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

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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.

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*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: One Step Further : My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission by Katherine Johnson

 Today, we have a Nerd Blast + Giveaway to share to spotlight NASA Computer Katherine Johnson's One Step Further: My Story of Math, The Mon, and a Lifelong Mission. Be sure to check it out and grab your copy now!

Genre:

Children

Science/History

Publish Date:

January 5, 2021

Publisher:

National Geographic Kids

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Co-Authors:

Joylette Goble Hylick and Katherine Goble Moore

Illustrated by:

Charnelle Pinkney Barlow

Synopsis:

This inspirational picture book reveals what is was like for a young black mother of three to navigate the difficult world of the 1950s and 60s and to succeed in an unwelcoming industry to become one of the now legendary "hidden figures" of NASA computing and space research.

Johnson''s own empowering narrative is complemented by the recollections of her two daughters about their mother''s work and insights about how she illuminated their paths, including one daughter''s fight for civil rights and another''s journey to become a NASA mathematician herself. The narrative gracefully weaves together Johnson''s personal story, her influence on her daughters'' formative years, her and her daughters'' fight for civil rights, and her lasting impact on NASA and space exploration. Filled with personal reflections, exclusive family archival photos, and striking illustrations, readers will be immersed in this deeply personal portrayal of female empowerment, women in STEM, and the breaking down of race barriers across generations. Historical notes, photo/illustration notes, and a time line put the story into historical and modern-day context.

The inspirational tale of Johnson''s perseverance is both intimate and global, showcasing the drive of each generation to push one step further than the last. With its evocative family album-style format and novel approach to storytelling, One Step Further is sure to inspire the next generation of rising stars.

       

  

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Praise for One Step Further

Engaging, collage-style art augments the text, with speech bubbles, archival family photographs, and Barlow’s child-friendly illustrations. Concurrently accessible and intimate, this book will both inform readers and inspire them to reach for the stars. ―Publishers Weekly

A concise, engaging story of a Black family in the South during the Civil Rights era. ―Booklist

The blend of Johnson’s and her daughters’ voices is intimate and inspiring —Hornbook

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**About the Author**

Photo Content from National Geographic Kids

Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. She calculated and analyzed the flight paths of many spacecraft during her more than three decades with the U.S. space program, and her work helped send astronauts to the moon. She died on February 24, 2020.

**About the Co-Authors**

Joylette Goble Hylick and Katherine Goble Moore grew up during the space race of the 1960s but never fully grasped their mother’s role in it until years later. Hylick graduated from Hampton University and received a Master’s at Drexel University. She followed in her mother’s footsteps, working at NASA as a mathematician before taking a job with Lockheed Martin as a Senior Requirements Engineer. She lives today in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. After attending Bennett College and Hampton University, and receiving a Masters of Science in Information Systems from Montclair State University (formerly Montclair State College), Moore spent 33 years working in public education as an educator and guidance counselor in New Jersey. She currently resides in Greensboro, North Carolina.

**About the Illustrator**

Charnelle Pinkney Barlow, granddaughter of Caldecott-winning illustrator Jerry Pinkney, was surrounded by art as a child. Her passion for illustration grew after being introduced to the world of watercolors. She received her BFA in Illustration from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and her MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Stay connected with Charnelle Pinkney Barlow

   

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***The Giveaway***

Giveaway Open Internationally | Must be 13+ to Enter

- ends March 22, 2021

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NERD BLAST: Strongman: The Rise of Five Dictators and The Fall of Democracy by Kenneth C. Davis

 

Today, we have a 5-day Nerd Blast to share for New York Times Bestselling Author Kenneth C. Davis' Strongman: The Rise of Five Dictators and the Fall of Democracy, available now! So... Be sure to check it out and grab your copy now!

Genre:

Adult

History/Nonfiction

Publish Date:

October 6, 2020

Publisher:

Henry Holt and Co.

Synopsis:

From the bestselling author of the Don’t Know Much About® books comes a dramatic account of the origins of democracy, the history of authoritarianism, and the reigns of five of history's deadliest dictators.

What makes a country fall to a dictator? How do authoritarian leaders—strongmen—capable of killing millions acquire their power? How are they able to defeat the ideal of democracy? And what can we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

By profiling five of the most notoriously ruthless dictators in history—Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Saddam Hussein—Kenneth C. Davis seeks to answer these questions, examining the forces in these strongmen’s personal lives and historical periods that shaped the leaders they’d become. Meticulously researched and complete with photographs, Strongman provides insight into the lives of five leaders who callously transformed the world and serves as an invaluable resource in an era when democracy itself seems in peril.

       

   

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Praise for STRONGMAN: THE RISE OF FIVE DICTATORS AND THE FALL OF DEMOCRACY

* "History’s warnings reverberate in this gripping read about five dictatorial strongmen. A pitch-perfect balance of nuanced reflection and dire warning." ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Strongman is a book that is both deeply researched and deeply felt, both an alarming warning and a galvanizing call to action, both daunting and necessary to read and discuss." ―Cynthia Levinson, author of Fault Lines in the Constitution

"A wake-up call to democracies like ours: we are not immune to despots . . . Strongman demonstrates that democracy is not permanent, unless it is collectively upheld. This book shakes that immortality narrative." ―Jessica Ellison, President of the Minnesota Council for the Social Studies

"Rarely does a history book take such an unflinching look at our common future, where the very presence of democracy is less than certain; even rarer is a history book in which the author’s moral convictions incite young readers to civic engagement; rarest of all, a history book as urgent, as impassioned, and as timely as Kenneth C. Davis’ Strongman." ―Eugene Yelchin, author of the Newbery Honor book Breaking Stalin’s Nose

"[I] . . . found myself engrossed in it from beginning to end. I could not help admiring [Davis's] ability to explain complex ideas in readable prose . . . very much a book for our time." ―Sam Wineburg, author of Why Learn History (When It's Already on Your Phone)

"At a time when dictators are rampant in such countries as North Korea, Turkey, China, Russia, and others, Davis’ deep dive into the lives of five of history’s most notorious dictators (or strongmen as he calls them)―Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Hussein―is apposite and timely." ―Booklist

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**About the Author**

Photo Credit: Nina Subin

Kenneth C. Davis is the New York Times–bestselling author of America’s Hidden History and Don’t Know Much About® History, which gave rise to the Don’t Know Much About® series of books for adults and children. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed In the Shadow of Liberty, which was an ALA Notable Book and a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, as well as More Deadly Than War, which was named a Washington Post Best Children's Book of the Month. A frequent guest on national television and radio and a Ted-Ed Educator, Davis lives in New York City.

Stay connected with Kenneth C. Davis

      

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***The Giveaway***

Giveaway Open Internationally | Must be 13+ to Enter

- ends November 16, 2020

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

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