Culture | Bombs and a bombshell

Realism with “Oppenheimer”, or escapism with “Barbie”?

What the fortunes of this summer’s blockbusters will reveal about our times

Cillian Murphy in “Oppenheimer” and Margot Robbie in “Barbie” on a blue background separated by a tear
Image: Anthony Gerace/Universal Pictures/Warner Bros

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?”

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This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Bombs and a bombshell”

From the July 22nd 2023 edition

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