There are still 11 days to go until the biggest cinematic battle of the year officially gets underway, but the never-ending discourse revolving around Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer continues evolving at a rate that’s every bit as rapid as it is unexpected.
The latest is a doozy, though, and fittingly ironic when you consider the architect of such acclaimed blockbusters as the Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, and Tenet has never exactly been renowned for infusing his filmography with much in the way of sexual tension, or even romance for that matter.
And yet, because Barbenheimer is the gift that keeps on giving, we’re on course for yet another brand new and bespoke term to start sweeping social media like a wildfire, after the promise of the R-rated Oppenheimer‘s love scenes gave rise to the “Oppenhorny.”
It’s been widely reported that the driving force behind Oppenhemer‘s R-rating – something that’s already given Barbie a substantial advantage at the box office considering Margot Robbie’s candy-coated fantasy is on track to score an opening weekend twice as high – is the “extended” sex scenes between Murphy’s title character and Florence Pugh’s Jean Tatlock, a member of the United State’s Communist party who engaged in an extramarital affair with the mastermind behind the atomic bomb.
If Nolan plays his cards right, which he generally tends to do as one of the most consistent filmmakers of the modern era – then there’s a distinct possibility we’ll all come out of the theater feeling a touch on the Oppenhorny side for a variety of reasons come July 21.