It has become the great cinematic debate of our age.
These people are fools.BarbieandOppenheimerare not competitors.
They are not even fellow travelers.
The parallels are quite simply too numerous to be a coincidence.
Both concern a U.S. creation that would have a truly global impact.
And, of course, both films have the potential toreignite geopolitical tensions in the Pacific arena.
but which film should I see first in a back-to-back double bill?
Viewed together, the effect is supposed to be disconcerting.
Option B: Oppenheimer and then Barbie
Then there is the other option.
Some would argue that this is the most psychologically healthy way to view the double bill.
But that isnt the real reason to watchOppenheimerfirst.
The real reason is that the shadow of nuclear terror is integral toBarbies story.
The houses in Barbie Land have no walls and no doors.
But by the same token, these houses resemble child-like, sanitized fantasy reflections of bombed-out buildings.
It is a flight into fantasy from the darkest of terrors.
And yet, there is a third option.
But the real twist is that the opening of this saga has already begun.
It is not just a collaboration between Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig.
Nay, this project also has a secret prologue, provided by none other thanWes Anderson.
Andersons setting, a small town in the desert near a nuclear testing facility, is reminiscent ofOppenheimer.
The film goes further, combining the conceits of bothOppenheimerandBarbie.
The film is divided into both black and white, and color scenes.
So, likeBarbie,Asteroid Citydraws a clear distinction between a self-consciously fictitious and an artificially real world.
