Tag: oppenheimer

Warner Bros. responds to

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The “Barbie” movie and “Oppenheimer” — about the scientist behind the atomic bomb — went head to head in theaters, but fans mashed them up, making “Barbenheimer” a global phenomenon. But in the only country attacked by atomic bombs, fan-made artwork of the beloved childhood icon paired with mushroom clouds didn’t sit well with social media users.

“#NoBarbenheimer” trended in Japan, reflecting a backlash sparked by what Japanese media said was the film’s official U.S. account’s cheerful replies to several memes. Those replies were later deleted.

By some estimates, more than 200,000 people were killed as a direct result of the two atomic bombs dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

“Warner Brothers regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement,” Warner Bros. Film Group said in a statement to CBS News. “The studio offers a sincere apology.”

Screengrabs posted by Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun show the actors Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy, who played the titular characters in their respective movies, posing happily in front of a nuclear blast, with the account responding: “It’s going to be a summer to remember” with a kissy face emoji.

Another user posted artwork of Robbie as Barbie with a mushroom cloud around her head.

“This Ken is a stylist,” the movie’s promotional account replied.

The viral images and replies prompted a rare rebuke from Warner Bros. Japan on social media. In its post, the Japanese distributor noted “Barbenheimer” is not an official campaign.

“We consider the reaction to the fan-based movement posted on the official ‘Barbie’ website run by the U.S. headquarters to be extremely regrettable,” the statement from Warner Bros. Japan read. “We take this situation very seriously and have asked that the U.S. headquarters take appropriate action. We apologize to those offended by this series of inconsiderate actions.”

The two films — Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” and Universal’s “Oppenheimer” — were simultaneously released on July 21 and movie-goers in the U.S. have been heading the theaters for a double screening, generating $93 million and $46.7 million this past weekend, according to Box Office Mojo.

The Greta Gerwig-directed “Barbie” is scheduled to be released in Japan on Aug. 11 — days after the anniversaries of the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No Japan release date has been announced for the Christopher Nolan-directed “Oppenheimer.”

A Universal spokesperson told Variety in June that plans had “not been finalized in all markets.”

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Michael Roppolo

Michael Roppolo is a CBS News reporter. He covers a wide variety of topics, including science and technology, crime and justice, and disability rights.

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August 1, 2023
‘Oppenheimer’ Is Ludwig Göransson’s Most Personal Score Yet

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After attending premieres for Oppenheimer in London and New York, composer Ludwig Göransson is seeing the movie again, this time at a little mom-and-pop theater in Höganäs, Sweden. It may not have the massive IMAX screen that so many people are watching Christopher Nolan’s latest on, but the modest theater in Göransson’s home country will be packed with his family and friends.

It’s a fitting experience for the Swedish composer, who says that his score for Nolan’s film about the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer stands apart from his other work.

“It’s definitely a different personal journey for me, to do a first-person score, where you do everything from his eyes and from his mind,” says Göransson, who won both an Oscar and a Grammy for the score for 2018’s Black Panther. “It was draining, but very interesting to think about too.”

Oppenheimer is Göransson’s second collaboration with Nolan, after 2020’s Tenet. The movie is epic in scope, with stunning visual effects and bold scenes, but is also very focused on the emotional state of its protagonist. In three hours, the film traces Oppenheimer’s work as a theoretical physicist to the establishment of the Los Alamos lab, the creation of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer’s activism against further nuclear development and the repercussions of his actions later in his life.

“You really had to get his character and his emotions out there with the music. It was a tough thing to do emotionally,” says Göransson. “You’re constantly trying to emote what he’s feeling on the screen.”

The resulting score is often relentless, as Oppenheimer’s intense personality drives the story. The music relies heavily on the violin, but also brings in unexpected sounds like a ticking clock and stomping feet that add to its overall intensity. From Sweden, Göransson spoke to Vanity Fair about being given a blank slate, his toughest scene, and why this score felt more personal than anything else he’s worked on.

Vanity Fair: What were your early conversations like with Christopher Nolan about the score for Oppenheimer?

Ludwig Göransson: It starts off with me reading the script, having no idea what to get myself into, and then we have a conversation afterwards. In our first conversation, Chris was just really open. He didn’t have any specific notes or ideas, other than he was interested in experimenting with the sound of the violin for Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer

From Universal Pictures.

Did that differ significantly from the way you talked to him before Tenet?

I think for Tenet, in a technical way, there were a lot of ideas that I already had on the table, in terms of inversion and reversing sounds. I think he told me to not do it [laughs]. But I think with this one, Chris really did not really have anything in musical soundscape before shooting the film, so it was really a blank canvas.

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July 26, 2023
Oppenheimer: Cillian Murphy calls Robert Downey Jr ‘electrifying’; reveals acting with him was ‘extraordinary’

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Oppenheimer is one of the biggest movies of the year. With a star-studded cast, the movie has earned rave reviews from critics and fans alike. The star of the movie Cillian Murphy recently talked about his experience working with Iron Man actor Robert Downy Jr. and the fun they had working with the film’s script.

Cillian Murphy praises Oppenheimer co-star Robert Downey Jr.

In a recent interview with GQ, Cillian Murphy spoke about the Oppenheimer script being incredibly dense, to the point where the actor made an exception by reading his lines before he got to the set.

Murphy said, “You have to be completely prepared. I knew the script more or less before we went into work, which isn’t so not something I’ve ever done before. Only in theatre, because there was so much text, and it was quite dense. I wanted to not be worried about the text when I went on the floor.”

One respite the Inception actor had was working with Robert Downey Jr. He explained, “But then, a lot of the scenes I have with Downey, it was quite loose and quite improvisational.”

Murphy heaped praise on the Iron Man actor, calling his talent extraordinary. He said, “I mean, acting with him was just extraordinary. He’s just electrifying, the most available engaged, present, unpredictably brilliant actor I’ve ever worked with.”

ALSO READ: Oppenheimer: Is Christopher Nolan’s movie based on a true story? Everything to know about Robert Oppenheimer

Cillian Murphy’s views on Oppenheimer

During the interview, Murphy was asked if he is “able to judge him [Oppenheimer] just a little bit?” In his response, the actor diplomatically said, “I’m really not going to give you an opinion on that. I really strongly believe that the film should ask the questions of the audience.”

He explained that his motive is not to “prejudice anybody’s point of view, when they go into the movie theatre, about what how they feel and Oppenheimer.”

Although, the actor did reveal Christopher Nolan’s view of the man the world came to know as the father of the atomic bomb. Murphy shared, “What I will say, is that Oppenheimer – Chris called him the most important man that ever lived, whatever you think about that. That’s up to you. But we are living in a world that was changed by Oppenheimer. We’re living in a nuclear age because of what Oppenheimer did.”

Meanwhile, Oppenheimer has been racking in amazing box-office numbers since its release on July 21. With its controversies and praises, Nolan has added another blockbuster to his list of iconic movies.

ALSO READ: Oppenheimer India Box Office Preview: Christopher Nolan directorial runtime, screen count, and opening day

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July 26, 2023
The Highs And Lows For Warner Bros.

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It’s no secret that Warner Bros’ hand in the Barbie movie provides them with the biggest box office success of the year. It’s already breaking records, pulling in over $300 million in its opening weekend, the biggest for a female director (in Greta Gerwig) ever. And it’s already garnering Oscar buzz. It went head-to-head with previous Warner Bros right-hand-director Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and won decisively .

People were calling Barbenheimer the biggest day for cinema since Christopher Nolan released
The Dark Knight and Phyllida Lloyd opened Mamma Mia! on the same day in 2008. However, the magnitude of power both Barbie and Oppenheimer held on cinema-goers this weekend far outpaced that. And yet, you can’t help but notice a few key points Warner Bros is already having as a studio this year.

With the failing world of DC Comics unable to compete with Disney’s
Marvel, Warner Bros. faced major controversy by continuing production and promotion of The Flash. After star Ezra Miller was openly accused of grooming, kidnapping, delivering confusing open messages to the Ku Klux Klan, and being charged with disorderly conduct and harassment (to name only a few), Warner Bros. made the curious decision – keep them in the film entirely.

The film (in simpler terms) flopped. Only bringing in $268 million through the box office,
The Flash was ill-attended and ill-received. But that wasn’t all the production company faced this year.

Christopher Nolan was Warner Bros. Golden Boy from 2002-2020 until he left and publicly condemned their hybrid release model. In response to the breakup, Warner Bros. put their top-budgeted film (with insane marketing) up against his 3-hour-long biopic that was only meant to be viewed in IMAX theaters. In other words, Nolan had no chance of winning.

And while
Barbie is one of the best films I’ve seen in forever, you can’t help but sense that there’s some deep drama underneath its glossy surface.

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Jai Phillips

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July 26, 2023
Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy wants to play Ken in Barbie 2: Let’s read a script

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Barbie and Oppenheimer were positioned to clash at box offices worldwide. However, both films opened to packed theatres and garnered rave reviews. Now Cillian Murphy, who plays the titular J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Christopher Nolan directorial has revealed he would like to play Ken in a Barbie sequel.

In a recent interaction, Cillian Murphy was asked if he would like to play Ken in Barbie 2 and the actor was on board. He said, “Sure! Let’s read a script. Let’s have a conversation.”

Cillian Murphy has expressed his excitement for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie before. He also revealed that he can’t wait to watch the movie.

Oppenheimer which also stars Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr. and others is a biographical thriller based on the man Known as the father of the atomic bomb.

Meanwhile, Barbie starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera and others is a comedy fantasy film that delves into the myth of the world-famous toy.

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Filmfare

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July 25, 2023
‘Oppenheimer’ gives stock investors another reason to be bullish about nuclear energy

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One of the hottest movies of the summer is the staggeringly good biopic “Oppenheimer,” about the man who oversaw the frantic race to develop the atomic bomb during World War II.

The atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on Aug 6, 1945 was a fission-style device. This also happens to be the same basic physics behind nuclear reactors that are in use today. It’s a reminder that technology can be, at its essence, agnostic: Whether it is used for malevolent or benevolent purposes (in nuclear fission’s instance, an instrument of death or clean, carbon-free electricity) depends upon the intent of the user.

Fission reactors generate about 10% of the world’s electricity today. The United States gets even more of its electricity this way, about a fifth.

These percentages are likely to rise as global demand for electricity — and concerns about global warming and climate change — rise. This will present opportunities for long-term oriented investors. The lion’s share of this demand — about 70%, says the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), will come from India, which the United Nations says is now the world’s most populous country, China, and Southeast Asia. Put another way, “the world’s growing demand for electricity is set to accelerate, adding more than double Japan’s current electricity consumption over the next three years,” says Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director.

While fossil fuels remain the dominant source of electricity generation worldwide — the Central Intelligence Agency estimates that it provides about 70% of America’s electricity, 71% of India’s and 62% of China’s, for example—the IEA report says future demand will be met almost exclusively from two sources: renewables and nuclear power. “We are close to a tipping point for power sector emissions,” the IEA says. “Governments now need to enable low-emissions sources to grow even faster and drive down emissions so that the world can ensure secure electricity supplies while reaching climate goals.”

“ The Biden administration is a big booster of nuclear energy. ”

It’s helpful that the Biden administration is a big booster of nuclear energy, which the White House sees as an integral part of its broader effort to move the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels. The Department of Energy says that the country’s 93 reactors generate more than half of America’s carbon-free electricity. But price pressures from wind, solar and natural gas (which the feds call “relatively clean” even though it emits about 60% of coal’s carbon levels) have putseveral reactors out of business in recent years.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill that Biden signed into law in November 2021 includes $6 billion, spread out over several years, for the so-called Civil Nuclear Credit Program, designed to keep reactors — and the high-paying jobs that come with them — running. If a plant were to close, it would “result in an increase in air pollutants because other types of power plants with higher air pollutants typically fill the void left by nuclear facilities,” the administration says. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has said the Biden administration is “using every tool available” to get the country powered by clean energy by 2035.

The private sector is beginning to stir. Last week, Maryland-based X-Energy said it would build up to 12 reactors in Central Washington state, for Energy Northwest, a public utility. These wouldn’t be the behemoth-type reactors we’re used to seeing, but “advanced small, nuclear reactors.” X-Energy, which is privately held,  has also been selected by Dow
DOW,
-1.40%
to construct a similar facility in Texas.

Other companies are also rolling out new technology to meet demand. Nuclear fusion — a breakthrough in that it creates more energy than the Oppenheimer-era fission model and at a lower cost — is likely to be the basis for reactors in the years ahead; the Washington, D.C.-based Fusion Industry Association thinks the first fusion power plant could come online by 2030. After seven rounds of funding, one fusion company, Seattle-based Helion Energy, is currently valued at around $3.6 billion, and appears headed for a public offering.

Here too, the Biden administration is getting involved. In May, the Department of Energy announced $46 million in funding for eight other fusion companies. “We have generated energy by drawing power from the sun above us. Fusion offers the potential to create the power of the sun right here on Earth,” says Granholm.

There are several opportunities here for long-term investors. You can pick your way through any number of publicly held companies, including more traditional utilities, or spread your bet across the industry through a handful of exchange-traded funds. The largest of these is the Global X Uranium Fund
URA,
+0.78%,
with about $1.6 billion in assets. It’s up about 9% year-to-date. The VanEck Uranium + Nuclear Energy Fund
NLR,
+0.41%
is up almost 10% and sports a 1.8% dividend yield. These are respectable year-t0-date returns, even though they lag the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.32%
(up close to 19%) by a wide margin.

More: Net-zero by 2050: Will it be costly to decarbonize the global economy?

Also read: Fukushima’s disaster led to a “lost decade” for nuclear markets. Russia, low carbon goals help stage a comeback.

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July 24, 2023
‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ Blow Up the Box Office

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For weeks now, movie pundits have wondered just how much money Barbie and Oppenheimer would make on their combined opening weekend. As of Sunday, we have the answer: enough to buy a lot of Dreamhouses (and/or kitchen-free homes in Los Alomos).

The actual numbers are nothing short of staggering. Though final tallies won’t be available til Monday, it seems that Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has raked in about $155 million domestically and another $182 million internationally, exceeding even sky-high expectations. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has earned about $80.5 million domestic and $93.7 million internationally—a pretty stunning take for a three-hour drama about men in hats discussing theoretical physics.

That means together, the phenomenon known as Barbenheimer has made about $511 million worldwide, $235.5 million of which was earned domestically—enough to make this the fourth-highest grossing weekend in American history, and the only one of those four weekends not driven by a Disney-released sequel. (The openings of Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens occupy the no. 1, 2, and 3 slots, respectively.)

Deadline has a rundown of all the box office records that have just been broken: Barbie now boasts the biggest opening weekend ever for a female director. It’s also the largest opening weekend for a movie based on a toy (beating out Transformers: Dark of the Moon). Oppenheimer has the biggest global opening for a biopic.

But those stats undersell what really was, and is, special about Barbenheimer. Heavily marketed as both these films have been, their massive success feels like an organic phenomenon, driven by actual enthusiasm from actual people. (What a concept!) Yes, Barbie is based on IP, and so, in a sense, is Oppenheimer. Both films are nevertheless idiosyncratic, auteur-driven projects, and not the sort of high-octane action franchise continuations studios seem to believe are the only sort of movie capable of making big money anymore. Both are also being received better than most wannabe blockbusters: critics (including Vanity Fair’s!) have reacted warmly to each film, while audiences have given each film an A Cinemascore.

What’s more, the apparent contrast between Barbie and Oppenheimer wound up working in both films’ favor; scores of moviegoers elected to see not one movie but both, dressing up in midcentury hats and suits as well as their Barbie best. “People recognized that something special was happening and they wanted to be a part of it,” Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners, told CNBC. “Our partners in the creative community and at the studios gave audiences two uniquely different, smart and original stories that were meant for the big screen, and movie lovers responded by gathering friends and family and heading to their local movie houses across the nation.”

The singularity of Barbenheimer will be difficult if not impossible to recreate, though that doesn’t mean studios won’t try. We can only hope, then, that they take the right lesson from this weekend: as Nicole Kidman keeps telling us, people want to go back to movie theaters. They’re simply more willing to return if it means getting to see something they haven’t seen a million times before.

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Hillary Busis

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July 23, 2023
“Barbie” has biggest opening day of 2023, “Oppenheimer” not far behind

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Director Greta Gerwig’s all-pink “Barbie” had a glamorous estimated opening day at the box office Friday, bringing in $70.5 million — the biggest opening for any film in 2023 so far.

The massive figure, reported by Variety, beat out June’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” which made $51.8 million on its opening. The number combines the $22.2 million “Barbie” earned in previews on Thursday, and $42.8 million on Friday, playing in 4,243 theaters.

“Barbie,” a Warner Bros. Discovery movie — and Mattel’s first foray into the film industry — had an intense marketing campaign leading up to its release — from a real life Barbie Dreamhouse in Malibu, to licensing deals with fast food chains. And based on its box office success, it paid off.

The Grove’s theater marquee announcing the opening of “Barbie” movie in Los Angeles California, on July 20, 2023.

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

If the film hits its estimated three-day opening weekend total of at least $155 million, per Variety, it would pass “Super Mario Bros.” for the biggest debut of 2023. It also has a chance for the biggest-ever opening weekend for a female director.

The all-pink fantasy, which caters to audiences of all ages, stars Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu — among other big names — and tells the story of Barbie and Ken, who decide they want to see what the real world is like.

The other blockbuster of the summer, Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” which released the same day as “Barbie,” also reeled in big numbers, opening at $33 million. According to Variety, “Oppenheimer” is on track to have one of the highest grossing opening weekends for an R rated film.

“Oppenheimer” — a darker three-hour historical drama about the development of the atomic bomb — stars Cillian Murphy, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt. Though its story is a stark contrast to “Barbie’s” cotton candy comedy, it has one thing in common — getting audiences back into theaters for a “summer movie spectacle.”

Fans — 200,000 of whom bought advanced tickets to see both movies on the same day according to the National Association of Theater owners — have coined the name “Barbenheimer” to refer to the shared opening day of both.

Since the pandemic began, movie theaters have seen a decline in attendance, and ticket sales haven’t quite bounced back — down 20% since 2019, according to data from Comscore.

The summer releases of fan favorite franchises “Indiana Jones” and “Mission Impossible” underperformed, indicating that blockbuster movies may no longer be attracting audiences the way they used to.

Added to the mix — two major Hollywood strikes by writers and actors which has halted scripted production — are set to slow theater traffic even more as studios struggle to create new content.

“Movies don’t write themselves. You have to have actors in front of the camera,” media analyst Paul Dergarabedian told CBS News. “So this is going to be very important that this gets resolved — the sooner, the better.”

And while “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” have seemed to breathe new life and excitement into Hollywood and movie theaters, with the strikes looming above the industry’s head, the big question is, “What’s next?”

— Michael George contributed to this report.

Simrin Singh

Simrin Singh is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.

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July 22, 2023
‘Barbie’ A Blockbuster At The Box Office With $300M Worldwide Opening Weekend

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By Brent Furdyk.
Published: 2 mins ago

“Barbie” is shaping up to be the biggest movie of 2023.

According to Deadline, box office estimates for the Margot Robbie-starring movie are through the roof, with projections that “Barbie” will exceed $300 million in worldwide ticket sales (consisting of $150 million domestically, and additional $150 million from 69 international markets).

If those estimates hold, reports Variety, “Barbie” will dethrone “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” for the biggest opening of 2023.

READ MORE:
‘Barbie’ vs ‘Oppenheimer’ Box Office: Margot Robbie’s Film Expected To Steal $100 Million Opening, Christopher Nolan’s Movie Eyes $50 Million

Given that previous estimates predicted that the domestic opening weekend would be in the $95M-$100M range domestically, “Barbie” is shattering those expectations and raising the bar significantly.

Meanwhile, the weekend’s other big release is also off to a roaring start, with Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” predicted to rake in $165.9M worldwide during the weekend, with $77M domestically and $88.9M internationally.

“Oppenheimer” is likewise performing above expectations, with original projections eyeing a $50M opening weekend.

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Brent Furdyk

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July 22, 2023
Barbie VS Oppenheimer: Best Fan-made posters of Barbenheimer online

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Barbie and Oppenheimer are two distinct films that are released today. Many people on social media have started new memes regarding which movie to go two. Many have also started the trend of Barbenheimer.

Barbie movie stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and is the first live-action Barbie film. While Cillian Murphy essays the titular role of American astrophysicist Robert Oppenheimer who invented the atomic bomb in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

Here are some of the fan-made posters of Barbenheimer making a buzz on social media.

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Filmfare

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July 21, 2023
Here’s Where Your Final Fantasy XVI Fave Falls On Barbenheimer

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Image: Square Enix / WB / Universal / Kotaku

It’s July 21, and that means both Barbie and Oppenheimer are in theaters. Both movies are reviewing well, and if you haven’t decided to see both as a double feature, you might be wondering which you should see first. Well, I’ve only seen Barbie thus far, so can’t weigh in on which is better, but perhaps some of your favorite characters from Final Fantasy XVI may be able to sway you?

This Brutal Gothic Metroidvania Is Shaping up To Be Something Special

The actors behind a few of Final Fantasy XVI’s standout characters have been recording and posting clips of them ordering a ticket to one of the movies, and on top of just being delightful to hear these performers as their characters again, it’s funny because we get a pseudo canonical look into their respective film tastes. Ben Starr, who plays the very sad softy protagonist Clive, started the trend with a clip of the hero ordering his ticket to Barbie on July 16.

Later that day, a fan tagged Benedikta actor Nina Yndis suggesting she also join in by recording her character, the scheming agent antagonist, asking for a ticket to Oppenheimer. She obliged, and captured Benedikta’s impatience in the delivery.

As for me, I’m a Cid stan. He’s my favorite character in the game, and that holds true for a lot of people. Where does he fall on the Barbenheimer debate? Well, it looks like Starr roped his actor Ralph Ineson into the joke, and posted him, reluctantly, ordering a ticket to Barbie on July 20.

Now that Cid, Clive, and Benedikta have been accounted for, we need to hear where the rest of Final Fantasy XVI’s cast members join the conversation. Where do Joshua, Jill, and Dion fall on this? Who is going to be the brave cast member to order both tickets? The people need to know.

While the Final Fantasy XVI cast is pouring into theaters, Barbie and Oppenheimer fans are engaging in the most heated debate on the issue: the Wikipedia page on the entire phenomenon.

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Kenneth Shepard

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July 21, 2023
The Massive Wikipedia War Over Barbenheimer, Explained

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Earlier this month, someone created a Wikipedia page for Barbenheimer, the internet phenomenon inspired by the simultaneous release of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, two highly anticipated movies with rave reviews that are expected to bring in millions at the box office this summer. The creation of the Wikipedia page was followed by weeks of debate about how the page should be organized, where it should live, what images should be included, if Barbie’s full name needed to be a part of it, and if all of this should just be deleted.

This Brutal Gothic Metroidvania Is Shaping up To Be Something Special

For those of you who have been living under a rock, Barbenheimer is an online meme referencing the fact that the Barbie movie and Oppenheimer were released in theaters on the same day, July 21. While it has certainly picked up steam in the last few weeks, the actual origins of the meme date back to April 2022, when WB Discovery announced that the then-upcoming Barbie film would be released on July 21, 2023. Internet users quickly noticed that was the same release date for Oppenheimer and soon began making jokes about seeing the two movies on the same day. From there, fan art, custom t-shirts, and poster mash-ups were created and spread all over social media. Even actors involved with the films have acknowledged Barbenheimer.

So, a pop culture phenomenon of Barbenheimer proportions certainly warrants a Wikipedia page. I mean, it’s not like the creation of this page would lead to an online war, right?

The Barbenheimer Wikipedia page leads to an online war

On July 1, Wikipedia user Freoh created a redirect for Barbenheimer. Anyone who searched Wikipedia for the online phenomenon would be “redirected” to the Oppenheimer film article. A few minutes later, Freoh changed their mind and redirected users to the Barbie movie page instead. According to Freoh, the reason for the change was that it seemed like “the Barbie movie people have embraced it more.”

A few hours later, Wikipedia user Manasbose got involved. This user didn’t think the meme should be a redirect. Instead, they thought it deserved its very own Wikipedia page. So they quickly created one and started to expand on it. As pointed out by the Twitter account, Depths of Wikipedia, the first hours of the Barbenheimer page were wild. In its infancy, the page suggested that “Oppenbarbie” was a common alternative name for the meme. For the next few hours, it was mostly just Manasbose and some other users editing and expanding the page.

Then more users got involved. On July 10, user Shmoovyshlasagna removed the alt name Oppenbarbie and added a comment that “nobody cool” says that. “That shit scrapes my whole mouth,” said Shmoovyshlasagna. “Barbenheimer rolls smoothly. Think about it.”

At this point, the page was growing fast, with lots of edits being made, sections being changed, entire parts of it being deleted, and then all of it changed again by dozens of users. Some wanted Pikmin 4 thrown into the mix, as it also was set to launch on July 21. Some wanted better, less ugly images of Barbie. And some wanted it all gone.

The attempted assassination of Barbenheimer

On July 11, user InfiniteNexus nominated the Barbenheimer page for deletion. They explained that they weren’t sure why this article was created, suggesting this was just one of the dozens of viral memes that pop up every year. They believed that the page didn’t need to exist and instead, a short section about the phenomenon could be included in the articles about the films Barbie and Oppenheimer

“It is unlikely that this topic will receive significant, sustained coverage,” said InfiniteNexus. “And even if it does, it is too early to tell at this stage, when neither film has even been released.”

When an article on Wikipedia is nominated for deletion, other users weigh in on the matter and vote for what they think should happen next. Many times, these conversations aren’t too intense or lengthy. This is some really behind-the-scenes, deep-in-the-bowels of Wikipedia shit that most people who use the site never engage with or think about.

But that wasn’t the case this time. Instead, the request for deletion page for Barbenheimer exploded.

Some editors cited the 20-Year Test, an old Wikipedia standard that suggests only things that will be remembered or understood in 20 years should receive articles. They believed this online meme didn’t pass the test and that in a few years, nobody would care about the Barbenheimer phenomenon.

However, the vast majority of Wikipedia editors involved disagreed and began voting en masse to keep the page alive. Many cited that Barbenheimer had grown beyond a simple internet meme and was actually affecting ticket sales, was being talked about by Hollywood stars, and was being reported on by reputable outlets like Variety, IGN, etc. Others also pointed out that there was too much information in the article to simply dump it all into the Barbie and Oppenheimer movie pages. And in the future, the Barbenheimer page could even provide useful information and context for researchers looking to better understand the whole phenomenon.

After five days, nearly 100 different editors voted and only about 20 suggested the page be deleted or merged into the main films’ articles. In comparison, most deletion debates only get a dozen or so votes and often end in the page being killed. But not this time. On July 16, after thousands of words had been written across multiple sections of Wikipedia’s often unseen bureaucratic channels, Barbenheimer was allowed to live.

The continued war over Barbie and Oppenheimer’s meme page

Though the war over the page’s existence was settled, people weren’t done fighting.

A quick peek at Barbeheimer’s talk page (a more behind-the-scenes forum where editors discuss changes and tweaks) reveals various debates about the article.

For example, there was a lot of controversy over including Barbie’s full name in the caption below the page’s top photo. This eventually evolved into people suggesting the caption should also include Oppenheimer’s full name and nickname, Oppie, too. Another debate happened over which photo of Barbie should even be used in the article.

Read More: Before Barbenheimer, There Was Doom Eternal And Animal Crossing

Things have finally calmed down over on the Barbenheimer Wikipedia page after weeks of arguments. Most of the recent edits are minor, fixing typos, adding new links, or rearranging sentences.

However, the war is likely not over—some of the editors involved with the page’s deletion nomination suggested they might return to the debate in a few months, assuming nobody will care by then.

But I know the internet. I know Wikipedia editors. Someone will still care. And nobody is going to give up an inch on this digital battlefield, even if it means fighting for months or years over a page about a silly meme.

.

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Zack Zwiezen

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July 21, 2023
Barbenheimer Begins: The Battle of ‘Barbie’ v ‘Oppenheimer’

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For months on end, the internet has been joking about summer’s most unexpected double feature: Oppenheimer vs Barbie. Well, July 21st is finally here. And, as writers who are chronically online and always down to do something for the bit, of course, we grabbed our comfies and our blankets and spent 5 hours in the cinema on the opening day of what’s been dubbed … Barbenheimer.

Barbie and Oppenheimer might not seem like they have much in common, but after watching both in quick succession, turns out, they do.

Both are, at their core, about existential crises. In Barbie, stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie), leaves Barbieland to go on a journey to the real world and discovers the harsh truths about her life and ours. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer chronicles the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the man behind the atomic bomb, and his experience wrestling with his conscious in the years after.

The only difference: one is a camp, candy-colored creation by Greta Gerwig (with an infectious aesthetic that has taken over the world), while the other is a trippy, gritty, three-hour Christopher Nolan aesthetic.

Here’s what we thought about these insanely different films — and their surprising similarities.

Caution: SPOILERS AHEAD – EMARK ON YOUR OWN DOUBLE FEATURE BEFORE READING

Costumes

JP – The fashion for Barbie was all things pink and trendy. It was my dream closet, and that Chanel pink dress was my dream fit. Unfortunately, I dress more like Albert Einstein in Oppenheimer – a dirty, ragged sweatshirt, lots of layers, and a hat.

LKC – I thought I was blown away by the Barbie press tour outfits but the movie outfits were in a whole other league. From the archival Barbie references to the perfect satirical Ken looks, I was obsessed. Though I will say, I liked a lot of the sweater vests in Oppenheimer. But mostly it was a bunch of nerdy guys in ill-fitting suits.

Barbieland vs Los Alamos

JP – Los Alamos was desolate, there wasn’t even a kitchen when Oppenheimer first moved in. They literally made this place in the middle of nowhere, so you can’t expect it to look lush. Take me to BarbieLand, where I’m surrounded by pink Dream Houses and every night is Girl’s Night, please.

LKC – I will say, both worlds were completely immersive. And it’s crazy that they both represented a fantasy, an escape from reality — though, in polar opposite ways. The real question is: why did Kendom look like every fratty dive bar? I had war flashbacks. (Oppenheimer pun not intended)

Horses

JP – All Ken really cared about in Barbie was Barbie…and horses. Horses were a way to make a person taller, to Ken, and also much, much more. Similarly, in Oppenheimer, there was a plethora of horses. I couldn’t believe my eyes. How cinematic for the two of them.

LKC – Cannot believe these were two movies about horse boys. “When I realized the patriarchy was not about horses, I kind of lost interest.” – Ken in Barbie. And lowkey, Oppie too.

Soundtrack

JP – Despite the low 5/10 rating for the Barbie soundtrack, I thought it was perfect. Fun in all the right ways, childish and playful, and sometimes raw and human. From Dua Lipa’s disco number to the rousing ballad of “I’m Just Ken”, I was locked in my seat. And while Oppenheimer did not have an all-male musical number as I’d hoped, each song was correctly placed and timed.

LKC – Apparently, Christopher Nolan tried to work with Hans Zimmer for Oppenheimer but couldn’t, because of scheduling conflicts. Tea. But it all worked out because Ludwig Göransson, another frequent collaborator, really put his foot in the score of this film. The tension! I could feel it! But dare I say, the Barbie soundtrack was equally emotive. I didn’t expect to feel that many feelings when the Billie song hit.

The Cast

JP – When Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig cast their respective movies, they ate. No crumbs. Margot Robbie is a real-life Barbie, there’s no doubt about it. She’s so stunning it’s literally unbelievable, which is exactly what Barbie the doll is as well. And then there’s Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, who has adapted his mind, body, and soul to play this role. It wouldn’t be the movie it was without him.

And don’t get it twisted, I wholeheartedly believe Cillian Murphy is getting an Oscar for this role. However, Emily Blunt acted her ass off the entire time. I was so impacted by her refusing to shake hands at the end of the movie. Mother.

LKC – Leaving the Barbie movie, I heard someone say “Oscar for Ryan Gosling.” And I agree. In the same way Austin Butler went method for Elvis, Gosling went full Ken. And it paid off. He and Cillian Murphy should face off at the Academy Awards for sure.

Surprising Cameos

JP – Much like the main cast, the supporting characters in both Barbie and Oppenheimer had my jaw on the floor. I am now under the firm belief that the world would be a utopia if Issa Rae were president. With Barbies and Kens being played by the likes of Emma Mackey, Dua Lipa, John Cena, Simu Liu, Kate McKinnon, Ncuti Gatwa, and Kingsley Ben-Adir, you’re instantly wondering when you can get your ticket to BarbieLand.

As for Oppenheimer, is anyone else struggling to see Josh Peck in any role that isn’t a resident podcaster? We had mega cameos in Oppie as well like Jack Quaid, Rami Malek, Devon Bostick (NOT RODERICK!!), Gary Oldman, Ben Safdie, and even Alex Wolff (½ of The Naked Brothers Band, the half that was in Hereditary).

LKC – Literally every working actor was either in Barbie or Oppenheimer. I recognized pretty much every face from somewhere. But none of them could hold a candle to Michael Cera as Alan! He was for the girls, but he could also handle himself in a fight scene. Range.

The Male vs Female Gaze

LKC – From the moment I stepped into the theatres of Barbie and Oppenheimer, I was literally blown away by the difference between the audiences. Yet, Barbie was actively aware of the male gaze — that was the full plot — while Oppenheimer didn’t even pass the Bechdel test.

JP– Obviously we have two ends of the spectrum with a male-dominated Oppenheimer and a women-run Barbie. Barbie couldn’t do a better job of describing how it feels to be a woman in a male-dominated society: powerless, tired, and objectified. The discourse of “pretending to have never seen The Godfather” so they could explain it to you and dumbing yourself down so they can teach you Photoshop is so prevalent.

And yet in Oppenheimer, you see the truth of a male-dominated society. Where groups of the smartest men driven by war create a device that has the power to eviscerate us all. The irony was not lost on me after seeing Oppenheimer second.

Directorial Masterclasses

LKC – Both films were expertly directed for their plots. Greta Gerwig did her own time-bending, color-shifting film with Little Women. But for Barbie she used deceptively simple shots and aching attention to detail to tell a pretty straightforward story in a smart way. She deserves the accolades for the biggest open weekend by a female solo creator.

Nolan on the other hand, didn’t pull any punches. He’s at his best with Oppenheimer, subverting the traditional biopic framework — which is usually slow and chronological — with fast cuts moving from different time frames to make an ingenious portrait of not just a single man, but a pivotal moment in history and its consequences. Also, there’s something to be said about making me enjoy a movie about quantum physics.

JP – The ultimate clash (if you can even call it that) of male and female director titans proved to be thrilling. Greta Gerwig’s take on patriarchy and feminism was wrapped in a perfect pink bow for us, with candid, straightforward takes. However, where Christopher Nolan shone bright was truly the scene of the test bomb exploding. It was intense, you could feel the magnitude of both the bomb and the consequences it would soon bring from one scene. Chills.

Endings

LKC – I haven’t stopped thinking about Oppenheimer since I watched it. While I do think the last hour dragged on a little too long, the last 15 minutes made it worth it. Meanwhile, Barbie’s ending made me unexpectedly emotional. Margot Robbie saying “I don’t want to be the idea, I want to be the person having ideas” hit me just as hard as Oppenheimer’s existential ending.

JP – While Barbie may have ended with Stereotypical Barbie finding her place in the real world (and, finally, a trip to the gynecologist), Oppenheimer ended in an opposite manner. We see Oppenheimer talking to Albert Einstein about how he fears he’s set off a domino effect with his findings. Einstein stalks off, clearly stressed in his classic gray ratty sweater (such a mood), and we know the rest is history.

The Final Verdict

LKC – 5 hours in the theatre well spent. Movies are back! Thank god.

JP – Overall, I loved them both…for vastly different, camp reasons. Barbie gave girls of every age hope in the theater, and very publicly called out discrepancies no one has wanted to talk about in movies before. Oppenheimer has me still thinking to this hour, about destruction and humanity and all things nuclear war. See Oppenheimer first so you can end with hope and dreams in Barbie.

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LKC

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July 21, 2023
Benny Safdie’s ‘Oppenheimer’ Character Edward Teller and His Long, Complicated Life

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Of all the familiar faces that show up when the action of Oppenheimer moves to Los Alamos, you might not have expected Benny Safdie to be the one with the most screen time. Best known to this point as the director, alongside his brother, Josh, of intense indies like Uncut Gems and Good Time, Safdie has been expanding more into acting, with another key supporting role in a very different 2023 film: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

From the moment Safdie opens his mouth, his performance is full of surprises. Playing the physicist Edward Teller, who emigrated from Hungary in the 1930s, Safdie has a thick Eastern European accent as he engages in spirited debates with his fellow Los Alamos scientists. Like many of the physicists recruited to the Manhattan Project, Teller was already well-known in his field by the time he went to Los Alamos; he and another Manhattan Project scientist, Hans Bethe (played by Gustaf Skarsgård in the film), had already collaborated on a study of shock waves.

In the biography American Prometheus, which Christopher Nolan adapted for the film, authors Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin count Teller among “some of the best minds at Los Alamos.” He reoccurs throughout the book in one-on-one conversations with Oppenheimer, as he does in the film. When Teller went to Oppenheimer to complain on behalf of other scientists about their mail being screened by military counterintelligence officers, Oppenheimer “replied bitterly, ‘What are they griping about? I am not allowed to talk to my own brother.’” (Oppenheimer’s reliance on his brother, Frank, a member of the Communist Party, becomes part of the film as well.)

But it was at Los Alamos that the eventual divide between Oppenheimer and Teller became visible as well. Assigned to work on calculations for an implosion bomb, Teller instead became “obsessed” with the potential for a “Super” thermonuclear bomb, what would eventually grow into the hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer became so frustrated with Teller’s lack of cooperation that he quipped to a friend, “God protect us from the enemy without and the Hungarians within.” Teller did threaten to quit the project entirely, and Oppenheimer offered him a compromise very similar to what we see in the film: Teller could stay in Los Alamos and work on the thermonuclear bomb, even though Oppenheimer had no intention of building it. He could also meet with Oppenheimer for an hour a week to talk about anything he liked.

After the war, Teller persisted in his obsession with the Super; as the film shows, when he asked Oppenheimer to urge others to continue research on it, Oppenheimer replied curtly, “I neither can nor will do so.” Though Teller joined Oppenheimer and other Los Alamos scientists in warning against the dangers of an arms race, he went on to ally himself with Oppenheimer’s political enemies in Washington in the years leading up to Oppenheimer’s monumental 1954 security clearance hearing. William Borden, the congressional staffer who worked alongside Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) to cast suspicion on Oppenheimer, was in close contact with Teller around the same time; “Teller worked assiduously to cultivate Borden against Oppenheimer,” write Bird and Sherwin. Teller is the source of the line we see Oppenheimer say to Harry Truman in the Oval Office in the film; asked what the government should do with Los Alamos, Teller alleged that Oppenheimer had said, “Let’s give it back to the Indians.”

Convinced that Oppenheimer was working to block the development of the H-bomb, Teller told the FBI he “would do anything possible” to see that Oppenheimer’s government work was terminated. He did testify in the 1954 security hearing and, as we see in the film, extended his hand to Oppenheimer to say “I’m sorry” afterward. In real life, Oppenheimer was prepared with a comeback: “After what you’ve just said, I don’t know what you mean.” And Teller also did testify, at Lewis Strauss’s request, in Strauss’s 1959 Senate confirmation hearing to become commerce secretary. Teller credited Strauss for his “long-standing, warm, and effective support of science.” It wasn’t enough; Strauss wasn’t confirmed.

In 1963, less than two weeks after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Oppenheimer and his wife, Kitty, visited the White House, where Oppenheimer received the prestigious Fermi Award from Lyndon Johnson. Teller was there in the room, and, as Bird and Sherwin write, “Everyone watched with mounting tension as the two men came face to face. With Kitty standing stone-faced beside him, Oppenheimer grinned and shook Teller’s hand.”

Teller was ostracized by many of his scientific colleagues for his testimony against Oppenheimer, but he continued to advocate for nuclear technology for the rest of his life. He was also one of the first scientists to warn about the potential of man-made climate change. In 1959, he gave a speech at a symposium sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute warning about excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and its potential to “melt the icecap and submerge New York.” His warning, needless to say, was not exactly heeded.

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Katey Rich

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July 21, 2023
Jean Tatlock: The Tragic Story of Robert Oppenheimer’s “Truest Love”

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Oppenheimer met his wife, Kitty, during a party in August of 1939, and his relationship with Jean had fallen apart by the end of this year. So the breakup scene between them in the film is very plausible. But as we see in the movie, their relationship did not end there. They continued to see each other about twice a year between their breakup and 1943; as Oppenheimer later explained, “we had been very much involved with one another, and there was still a very deep feeling when we saw each other.” Their reunion in June of 1943, during his return trip to Berkeley from Los Alamos, happens as depicted in the film, and was documented extensively by military agents who shared their findings with the FBI. The agents weren’t in the room to see the two naked, of course, but reported that “the relationship of Oppenheimer and Tatlock appears to be very affectionate and intimate.”

Oppenheimer was under “near-total surveillance” during his time at Los Alamos, with the government never letting go of their suspicions about his Communist ties. After this visit with Tatlock, that surveillance extended to her too. On September 1, 1943, J. Edgar Hoover himself wrote a memo recommending that her phone be wiretapped because she had become “the paramour of an individual possessed of vital secret information regarding this nation’s war effort.” Unlike Oppenheimer, she had not given up her Communist ties at this point. But after months of wiretaps the FBI had learned “nothing to confirm their suspicions that the young psychiatrist was Oppenheimer’s (or anyone’s) conduit for passing information to the Soviets,” as biographers Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin write.

Given her brilliance and connections to some of the brightest minds of her era, Jean Tatlock could well have become someone we know as much about as Oppenheimer. Instead, her life ended suddenly on January 4, 1944. As depicted in the film, Tatlock was found lying on a pile of pillows with her head submerged in the bathtub. Her father, Professor John Tatlock, found her, and in an indelible image described in the book, lay her body on the sofa while he went through a stack of her letters and photographs, then burned them in the fireplace.

Tatlock’s death was ruled a “suicide, motive unknown.” She had ingested a number of drugs and left a note that read, in part, “I think I would have been a liability all my life—at least I could take away the burden of a paralyzed soul from a fighting world.” In American Prometheus, the authors speculate she may have been struggling with her sexuality at the time, telling a friend before her death that in order to overcome her attraction to women, she had “slept with every ‘bull’ she could find.” When told the news, as seen in the film, Oppenheimer took “one of his long, lonely walks high into the pines surrounding Los Alamos.”

In the film we see Tatlock’s death in snippets many times, seemingly from Oppenheimer’s imagination. Sometimes she slowly, methodically lowers her head in the bathtub; a few other times we see a black-gloved hand pressing her down as she struggles. That’s a nod to the lingering uncertainty some have about whether Tatlock’s death really was a suicide. One of the drugs in her system, chloral hydrate, is the active ingredient in a “Mickey Finn,” exactly what you would administer to someone if you wanted to knock them out cold. As one doctor says in American Prometheus, “If you were clever and wanted to kill someone, this is the way to do it.”

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Katey Rich

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July 21, 2023
Who Is Winning the Early Barbenheimer Box Office Battle?

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The dual rollout of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, otherwise known as “Barbenheimer,” has officially begun. Audience members eager to see the blonde and/or the bomb began piling into theaters on Thursday night for a blockbuster weekend expected to reawaken the summer box office.

Combined, Barbie, an existential take on a Mattel toy starring Margot Robbie and Oppenheimer, a biopic about the father of the atomic bomb, starring Cillian Murphy, are expected to exceed $260 million at the global box office. But which film is already coming out on top?

That would be the woman in pink. Warner Bros.’ Barbie made $22.3 million at the domestic box office in Thursday previews, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That’s well above fellow summer tentpoles Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which earned $17.5 million in previews, as well as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse with $17.4 million. Despite being banned in Vietnam and triggering Republican lawmakers like Matt Gaetz and Ted Cruz, Barbie is on track to open to as much as $100 million domestically, as reported by the outlet.

Universal’s Oppenheimer claimed second place on Thursday with $10.5 million made in previews. And its three-hour-plus runtime isn’t projected to deter theatergoers—the film is pacing to make just shy of $50 million this weekend. As suggested by the Barbenheimer label, many audience members are seeing both films, often back-to-back. AMC has stated that over 40,000 of their AMC Stubs members have bought advance tickets to see both movies on the same day.

Tom Cruise is one such public advocate for a Barbie-Oppenheimer double feature. He has no stakes in either film, but is the lead of rival IMAX movie Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, which is expected to place third at the box office in its second weekend. The high-octane sequel is projected to earn an additional $28–$30 million.

However the final totals settle, increased audience engagement is welcome after the economic failures of blockbusters like The Flash and Indiana Jones, and before Hollywood’s strikes threaten the release dates of films like Dune: Part Two. “I do think a rising tide lifts all boats,” a top film agent told Vanity Fair. “When we have pictures in theaters that start to feel like they’re ‘watercooler’—which I really think the Barbie–Oppenheimer thing is becoming—it’s incredibly healthy for the box office, because what we’re doing is delivering an experience that people feel like was worth their time and money.”

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Savannah Walsh

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July 21, 2023
Einstein and Oppenheimer’s Real Relationship Was Cordial and Complicated

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There’s a gutting scene midway through Oppenheimer that finds Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer at one of his lowest moments. Despite the scientist’s service to his country, he’s being accused of harboring treasonous sympathies; an unofficial trial with a foregone conclusion is dragging him through the mud. Outside his home in Princeton, he encounters a colleague: Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), who doesn’t seem to get why his fellow physicist is lying down and taking it.

If this is the reward the American government gives Oppenheimer after the years he spent developing the nuclear bomb that ended World War II, Einstein tells him in the film, Oppenheimer should simply “turn his back” on America. (It’s what Einstein was forced to do to his homeland of Germany, after all—and for understandable reasons, he would never trust governments or politicians.) What the essentially stateless Einstein doesn’t understand is that for New York City–born Oppenheimer, this simply isn’t an option. “Damnit,” he replies, “I happen to love this country.”

Like many of the details in Christopher Nolan’s script, both lines of dialogue come straight from Oppenheimer’s source material, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin’s biography American Prometheus. (Though Oppenheimer’s memorable reply is actually lifted from a different exchange.) The scene is a neat illustration of how these two scientific giants both mirrored and opposed one another. Einstein only has a handful of scenes in Oppenheimer, but each of them packs a similar punch—particularly another (fictionalized) Princeton meeting that the film keeps coming back to, revealing its full significance only in the movie’s final moments.

It shouldn’t be surprising to learn that the man whose name has become synonymous with “genius” is only a supporting character in Nolan’s film. Though it was Einstein’s letter to President Roosevelt that convinced FDR to begin a nuclear weapons program, Einstein was not involved in the Manhattan Project. (The government deemed him a security risk due to his left-leaning politics—though it cleared Oppenheimer, despite his various ties to Communists and Communist sympathizers.)

And though he and Oppenheimer both lived and worked at Princeton after the war—specifically at its Institute for Advanced Study, where Oppenheimer served as director from 1947 to 1966—they were not particularly close friends. While they had known each other for years before he came to Princeton and he respected Einstein—who wouldn’t?—Oppenheimer thought of his predecessor “as a living patron saint of physics, not a working scientist,” Bird and Sherwin write. “In the last years of Einstein’s life, the last twenty-five years, his tradition in a certain sense failed him,” Oppenheimer would write in 1965, in a lecture later published in the New York Review of Books.

The older physicist was skeptical of quantum theory, which Oppenheimer would advance, and didn’t believe black holes could possibly exist. As shown in Oppenheimer, the younger physicist helped to prove they do. (In a paper published the same day Hitler invaded Poland!) Though Oppenheimer thought he was essentially old-fashioned, “Einstein eventually acquired a grudging respect for the new director” of the Institute, write Bird and Sherwin, “whom he described as ‘an unusually capable man of many-sided education.’ But what he admired about Oppenheimer was the man, not his physics.”

That said, the biographers indicate Einstein and Oppenheimer did still enjoy each others’ company. They relay a charming anecdote about the two that didn’t make it into Oppenheimer but would’ve been a gas to see. In 1948, they write, “knowing Einstein’s love of classical music, and knowing that his radio could not receive New York broadcasts of concerts from Carnegie Hall, Oppenheimer arranged to have an antenna installed on the roof of Einstein’s modest home at 112 Mercer Street. This was done without Einstein’s knowledge—and then on his birthday, Robert showed up on his doorstep with a new radio and suggested that they listen to a scheduled concert. Einstein was delighted.”

Years later, when Oppenheimer was targeted for his past Communist ties and stripped of his security clearance, Einstein was firmly on his colleague’s side—even if he didn’t understand Oppenheimer’s response. “The trouble with Oppenheimer is that he loves a woman who doesn’t love him—the United States government,” he told a friend, per Bird and Sherwin. “The problem was simple: All Oppenheimer needed to do was to go to Washington, tell the officials that they were fools, and go home.” Einstein was (ahem) smart enough to keep those views private. Publicly, he expressed his support in a more palatable manner: “I admire him not only as a scientist but also as a great human being,” he told the press.

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Hillary Busis

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July 21, 2023
Christopher Nolan praises Robert Downey Jr’s role as Ironman: ‘One of the greatest casting decisions’

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This weekend marks the release of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which boasts a stellar ensemble led by Cillian Murphy. Besides that, Robert Downey Jr. plays a character in the movie for the first time in more than three years. The actor recently proclaimed that Oppenheimer is the best movie he has ever been in. Of course, Downey Jr. is best known to most people for his role as Iron Man/Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In a recent interview with Josh Horowitz of Happy, Sad, Confused, Nolan referred to the MCU’s choice of Downey Jr. as “one of the greatest casting decisions in film history.”

Christopher Nolan was gushing about Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man performance

Although Robert Downey Jr. may have second-guessed taking on the role of Iron Man, Christopher Nolan considers Downey Jr.’s Iron Man to be “one of the greatest casting decisions” in film history.

“One of the best casting choices in film history, in my opinion, was when [Jon] Favreau had the vision to cast him as Iron Man. And you examine what happened and the direction that everything took as a result. And I believe Jon knew exactly how amazing of an actor and how amazing of a promise Downey had. Then the allure of a movie star, that amazing magnetism, enters the picture,” Nolan said.

Talking about what was great about working with Downey on this project, Nolan said, It “was that you could go to him and say, ‘Okay, set your charisma and movie star fantasies aside for a moment and let yourself become engrossed in this real-life character who is so nuanced and has such an amazing role to play in Oppenheimer’s story. And I think a lot of his fan base is going to be quite shocked to see him sort of revert to that genius as an actor, just finding the truth in another human being and expressing it, and the things he accomplishes in the movie. Being able to flip fully and expand oneself in a way that many people haven’t seen someone who has achieved such greatness as a movie star do is pretty cool.”

ALSO READ: Oppenheimer: Here’s why you need to watch Christopher Nolan’s film in IMAX; Take a look at theatres in USA

Robert Downey Jr. questions his role as Iron Man, but Christopher Nolan feels otherwise

The effects of playing the same part for so long have been questioned by Robert Downey Jr. The actor told The New York Times in an interview that he was concerned that playing Iron Man for such a long time might impair his acting abilities. When asked specifically if playing Iron Man in numerous Marvel movies for more than a decade caused him to worry about his ability, he replied, “Yes, without a doubt, and I was aware that Chris Nolan had supported this idea at one point: let’s exercise those other muscles while depriving you of your go-to resources.” He made reference to his standard acting approach, which he developed while playing Iron Man which is known as “fast-talking.”

Nolan, however, seems to have a different opinion of Downey Jr.’s acting abilities, as revealed by his comments in the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast. RDJ is set to appear in an HBO adaptation of The Sympathizer after Oppenheimer.

ALSO READ: Christopher Nolan has no plans to make another superhero film; criticises studios for THIS reason

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July 21, 2023
Your Weekend Playlist: New Music Releases Today

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I write this fresh out of the Barben-heimer challenge, where I spent 5 hours in a movie theater. It must be a world record sitting through that 3 hour Oppenheimer, and the first thing I do when I get home is rush to my computer. I exited the theater on Friday morning just after midnight, so I had a whole world of new music waiting for me.

We have former One Direction member turned R&B crooner ZAYN making his return to music for the first time since his Icarus Falls album in 2018. Five years later, he’s here with his first single, “Love Like This”, an R&B/pop fusion song that is perfect for summer. This big chapter was opened with an interview on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast, where fans welcomed back a normally reserved ZAYN who was ready to open up.

Not only do we have ZAYN, but the Barbie soundtrack is officially released to our ears…and after seeing the movie, it’s lived up to the hype. This summer has been filled with great music from artists we know and love, and some new ones as well. Here are my favorite new songs released Friday, July 21!

Various Artists – Barbie The Album

If it’s produced by Mark Ronson, then it’s a guaranteed smash hit. Which is why we knew the Barbie soundtrack was going to be chart-topping in its own right…and with a lineup that makes Coachella salivate, it’s a no skip album. Dua Lipa, who is also Mermaid Barbie, has the main single with “Dance The Night”, as well as tracks from industry titans like Billie Eilish, Lizzo, The Kid LAROI, Dominic Like, Ava Max, Khalid, and Tame Impala.

It has everything – music ranging from disco, to squeaky clean pop, and inspiration drawn from all of Barbie’s iconic eras. It’ll make you want to laugh, cry, jump, and sing, just like the movie.

ZAYN – “Love Like This”

ZAYN found his sound early on with the release of his debut solo album, Mind of Mine. It was everything that he couldn’t do in his One Direction days. After a few years of in-between, including a quietly released Icarus Falls, he’s back. “Love Like This” is perfect for this time of year – punchy in the right places, smooth enough to put us at ease in this sticky heat, and a good beat to get you out your chair.

It’s a delicious taste of what’s to come from the soulful singer who has a vocal range that even the best singer’s envy, and I personally can’t wait for more.

Tanner Adell – BUCKLE BUNNY

Tanner Adell is rapidly rising in the country music scene because she’s unique, she’s edgy, and she can make a killer track. Taking the world by storm with previous hit singles like “Buckle Bunny” and “Trailer Park Bunny”, Tanner Adell has fans buzzing with her recent mixtape, BUCKLE BUNNY.

In the midst of a country music festival circuit including venues like CMA Fest, Adell is on the brink of combining rap and country in a refreshing way that makes people replay her songs over and over.

Grace VanderWaal – “Boyfriends”

Grace VanderWaal can do it all – a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist – she’s one of the most impressive young talents we have. Her newest single, “Boyfriends”, is about lacking those intimate friendships you see projected in movies or in books. It’s about feeling like you’re more of a boyfriend to anyone than a close friend, the frustrating in-between feeling in friendships where you aren’t sure of their loyalties.

VanderWaal, known for her ukulele talents, is the queen of raw honesty embedded within her lyrics. Her unique melodies, catchy bridges, and emotional choruses can make anyone a fan. “Boyfriends” is the perfect example of Grace’s magic.

Big Boss Vette – RESILIENCE

Fans have been waiting years for Big Boss Vette’s debut album. The St. Louis rapper has been making hits forever, but this is her first larger body of work and it does not disappoint. There was a lot of pressure for Vette, who had fans with big expectations, but RESILIENCE is one of those albums you’ll want to have on loop this summer.

It’s high-energy, with a fitting feature from Gloss Up on “Fly Shhh”. These seven brand new songs have star-quality melodies and hooks that will be stuck in your head forever. It’s the perfect debut album for Big Boss Vette.

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Jai Phillips

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July 20, 2023
Is Movie Magic … Marketing Magic?

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On July 21st, Barbie and Oppenheimer are set to open in the biggest box office battle since 2008’s Mamma Mia and The Dark Night. And if those two films taught us anything, it’s that we can have it all: a gritty Christopher Nolan film and a fun, fresh, flirty, female-helmed, camp musical.

So why is the entire internet pitting these two films against each other? It just may be part of the marketing strategy.

Much has been said about the seemingly untrammeled Barbie budget — especially the collabs. From a Beis luggage collection with actress Shay Mitchell to a splashy array of makeup launches and even the Malibu Barbie Dream House AirBnb, Barbie’s marketing is downright delirious.

But we must remember, Barbie isn’t just a movie — it’s a decades-old brand that helped to forge the identities of generations of women. While the high-budget film has a hand in much of this marketing, the corporation behind the doll, Mattel, is also invested in the movie’s success — and Barbie’s comeback.

So Mattel is footing much of the bill. Making the Barbie movie pretty much a sponsored cinematic feature — like Timothee Chalamet x Scorcese’s Chanel short film (when, oh when will that short film come home from the war?).

@jaiyagill

it’s Barbie Pink summer #barbiemovie #barbiegirl #pink #barbiepink #barbieairbnb #beis #airbnb #moontoothpaste #barbiehotel #greenscreen #progressivecommercial #ryangosling #gretagerwig #margotrobbie

Oppenheimer’s marketing, although intense, is mostly focused on the (Christopher) Nolan and the (Cillian) Murphy-ness of it all. But by all accounts — with an international press tour (now canceled due to the SAG-AFTRA strike) and giant billboards — it must have a giant budget. But nothing compares to Barbie’s boffo budget.

And it feels like every movie of the summer is competing for air while the whole planet is talking about the girl in pink. So, instead of trying to out-do the joint forces of BarbieMattel, other film marketing teams have embraced the theory: if you can’t beat them, join them.

The Barbification of Movie Marketing

Have you seen the photos of Tom Cruise posing with a Barbie ticket and poster? And then have you seen the response-pic of Margot Robbie holding a ticket for Mission Impossible?

Rather than trying to outdo the colossal pink winner on this year’s slate, other summer blockbusters are hopping on the Barbie marketing bus and hoping a titch of that infectious pink rubs off.

The prime example is Tom Cruise’s ticket post that influenced the Barbie cast to recreate it.

What This Means for the Future of Movie Marketing

One of the most commendable things about Barbie’s marketing is its consistency. The branding isn’t just pink — though there’s certainly enough of that. Everything’s a reference to historic Barbie toys — like the dream house and Margot Robbie’s thematic outfits on the press tour.

The press tour looks — before the SAG strike, of course — are ones for the books. Each of Robbie’s looks is custom designer pieces made to reference vintage Barbie outfits. Meanwhile, all other cast members served fashion to rival the Met Gala.

And like the Met, the press tour looks seem like costumes. The branding feels like an extension of the movie. Instead of actors leveraging their personal brands to promote the film, the worldwide press tour felt like an unending trailer. Just look at Ryan Gosling. He’s literally Ken. This is peak method acting. And it’s working on us.

And whenever the SAG strike ends (studio execs: I beg you to pay your actors so we can all go back to bingeing your content), I anticipate future press tours will take note from Barbie and make their press rollouts more gimmicky. The bigger, the better is now the name of the game.

But What About the Small Films?

But what about the movies that can’t afford it? What about those modest films that aren’t essentially product bankrolled and marketed by a global company like Mattel? What about the movies that aren’t able to exploit the personal capital of Margot Robbie, Christopher Nolan, or Tom Cruise?

We’ve already seen the deleterious effects of streamers on cinemas. When a property’s not a giant blockbuster, are cinemas willing to screen smaller or independent films with their tiny box office returns? And with the entire industry on strike and struggling to earn a living, will studios take risks on movies with unknown actors?

The magic of movies used to involve viewing something brand new and being wowed by an immersive experience. Now, the magic of movies feels like being swept up in a huge trend the entire world is talking about. Movies feel like a product of marketing and don’t feel separate from the narratives surrounding them. A prime example: Don’t Worry Darling was a bad movie, but successful nonetheless, frankly, because of the IRL drama surrounding it.

And yet, Barbie is on track for similar success. I won’t be surprised if that silly Wonka film gets the same treatment. And while I’ll be sitting in the theatres for all these films, let’s keep that same energy for movies that lack million-dollar marketing. Otherwise, god help us, movies will just merely be ads.

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LKC

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July 20, 2023