Oppenheimer has caught the attention of movie fans for more than one reason. But writer and director Paul Schrader was so taken with the movie that he said it was the “most important film of this century.”

The writer of “Taxi Driver” wrote a post on Facebook in which he called Christopher Nolan’s next movie “the best, most important film of this century. If you see one Film in cinemas this year it should be Oppenheimer. I’m not a Nolan groupie but this one blows the doors off the hinges.”

After the film was shown in Paris, there were several early reviews that were very positive.

The Telegraph reviewer Robbie Collins wrote on Twitter, “Am torn between being all coy and mysterious about Oppenheimer and just coming out and saying it’s a total knockout that split my brain open like a twitchy plutonium nucleus and left me sobbing through the end credits like I can’t even remember what else.”

Matt Maytum, a film writer for Total Film, tweeted, “Oppenheimer left me stunned: a character study on the grandest scale, with a sublime central performance by Cillian Murphy. An epic historical drama but with a distinctly Nolan sensibility: the tension, structure, sense of scale, startling sound design, remarkable visuals. Wow.”

Lindsey Bahr of AP Film wrote, “Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is truly a spectacular achievement, in its truthful, concise adaptation, inventive storytelling and nuanced performances from Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and the many, many others involved — some just for a scene. It’s hard to talk about something as dense as this in something as silly as a tweet or thread but Oppenheimer really is a serious, philosophical, adult drama that’s as tense and exciting as Dunkirk. And the big moment — THAT MOMENT — is awe inspiring.”