During the third and final act of Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster about the father of the atomic bomb, the movie dramatically shifts in tone. There’s a tense, closed-door hearing about J. Robert Oppenheimer’s security clearance, where witnesses from his past are called in and grilled to a crisp. Later, we witness a heart-pounding Senate confirmation hearing for his adversary, Lewis Strauss. Treachery and machinations abound. By the time a clever young Senate aide played by Alden Ehrenreich smugly delivers the line, “the junior senator from Massachusetts, young guy, trying to make a name for himself … John F. Kennedy,” I was practically levitating. Though it was a biopic, Oppenheimer had managed to smuggle in one of my favorite genres: the legal thriller.
