Oppenheimer and Barbie were two of the most talked about films of the year, which used their same day release date as a way to create even more hype around two cinematic events that had been in the pipeline for many months. Generating press through their casting news and sneak peeks, these movies captured the world’s attention and powered home by visceral and thoughtful films. Now that they’ve arrived on streaming, you can find them at Showmax as part of a bumper month of film releases, including: Mr Bones 3, Retribution, A Good Person, Inside and Trolls Band Together.
Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer tells the true story of “the father of the atomic bomb”, American scientist J Robert Oppenheimer, and how he risked destroying the world in his attempt to save it.
The third biggest box office hit of 2023 globally, Oppenheimer won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Christopher Nolan (Tenet, Dunkirk, Inception, Interstellar and The Dark Knight trilogy), and over 300 more awards.
Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders, The Dark Knight, Inception) took home the Best Actor Oscar for his starring role as Oppenheimer, and Robert Downey Jr. (aka Sherlock Holmes and Marvel’s Tony Stark) won Best Supporting Actor as Lewis Strauss, with Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place) nominated for Best Actress as biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer has a 93% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with AV Club saying, “It’s Christopher Nolan’s best film so far, a step up to a new level for one of our finest filmmakers, and a movie that burns itself into your brain.”
Barbie
To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.
With two-time Oscar nominee Margot Robbie in the title role, Barbie was the biggest blockbuster of 2023 globally and is the highest-grossing live-action comedy film of all time.
Barbie won over 190 awards and was up for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Screenplay (for director Greta Gerwig and cowriter Noam Baumbach), Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling as Ken and Supporting Actress for America Ferrera as Gloria.
Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell’s original song What Was I Made For? won Song of the Year at the Grammys, as well as the Oscar for Best Achievement in Music for a Motion Picture, beating Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt’s viral hit song I’m Just Ken, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.
Barbie has an 88% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The New Yorker calling it, “brilliant, beautiful and fun.”