MARIAH's THOUGHTS on Oppenheimer (2023)

Genre:

Drama/History/Biography

Rating:

R

Release Date:

July 21, 2023

Run Time:

3 hrs

Directed by:

Christopher Nolan

Produced by:

Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan

Production Co.:

Universal Pictures, Syncopy

Distribution Co.:

Universal Pictures

Social Media:

    

Cast:

Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey, Jr., Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Florence Pugh, Benny Safdie, Michael Angarano, Josh Hartnett and Kenneth Branagh

See Full Cast & Crew on IMDB

Plot Summary:

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an IMAX®-shot epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.

The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer. Oscar® winner Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

Academy Award® nominee Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie plays theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano plays Robert Serber and Josh Hartnett plays pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence.

Oppenheimer also stars Oscar® winner Rami Malek and reunites Nolan with eight-time Oscar® nominated actor, writer and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh.

The cast includes Dane DeHaan (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets), Dylan Arnold (Halloween franchise), David Krumholtz (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises).

The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin. The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan.

Oppenheimer is filmed in a combination of IMAX® 65mm and 65mm large-format film photography including, for the first time ever, sections in IMAX® black and white analogue photography.

Nolan’s films, including Tenet, Dunkirk, Interstellar, Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy, have earned more than $5 billion at the global box office and have been awarded 11 Oscars and 36 nominations, including two Best Picture nominations.

source

~~~~~

*My Thoughts*

I’m here for the drama. The way documentaries could be made to keep people’s attention, Oppenheimer (2023) kept me in anticipation with its music, cinematic lighting, and transitions. It feels like a symphony watching this movie as it bounces back and forth from Oppenheimer’s 1954 security hearing and his years at Los Alamos building the atomic bomb. There are slow moments and moments of anticipation as he and his team test bombs. The scene in Oppenheimer (2023) that depicts this like a piece of art is the celebratory rally after the atomic bombs drop. It shows Oppenheimer’s secondhand guilt. He looks into the audience, who are cheering his creation’s success, but sees nothing but flashing lights and corpses instead of the citizens living in Los Alamos.

Oppenheimer (2023) holds my attention because it has the historical aspect and the atomic bomb, but it has humanity behind it. It is a romanticization of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life, played by Cillian Murphy. Starting the movie during his university years in England, Oppenheimer is filled with stress, as are many university students, riddled with anxiety, able to focus, sleeplessness, and homesickness. It is a good precursor of his personality throughout the movie. His mind is always racing, “hearing the music without needing to read the notes,” as Niels Bohr within the movie puts it. Oppenheimer sees particles and atoms depicted as sparks and little explosions throughout the movie. He’s brilliant, curious, and doesn’t seem to find joy in many things unless he can learn from them.

Oppenheimer (2023) also covers his relationships with others. Although perplexed by Oppenheimer’s witticism or belittled by his ego, men respect and admire him. Women are drawn to him because they find his intelligence enigmatic. Oppenheimer’s enthusiasm for quantum physics draws more scientific minds to him, especially when he begins researching and teaching at Berkeley, and the California Institute of Technology.

Cinematically beautiful, but in the end, Oppenheimer (2023) could have been shaved down by thirty minutes. The ego between scientists made evident, the point of the movie came across, and relationships explored, by the end of the movie, I and other movie goers were getting restless.

My rating:

NERD BLAST: Speak Up, Speak Out!: The Extraordinary Life of Fighting Shirley Chisholm by Tonya Bolden

Today, we have a Nerd Blast to kick off featuring Critically Acclaimed Award-winning Author Tonya Bolden's Speak Up, Speak Out!: The Extraordinary Life of Fighting Chisholm, a biography of the first Black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first Black woman to run for president with a major political party. So... Be sure to check it out and grab your copy now!

Genre:

Middle Grade

Biography/Nonfiction

Publish Date:

January 4, 2022

Publisher:

National Geographic Kids

Synopsis:

From award-winning author Tonya Bolden comes a biography of the first Black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first Black woman to run for president with a major political party: Shirley Chisholm.

Before there was Barack Obama, before there was Kamala Harris, there was Fighting Shirley Chisholm. A daughter of Barbadian immigrants, Chisholm developed her political chops in Brooklyn in the 1950s and went on to become the first Black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. This “pepper pot,” as she was known, was not afraid to speak up for what she thought was right. While fighting for a better life for her constituents in New York’s 12th Congressional District, Chisholm routinely fought against sexism and racism in her own life and defied the norms of the time. As the first Black woman in the House and the first Black woman to seek the presidential nomination from a major political party, Shirley Chisholm laid the groundwork for those who would come after her.

Extensively researched and reviewed by experts, this inspiring biography traces Chisholm’s journey from her childhood in a small flat in Brooklyn where she read books with her sisters to Brooklyn College where she got her first taste of politics. Readers will cheer Chisholm on to victory from the campaign trail to the hallowed halls of the U.S. Capitol, where she fought for fair wages, equal rights, and an end to the Vietnam War. And while the presidential campaign trail in 1972 did not end in victory, Shirley Chisholm shows us how you can change a country when you speak up and speak out.

       

    

   

~~~~~

**About the Author**

Photo Content from Tonya Bolden

Tonya Bolden is a critically acclaimed award-winning author and recipient of the Children's Book Guild of Washington, D.C.'s Nonfiction Award. She has authored and edited more than 40 books, including Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl (Coretta Scott King Honor book), M.L.K.: Journey of a King (NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children), and George Washington Carver (Virginia Library Association Jefferson Cup Award and Cleveland Public Library Sugarman Award). Acclaimed for her "skilled storytelling," "lively text," and "impeccably-researched" topics, Bolden has received numerous starred reviews from Kirkus and School Library Journal. Bolden, who loved reading and writing as a child, earned her bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a master's degree from Columbia University. She lives in New York City.

Stay connected with Tonya Bolden

     

~~~~~

***The Giveaway***

 

Giveaway Open Internationally | Must be 13+ to Enter

- ends April 17, 2022

Note: Not Responsible for Lost & Damaged Prizes in Your Mail Box

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nerd Blast Organized by

RELEASE DAY BLITZ: Walkin' on the Sun: The Official Smash Mouth Biography written by Paul DeLisle

I could not be more excited to feature this new release! Who hasn't rocked out to the music of Smash Mouth?! Now you can go behind the music with a band that carried the spirit of a generation in Walkin' on the Sun; The Official Smash Mouth Biography. 

Blurb: 

Hello. My name is Paul DeLisle. I’m the guy who wrote this book. You've probably never heard of me. That's okay. Most people wouldn't know me from Adam. But, unless you've been living in a cloistered monastery for the last fifteen years, you have heard of my band.

So begins the memoir of the creation, rise, and current state of the multi-platinum recording artist Smash Mouth as told by bassist Paul DeLisle. Well known for their hits “All Star,” “Walking on the Sun,” “Then the Morning Comes,” “Can’t Get Enough of You Baby,” and “I’m a Believer,” the band carried the spirit of a generation, but didn't stop there. Enjoy this behind-the-scenes look from Paul’s unique, there from the start, insider’s view.

Excerpt:

There's an episode of Cheers where washed-up ball player Sam Malone, frustrated with either Diane or Rebecca, proclaims, "Y'know, most people don't know this ... but I’m famous!"

I love that line. I can totally relate. You see, I am a founding and continued member of the band Smash Mouth. Yet I am, proudly and alas, the bass player. I’m not famous. My band is.

From the beginning, Smash Mouth was set up as a democracy between four musicians and a manager, each player having an equal voice on band matters. Yet we were all fully aware and accepting of the fact that, as lead singer/frontman, Steve Harwell would be getting a disproportionate amount of attention. Seeing as he is the face and mouthpiece of Smash Mouth, you may be a little disappointed he didn't write this book.

But stay with me here. Because as you'll see, I have a unique vantage point: as one of only four original constituents, I’ve been involved in every aspect of the band since day one. Only Steve and I have trod every step of this Smash Mouth journey. Also, while traditionally under-recognized, the bass player himself sees everything. Plus I went to college. Who better to write a book about Smash Mouth?

That said, keep in mind this book is solely from my point of view. Steve, Greg, Kevin, and Robert would obviously have different takes on certain events. However, this book is simply intended as a comprehensive account of our rise to fame and continued success.

So without further ado ... here’s what happened:

EEP!!! How awesome is that! Pick up your copy of Walkin' on the Sun today and get your own "backstage pass" to the world of Smash Mouth! 

Buy Links:

     

~~~~~

Stay connected with Smash Mouth

  

Release Day Blitz Organized by

COVER REVEAL: Walkin' on the Sun, the Official Biography of Smash Mouth by Paul DeLisle

We are absolutely stoked to reveal the cover for the official Smash Mouth Biography, Walkin' On The Sun, written by Paul DeLisle!

Hello. My name is Paul DeLisle. I’m the guy who wrote this book. You've probably never heard of me. That's okay. Most people wouldn't know me from Adam. But, unless you've been living in a cloistered monastery for the last fifteen years, you have heard of my band.

So begins the memoir of the creation, rise, and current state of the multi-platinum recording artist Smash Mouth as told by bassist Paul DeLisle. Well known for their hits “All Star,” “Walking on the Sun,” “Then the Morning Comes,” “Can’t Get Enough of You Baby,” and “I’m a Believer,” the band carried the spirit of a generation, but didn't stop there. Enjoy this behind-the-scenes look from Paul’s unique, there from the start, insider’s view.

Launching in June! Will be on sale for only $0.99 for a LIMITED time!

Don't want to miss the release sale? Follow Anchor Group on Facebook for updates!