Culture | Bombs and a bombshell

Realism with “Oppenheimer”, or escapism with “Barbie”?

What the fortunes of this summer’s blockbusters will reveal about our times

Cillian Murphy in “Oppenheimer” and Margot Robbie in “Barbie” on a blue background separated by a tear
Image: Anthony Gerace/Universal Pictures/Warner Bros

THEY MAKE an intriguing pair of rivals: he in a dark suit and porkpie hat, she in a gingham dress and matching hair bow. His domain is a vast scientific-research facility in New Mexico; hers is a fluorescent-pink party house with a slide. J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy, an Irish actor) spends his days corralling the finest scientific minds in America to create a nuclear bomb—work a colleague calls “the most important fucking thing to ever happen in the history of the world”. Barbie (played by Margot Robbie, an Australian actress) may seem like she has the perfect life, but she has existential worries too. Do her friends and fellow dolls, she wonders, “ever think about dying?”

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Bombs and a bombshell”

From the July 22nd 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola looks pensive with fans blurred in the background.

Pep Guardiola, football’s greatest coach, is in a bind 

A serial winner is learning how to lose 

Someone reading a book upside down

The Economist’s word of the year for 2024

The Greeks knew how to talk about politics and power


This illustration shows a cracked egg, with its yolk and egg white spilled onto a flat surface. Two halves of the brown eggshell are placed on either side of the spill, and the yolk forms a triangle-like shape.

What do feta, cucumbers and cottage cheese have in common?

Social media and the internet are changing how people cook and relate to food


Germany’s former chancellor sets out to restore her reputation

But her new memoir is unlikely to change her critics’ minds

The best books of 2024, as chosen by The Economist

Readers will never think the same way again about games, horses and spies

What to read to understand Elon Musk

The world’s richest man was shaped by science fiction