BARB/ENHEIMER

Pre-shownotes note: CJ sounds bad because he was recording on his airpods like a complete rube.

Actual shownotes:

* CJ does not complain about the giant corporation he works for

* Why #barbenheimer? (the marketing phenomenon)

* BARB/

* Disclaimer: we’re dudes, talking about a movie made maybe not for dudes

* Unsurprisingly, we loved Ryan G

* Big hits (production design, cast, some humor), big misses (…the rest?)

* What we should expect from a movie about a Mattel toy sponsored by Mattel

* You can’t speak truth to power when the power is funding your movie

* The third act culminates in an unearned sermon

* A token zoomer in a movie made by and for millennials

* Absurdism spins out of control without something to consistently ground it

* CJ mic drops on the haters

* /ENHEIMER

* On the merits of seeing a Christopher Nolan movie twice

* Jordan responds to CJ’s response to Jordan’s invitation to go see it with him for the 2nd time

* Masterclass in filmmaking, but…

* It’s too long, and too “important,” and not nearly entertaining enough

* Whole first hour feels like a montage

* Nolan loves his nonlinear storytelling, but his best films are his most linear

* What kinds of movies earn rewatches?

* A discussion of the film’s most unironically important scene

* The emotional core of the film is Robert Oppenheimer being cursed with existential guilt

* Special shoutout to Florence Pugh, who accomplishes a lot with a little

* Also Casey Affleck

* The visual conceits deployed to keep the audience oriented in space and time

* Nolan is a great, very fallible director

* An example of a director who understands how to conjure a truly great script: Denis Villeneuve

* Where does Oppenheimer fall in the pantheon of Nolan films?

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