Witnessing the ‘Oppenharbie’

Dear reader, There are other things that could be talked about, but today I am chronicling a particular journey. Perhaps under slightly different circumstances, this would not have quite as volatile of a reaction. The announcement of two different, disparate movies would have just been an odd curiosity rather than a cultural phenomenon that would capture the imagination of tens of thousands. The juxtaposition was just too staggering.

In one corner of the world, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenhiemer. His first movie in three years, an epic three-hour biopic about the creation of the atomic bomb. An in the other corner, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. A live action fever dream whose trailers and promotional material seem to belie any sort of tethering with anything we’d ever known. And both of these movies coming out on the same day? July 21 was doubled marked from the get. But for some, myself included, this cosmic alignment, the cinematic syzygy meant only one thing. An fantatical film run. A double feature of the highest order I had done as an adult.

Oppenharbie. Now, the history books (by which I mean the Wikipedia article), pormanteau’ed the names as Barbenheimer, a name I never quite agreed with because it did not reflect what I viewed the proper viewing order. As I planned the grueling gauntlet, I determined early on that the only correct approach would be to sit through the dark, harrowing existentialism of Nolan’s Oppe…