Realism with “Oppenheimer”, or escapism with “Barbie”?
What the fortunes of this summer’s blockbusters will reveal about our times

THEY MAKE an intriguing pair of rivals: he in a dark suit and porkpie hat, she in a gingham dress and matching hair bow. His domain is a vast scientific-research facility in New Mexico; hers is a fluorescent-pink party house with a slide. J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy, an Irish actor) spends his days corralling the finest scientific minds in America to create a nuclear bomb—work a colleague calls “the most important fucking thing to ever happen in the history of the world”. Barbie (played by Margot Robbie, an Australian actress) may seem like she has the perfect life, but she has existential worries too. Do her friends and fellow dolls, she wonders, “ever think about dying?”
Explore more
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Bombs and a bombshell”
Culture
July 22nd 2023- Realism with “Oppenheimer”, or escapism with “Barbie”?
- Extreme temperatures separate “the cool and the damned”
- A new novel imagines life in Andy Warhol’s studio
- Calder Walton’s “Spies” is a riveting history of espionage
- “The Retrievals”, a tale of agony and addiction, makes listeners squirm
- AI is making it possible to clone voices

From the July 22nd 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the edition
A celebrated Chinese novelist grapples with “Moby-Dick”
Xiaolu Guo, a fisherman’s daughter, reimagines the whaling epic with added Taoism

Bill v Melinda Gates: whose memoir should you read?
The battle of the billionaire books

The success of “LOL: Last One Laughing” is no joke
It is a rare comedy show that has gone global
A century on, Art Deco is as stylish as ever
Minimalist furniture is out; opulent interiors are in
Feral teen “Minecraft Movie” fans might just be a good sign
These days it is unusual to see a crowd of teenagers at the cinema
The six best films about financial turmoil
Watch these titles when you can no longer watch the ticker