The Big Picture · Discussion

The 25 Best Movies of the Century: No. 16 - ‘Oppenheimer’

July 4, 2025/ 47 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins

Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins defend Oppenheimer at No. 16 on their 25-best-of-the-century list, walking Christopher Nolan's whole filmography to argue why this one and not The Dark Knight.

21 films across 4 segments.

AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.

No. 16: ‘Oppenheimer’25 for 25

Oppenheimer 2023

The most recent film on the list and, for the hosts, the culmination of Nolan's career — a billion-dollar, R-rated, three-hour talking drama that won seven Oscars off thirteen nominations. They single out the wordless shot of the bomb leaving Los Alamos in trucks, Cillian Murphy's performance, and Jennifer Lame's editing and Ludwig Göransson's score, both Oscar winners. Amanda's misgivings sit with the third-hour Strauss plotline; both agree the Trinity test is among the best sequences Nolan has filmed. It replaced a 2022 pick Amanda won't yet name.

Why not the other Nolansthe case against each

Memento 2000

Sean's dawning-moment Nolan and a great Guy Pearce performance; picking it over Inception or Interstellar would have felt like a troll.

Insomnia 2002

The remake Nolan didn't write — good performances, but a rote cat-and-mouse serial-killer thriller. Never in real consideration.

Batman Begins 2005

Sets a new template for superhero storytelling but plays as table-setting for the sequel; they're not building a Hall of Fame that rewards the one that starts it.

The Prestige 2006

A perennial favorite of the boys-at-home; both call it very good, more than above-average, but short of the pick.

The Dark Knight 2008

Was on the original list as recently as a month before recording, as the superhero representative, and Sean once argued it won. He took it off: Heath Ledger's Joker is extraordinary, but the air goes out once he leaves and the Two-Face turn goes goofy. No superhero movie made the final 25.

Inception 2010

Amanda's would-be No. 1 Nolan and the signature crowd-pleaser — the hallway fight is like nothing Sean had seen — even if it doesn't survive close examination.

The Dark Knight Rises 2012

On nobody's list. Fun and very silly; Amanda finds it easier to enjoy precisely because no one calls it the greatest movie ever made.

Interstellar 2014

The pick for the generation beneath them. Sean admires the ambition but bounces off the 'love is the answer' ending grafted onto an otherwise sophisticated film.

Dunkirk 2017

The one they most strongly considered. Sean loves the triple-timeline structure and its restraint — grave stakes conveyed through the film, not the dialogue — but it doesn't hit him like the next two Nolans.

Tenet 2020

A ton of fun and, per Amanda, a movie she understands less every time they discuss it. Not thematically deep, just bros, free ports, and the immutability of friendship — and not as good as Oppenheimer.

The legacy questionLawrence, or How Green Was My Valley?

Lawrence of Arabia 1962

Sean's optimistic comp: an all-time historical epic people still describe as breathtaking on a big screen sixty years on. It also won Best Picture.

How Green Was My Valley 1941

The pessimist's comp: John Ford's arrival-moment Best Picture winner that beat, and is now overshadowed by, Citizen Kane. Amanda leans toward this being Oppenheimer's fate — respected, but not the film that endures.

Citizen Kane 1941

The more daring loser that history remembers, and the model for how a Best Picture winner can be eclipsed.

The Zone of Interest 2023

Amanda's Citizen Kane in this analogy — thematically linked, harder to rewatch, but the more formally innovative film she expects to matter more over time.

Recommended if you likethe hosts' close-out picks