More Oppie than Barbenheimer

A movie of hype, not substance

Oppenheimer is a Big Movie.

Christopher Nolan is a Big Director.

We know this because the Marketing-Industrial Complex of modern American cinema has told us so both before and since Nolan’s last film hit theatres that he is Big and the movie is Big if not Bigger than mere Bigness.

Curiously, though, the talk has been less about the film itself than it has …