Movie review: ‘Oppenheimer’

Bob Garver Special to the Valley News

The other half of this summer’s “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, “Oppenheimer” did so well in its second weekend that I will give it a full review of its own. Sure, it came in a distant second to “Barbie” both weekends, but with an estimated $174 million at the domestic box office thus far, it’s more than on pace to become the biggest movie of all time to never win a weekend. The unofficial, counterintuitive and highly-unusual “Barbenheimer” marketing campaign, which contrasts “the glittery comedy with a drama about the atomic bomb,” certainly helped this film’s box office, but it’s a strong enough movie that I’d like to think that it could have been a hit even without its unlikely pink ally. Cillian Murphy, who I could tell from the first publicity photo was perfect, Oscar-ready casting, stars as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man credited as the “father of the atomic bomb.” Much like “The Social Network,” the film intercuts its usually linear historical portion with the framing device of two hearings, one involving Oppenheimer himself and the other involving nemesis Lewis Strauss, played by Robert Downey Jr., chair of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. As Strauss was not a scientist himself, he and Oppenheimer never got along well professionally, but after a perceived derogatory comment made toward Albert Einstein, played by Tom

Conti, he had it in for Oppenheimer personally.

Much of the movie is standard biopic territory: the audience follows Oppenheimer from his days at Cambridge getting advice from Niels Bohr, played by Kenneth Branaugh, to his role as director of The Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the bomb was designed and built. In his personal life, Oppenheimer takes up a relationship with the married Kitty, played by Emily Blunt, while having an affair with Communist sympathizer Jean, played by Florence Pugh. Oppenheimer and his colleagues go through the expected setbacks and successes, culminating in a high-stakes demonstration and one of the most massive explosions ever put on film. Soon the bomb is taken away from the scientists and used in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, and Oppenheimer has to live with the knowledge that he played an integral role in arguably the most devastating event in human history.

There’s surprisingly little violence in the film, other than an offscreen suicide and a sequence where Oppenheimer imagines the effects of the bomb. There isn’t even that much “action,” really, unless you count carefully orchestrated test explosions. But make no mistake, it is one of the most intense films of the year. Sure, some of it has to do with the urgency of the arms race and the stakes involved, but it’s more than that. Director Christopher Nolan knows how to expertly craft a thriller, and his tight pacing and editing will make your heart pound whether it’s bombs or tempers that are flaring.

I’ll be honest a lot about “Oppenheimer” went over my head, from science to politics to legalese to history. And even if I did know more about all these subjects, I still might get overwhelmed by the film’s crowded cast and all the time-jumping. Yet there was never any doubt that what was happening was of great importance, whether to world powers or the world of one. And it’s all done with Nolan’s trademark crispness. The bomb-building and hearings may not be pretty or “sleek” necessarily, but you’ll get the impression that these things cannot be done by anyone other than the people doing them. If you’re looking for a “party” movie where everyone will find something to enjoy while they socialize and pay minimal attention, then “Barbie” is the way to go there. But if you’re ready to be transfixed by a film that will occasionally blow you to the back of your seat – seriously, this is the time to spring for a premium theater experience like IMAX –then “Oppenheimer” is the movie of the summer, maybe the year.

Grade: B “Oppenheimer” is rated R for some sexuality, nudity and language. Its running time is an even 180 minutes, in a precision that seems only fitting. Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@ nyu.edu.

Bee Gees Gold more than keeps sold-out crowd ‘Stayin Alive’ at the Santa Rosa Plateau concert

Tony Ault

Writer

Staff

The crowd at the Bee Gees Gold benefit concert at the Santa Rosa Plateau was more than just “Stayin’ Alive” Saturday evening, August 5 as they danced and waved light sticks in appreciation.

The concert, the last in the Plateau Vineyards Live! @ the Plateau Summer Concerts and Art Shows, brought donations and support for the nonprofit Nature Education Foundation at the Santa Rosa Plateau who brings thousands of elementary and high school students to the reserve each year to learn how and why to preserve nature around them in the future.

Bee Gees Gold, led by Jason Acosta as Barry Gibbs, from the original Bee Gees of the 1970s and 1980s, performed with his fellow vocalists Daryl Borges (Robin Gibbs) and Jeff Celentano (Maurice Gibbs) lending their falsetto voices to bring the group’s most popular hit songs to life on the Plateau Pavilion outdoor stage.

It wasn’t hard to bring a large crowd of all ages to the cement dance floor in front of the stage as the never-forgotten Bee Gees songs played throughout the evening, with hits such as “Night Fever,” “Nights on Broadway,” “Shadow Dancing,” Too Much Heaven,” and of course “Staying’ Alive.” Topping off the night’s entertainment were TNEF teen volunteers from “Mothers and Daughters” handing out light sticks to the dancers to brighten the festivities.

With the conclusion of TNEF summer concerts, members of the staff were recognized with live rose pots and t-shirts along with praise for the many local business supporters that help TNEF in the Summer Concert series this year. Diamond Cut Fitness, the sponsor of the night’s Bee Gee Gold concert, and co-presenters Winchester and Associates and La Cresta Real Estate, were especially honored on stage by Master of Ceremonies John Hunneman and TNEF Executive Director Ginger Greaves. The earlier summer concert sponsors were also recognized including the Family of Janet and John Webb, Darrow Law Group, State Farm and Jared Hartman from Semnar & Hartman, LLP.

During the evening entertainment, a live auction with the prizes of TNEF membership, visit to the next two years summer concerts on the Plateau, the Cowboy Jubilee and Wildlife Day coming up, free admission to the Plateau’s many hiking trails and other items, brought a $1,400 donation to TNEF. A 50-50 drawing brought Cal and Cheryl Westra $1,110 in cash with the remaining $1,110 going to TNEF for its youth environment education programs.

The Nature Education Foundation at the Santa Rosa Plateau, although not a part of the reserve’s management, brings 3rd graders up from the district schools to enjoy a day with a plateau interpreter and participation in interpretive hikes all with the hope of youngsters becoming good stewards of nature.

The nonprofit TNEF organization has recently expanded to bring hi gh school students interested in helping to learn about how to better control climate change and preserve the natural lands around them for the future generations.

The Foundation in another program offers yearly seed scholarships to local school districts to encourage those outstanding students interested in ecology and helping to better preserve the

Symphony serendipity strikes a personal chord

Tim O’Leary

Special to the Valley News

Call it serendipity, kismet or coincidence. It is the story of two lives that shared a deep connection, drifted apart and have now reconnected after some 50 years. Not long ago, I extolled the Temecula Valley Symphony, and told how it stirred my soul with angelic sounds. Symphonic music, a centuries-old art form that is still alive and well, is steeped in melody, unity, history, beauty, tradition and poise.

I introduced you to my high school pal, Ed Castilano. We were coworkers as teenagers. He ignited my lifelong love of music: rock, jazz, orchestral and its myriad other forms.

Castilano was my best man in my first wedding. He knew exactly what he wanted in life. He was certain of his gift. He was admitted to the Eastman School of Music and played in the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.

I was confused, uncertain about my future and full of wanderlust and wild imaginings.

Sadly, Castilano and I lost touch when my first wife and I abandoned our hometown for the warm breezes and sunny skies of the

Lone Star State. There I worked in shipbuilding, construction and many other jobs until I finally drifted into college and veered into a career in journalism.

Fast forward to my symphony column. After it ran, I texted Susan Miyamoto, who oversees the orchestra, to say I would soon drop off some extra copies of that edition of the newspaper to her Old Town Temecula music studio.

By the way, she said, the symphony conductor has met your pal, Ed. I begged her to ask the conductor for Castilano’s phone number. The conductor, John Mario, supplied it, and on my second call, we connected.

It was like stepping back in time. We talked for a half an hour, and since then, we have exchanged emails, texts and photos. We have renewed a friendship that never wavered, one that existed across the years and the miles, through hurts, heartaches and the heady joys of travel, love and laughter.

My past includes a career as a storyteller, then a caregiver whose health cratered and rebounded. My life is good again. I have sweet friends amid a spectacular setting.

I have cats, chickens, goats and a chameleon. There is work to do, needy people to serve and dear friends to love.

Fortune has also smiled upon my pal. His parents have passed, but he has been married to his wonderful wife, Sarah, for 18 years. Sarah Castilano grew up on a small farm in Kentucky where she tended cows, rabbits and chickens.

They have one cat, but no children. Sarah Castilano retired from the medical field. Music has remained Ed Castilano’s muse.

He spent 34 years as the principal bass for the Syracuse symphony in New York before that organization faltered and fell into bankruptcy. He shifted to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, where he has spent the past 10 years.

He continues to live in Syracuse, New York, but he rents a room in Rochester, New York, for his use during the symphony season. He is pondering retirement but said he knows performing is in his blood, and he predicts he will eventually shift to part-time work or perhaps take temporary gigs that offer travel opportunities.

I knew he was destined for greatness the first time I heard him perform. I figured I would spend my life as did my father, in the workaday world where a trade paid the bills rather than the arts.

Little did I know that the written word would become my muse.

In one of our recent email exchanges, Castilano and I separately pondered how decades of practicing our crafts have enabled us to discover our individual voices –his in music and mine in writing.

Castilano wrote about how experience, experimentation, trial and error, success and failure helped him find his voice.

“I feel like I play the bass the best that I ever have,” he said. “It’s because I have in recent world’s natural environment necessary for human life. years found the confidence that allows me not to care anymore about playing the way someone else (conductors, other musicians, past teachers) thinks I should play. I now play how I, me, myself like to play and I play better because of it. Of course, there is always more to learn, and it does take me a little longer to prepare the more difficult pieces that I have played for 45 years than when I was younger. But I play them how I, me, myself like to play them, and no one complains, quite the opposite.”

TNEF motto is to “Educate and empower youth to appreciate, preserve and protect nature” and also offers a pathway to environmental stewardship.

To become a member or learn more about upcoming TNEF programs and events see https://the. nef.org.

Tony Ault can be reached at tault@reedermedia.com.