Adventures in Movie Promotional Photos, part 134

Of all the pre-Actually Seeing the Movie discourse generated around Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” not to mention the whole “Oppenheimer” v “Barbie” subplot, one subject I have seen appear nowhere in the quasi-dialogue is how the promotional photo by Melinda Sue Gordon accompanying so many of these “Oppenheimer” stories has captured the ultimate essence of the promo photo (see above). (The photo is property of Universal Pictures who are jackanapses.)

For one thing, Christopher Nolan has assumed the ultimate auteur pose, framing the scene with his hands, his eyes a viewfinder to the whole world.  

For another, given how Cillian Murphy is standing in front of Nolan and not looking at him, the image emits an unlikely whiff of photoshop, as if Nolan is not really even there, just a directorial specter.

That distinct photoshop sensation, in fact, means that if you look at the promo photo longer, it starts to look less like a promo photo and more like a poster for a different version of “Oppenheimer,” one in which the forgotten (non-existent) physicist C. Matthew Linslade, the Christian Laettner of the Atomic Dream Team, becomes a crucial supporting character. 

And “Linslade” sounds like a better competing project to “Oppenheimer” than “Barbie,” quite frankly, kind of the “EDtv” to its “Truman Show,” written, directed, produced, edited by, I would imagine, and probably starring, Bobby K. Bowfinger. 

Linslade: It’s Not the End of the World.