year,

and I'd probably give it the slight edge over Spider Verse. Yeah, I go the other way. I go the other way because Spider Verse less leaves me with that blue balls feeling. At the end, I was like, I really want more. I can't wait for the next one. Where this movie is very complete from beginning to end, So maybe that makes it better for some people. They're both forty hot dog movies. I was a little more awestruck by across the Spider Verse. Shall we do a couple quick

spoilers? Yeah, I don't really have any, but I have two. I have two. Number one one of the most don't know if it's prolific, I don't. I don't know words. You're gonna help me out here. But it's when the general says that he does not want to bomb a Japanese region because he honeymoon there. Yeah, you're like them getting That was one of the sneaky, like darkest conversations in the horror movie, is them

deciding which innocent Japanese civilians to drop this atomic bomb on. And that's where Oppenheimer starts to realize, Oh, all this scientific good I thought I was doing is not so good, and so he starts down this path of wait, are we really doing the right thing here? And the counter argument is we have to otherwise the Russians are gonna beat us there, and Oppenheimer's like, they're only getting there because we're getting so far. If we draw back,

they'll probably drop back because it won't be necessary. And so then that plays into the whole post war thing and the security clearance hearing there is he doesn't want to pursue the hydrogen bomb because what's the point. What's the fucking point. And then the counter argument is, well, if we don't,

Russia's gonna have want to drop it on us. So it's like it's an all time great like debate, an argument like, if you don't create a hydrogen bomb, maybe Russia doesn't, but what if Russia does create one and you're behind the eight ball. Well one of the big things too, is that they were afraid that by dropping the bomb it would create a like a chain reaction around the world and set off the atmosphere and then burn the world.

And then when talking to Einstein at the end, he's like, well, you kind of did that, yeah, right, he didn't do it physically, but you did it metaphorically, which was a great preservation for the end of the movie to finally show what Oppi and Einstein talked about there.

And I also loved how when Oppenheimer told Damon it was a small chance, not zero, but he said it's but not zero, you know, And they still go through with it. It's just incredible that like to think of that moment in time where there was a small possibility that just testing the atomic bomb was going to kill every person on the planet. I also love the fact that Oppenheimer built his team not based off of past performances. So he

didn't want Einstein, that's old science. But I also loved he built it without bias, so even people that he didn't agree with in their personal lives, he just wanted the best people on his team. And then the last thing here is in the movie flow Pu commit suicide or does she? Right? She probably is Casey Affleck kill her. Yeah, I think you're led to believe and I don't know what the official ruling is. Maybe it's suicide

in history. You're led to believe that Casey Affleck has Florence Pugh's character she was gene Tatlock. You led to believe that Casey Affleck has her offt to stop distracting Oppenheimer. Yes, and on top of it, probably because she's a Russian spy. Maybe they think so she gets killed. And I also love the response to everything that Casey Affleck is doing is Damon finally throws some weight around and he transfers him to Britain, which I loved. Yeah,

but it's a good little question from the movie. And then also you know the grief stricken Oppenheimer of he believes it's suicide, but either way, he knows that he had her killed. I think he starts to understand that it wasn't suicide, yes, but he with that is because of his actions, she dies, and that's really what he's dealing with. And I also love that scene in the courtroom where having sex and the wife's watching. That was

incredible. Yea. I love the scene where she finds and Kitty finds him grief stricken and she's like, fucking pulled together. You're Robert Oppenheimer, and she knows that he has cheated on her with this lady. But when their relationship started, she was a bit of a flusi herself. So they just sort of have this understanding because this is her third marriage Oppenheimer, they just have this understanding that they're both imperfect, but they just accept each other.

And that was a really great scene. That was the first scene where you're like, oh, Emily Blunt's doing great stuff here. And then the second scene of course was the Senate here. Also, you don't get to feel bad for doing something wrong, right, you did this, you have to deal with the consequences of this. It's a great scene, it's a great message. That's really all I got. Yeah, no, it it's tough

to spoil us. And obviously the big moment in the film is when they dropped the bomb in New Mexico and just if some terms here is that they

use. Obviously we get the Heisenberg drop and that's where Oppenheimer began like this German Dutch understanding of science, and it takes it to America, the Atomic Energy Commission, which was led by Strauss and created post World War Two, and this is where Strauss starts interviewing scientists and learning that Oppenheimer maybe not that great of a guy, maybe doesn't see eye to eye with The Los Alamos

Laboratory was the New Mexico laboratory run by the cal Berkeley staff. They chose this site because that's where the Oppenheimer's just had a ranch, which I thought was a cool little tidbit. They were very familiar with the area. They tested that bomb good July sixteenth, nineteen forty five. Test was success. They dropped those two atomic bombs of Japan August and ninth. Such a quick

turnaround, it's kind of crazy. And so it's funny to think that those scientists have such a celebration on July sixteenth, and then August tenth they find out that their scientific advances murdered hundreds of thousands of people. It's like, it's just to try to wrap your mind around that is crazy. And of

course the two bombs were created with uranium and plutonium. And then we're the Einstein scene we're talking about here that happens later on, takes place on the Princeton grounds, which Einstein was working for Strouss at Princeton, and you're led to believe because Oppenheimer kind of poop poos. Strauss is really where the game begins between those two, sort of unbeknownst to Oppenheimer. The history nerd and me really love the attention to detail and more so like capturing the essence and

the feelings of the time. It's just really hard to do that. It's really hard to do that. It's really hard to have actors convey that this movie is just so fucking good. It's it's gonna be It's an interesting debate for the end of the year. And now we still have a couple of movies that if you have to come out across the Spider Verse verse, this

for the for the best movie of the year. So we've got ourselves a devil Box thumbs up, Magoo Max that could be anything, It could be a boat and Mac just because we don't have a dump planned at least for the next two episodes. Let's quickly. We got a trailer for Loki season two and it looks like a ton of keyhu Quan fun. Yeah, I'm stoked that Key Hukuan seems to be playing a pivotal role in the show. I want everyone that didn't like Secret Invasion to just stop doing anything and don't

get your hopes up, because my hopes are high. Baby, you keep doing this and then you're not liking the show. Go. The main criticism everyone has about Secret Invasion is blowing my mind. I'm fine if you didn't like the show, I could give a fuck. But if you're if your criticism is that, well, in the comics, it's null and void. Makes no sense. We are forty properties in forty four Zorrow it has to happen within context of the MCU. We're too far in for them to do

what they did in the comics. Now, you could say what on screen you didn't like it. You could say that that's fine. But for you to say you don't like it because it's not what the comics did, you're fucking idiot. You're a moron. Do you think we get the introduction of Deadpool in this? Maybe in a post credit I am looking forward to this, but again, I liked Secret Invasion, so fuck you guys. It also reminds me of do you remember when I pitched this movie to you,

of the person who when they sneeze, they accidentally time travel. Do you think Disney was listening to us? I am interested to see how much of King we get in this. I'm interested to see how Sylvie has changed because of her actions. She got a new haircut, so she's definitely changed. But I wonder if her goals have changed now that she sort of accomplished what she wanted to do, probably to get another new haircut. I would say, right, I don't like this one. She's got a five and find

an intergalactic barber. It seems like very clearly that Deadpool is setting up for crossover with this show. But yeah, I wonder if we actually get it at the end of the street because Miss Minutes on Twitter tweeted at Deadpool one time yep. And it also looks like we're gonna get expanded Miss Minutes role too Terror Straw. Well, that'll do it for this episode of Mac and

Goo Mac Where can the people find us? You can find us on Twitter and on Instagram, at Mac and Goo podcasts, and every other platform we are mac Amber saying that includes Facebook, sit your tune in, castbux Speaker, Google Play, I Heart Radio, We're on Spotify, but more importantly

we're on Apple podcast. Get on their rate review subscribe five stars. If you do that, you'll get to free Conde t shirt from folks over Watertown Sports war Watertown Sportswear on thirty four mon Obit Street and Watertown watertown Sportswear dot com, exp screenprinting and embroidery Depublic dot Com. Check us out. At the end of the week, the box office will dictate what that episode is, but we'll see possibly. I really like Barbie, I know, but

I saw Turtles and I really like the Turtles. Ready for this? Ready? I like Turtles. Yeah, you fucking nailed that. Yeah, it's pretty good. I think it just makes sense to talk about Barbie before. I think it would make more sense to talk about the movie that is released this week and also is going to win the box office, another Wednesday release that they're just not telling us. There should be like a gold star or a red thing when they talk about the movies that aren't coming out on Friday,

so we'd know because we missed. Well, they just changed it, I think a month ago, and it was in a news dump, and I told you several times. I've been telling you every day since that. Yeah, I've been like, hey, don't forget a second credit to you the goobers. No, but most people don't. No, I'm looking for the movie m Barbie so far as the best joke of the year, so that I don't know. If no, yes, I don't think so.

Well, are we gonna start ranking jokes especially we can do a top gen jokes, especially with our interest in mind Barbie for sure, I didn't think that joke was that funny. Oh it was incredible whatever, all right, so that'll do it for us? Check us out at the end of the week for TBD, Tuesdays or Goose Days. I abuse kangaroos. Now it's sign for girls jumping on trampolines. Please flip the cassette over to side B to continue the adventure.

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