As with every Best Picture winner, Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” has its fair share of detractors, it comes with the territory of winning the big prize — almost every single Oscar winner this decade, and the last, has been criticized for unjustly winning.
It should then come as no surprise that Nolan’s film being crowned by Oscar has puzzled a few folks, including horror maestro John Carpenter who just doesn’t get the hype surrounding it. He thinks it was just … fine.
Oppenheimer was OK. It was alright. Everyone's praising it as the movie of the century—I don't know about that.
At the other side of the debate are filmmakers who have praised Nolan’s film to the high heavens: Oliver Stone (“classic”), Denis Villeneuve (“masterpiece”), Steven Soderbergh (“a real accomplishment”), and Paul Schrader (“the best and most important film of the century”).
As far as I’m concerned, if you look at all of the winners this decade, it’s a no-brainer, “Oppenheimer” is easily the best and most rewarding film to have won. Slim pickings though, especially when the other winners were “Coda,” “Nomadland” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”