Cillian Murphy

Experience the breathtaking global phenomenon that has captivated audiences around the world. Written for the screen and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer thrusts audiences into the mind of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), whose landmark work on the Manhattan Project created the first atomic bomb. An unprecedented cinematic event, Oppenheimer features an all-star cast that includes Emily Blunt, Oscar winner Matt Damon, Oscar® nominee Robert Downey Jr., Oscar nominee Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, and Oscar winners Casey Affleck, Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh.

Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is a leader in the field of Artificial Intelligence, working to create a sentient machine that combines mankind's collective intelligence with true human emotion. Anti-technology extremists will kill to stop him, but their attempt forces Will to record and upload his own mind to a supercomputer to achieve transcendence. Success brings him omniscience... and nearly unstoppable power as the fate of the world rests on Will's now questionable humanity.

Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, this gripping drama by Ken Loach (Raining Stones) is set during the early days of the Irish Republican Army, when British occupation of the Irish radicalized many a citizen and caused some to take up arms. Cillian Murphy plays Damien, a medical student on his way to London when he witnesses a couple of atrocities committed by British troops. Instead of becoming a doctor, he turns into a leading and respected figure in an IRA division led by his brother, Teddy (Padraic Delaney).

Batman Begins discards the previous four films in the series and recasts the Caped Crusader as a fearsome avenging angel. That's good news, because the series, which had gotten off to a rousing start under Tim Burton, had gradually dissolved into self-parody by 1997's Batman & Robin. As the title implies, Batman Begins tells the story anew, when Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) flees Western civilization following the murder of his parents.

You wouldn't think a movie could look like a Vermeer painting, but Girl with a Pearl Earring is filmed with an amazing range of luminous glows that evoke the Dutch artist's masterworks. Of course, it helps that much of the movie centers on Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, Ghost World), whose creamy skin and full lips have a luminosity of their own. Johansson plays Griet, a maid in the household of Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth, Bridget Jones' Diary, Fever Pitch), who finds herself in a web of jealousy, artistic inspiration, and social machinations.

The rough-edged vitality of contemporary Irish filmmaking is readily apparent in Intermission, a deliriously ambitious black comedy in which 54 characters and 11 plotlines compete for consistently impressive screen-time.