I didn’t go into Oppenheimer feeling like I would enjoy it. I was surprised by how much I loved it though – the story moves at a steady clip, jumping back and forth between timelines for Lewis Strauss’s Senate confirmation hearing and Oppenheimer’s early, communist-heavy days and then the Manhattan Project and Trinity Test and all of that. The script was sharp and the performances were overwhelmingly great. My minor quibble is that Christopher Nolan still has no idea what to do with female characters, nor does he really have an instinct for casting the right actress for the right part. But given that Nolan’s films are usually sausage parties, it doesn’t matter that much. I would even consider Oppenheimer to be Nolan’s best film, or his most mature work as a filmmaker. Well, Nolan picked up a New York Critics Circle Award for Best Director, and in his speech, he spoke about the democratization of film criticism. He gave an example of a Peloton instructor dissing one of his films.
Christopher Nolan was awarded the best director prize this year from the New York Film Critics Circle thanks to his blockbuster “Oppenheimer,” and he used his acceptance speech to wax poetic on his appreciation for film criticism. He alluded to the fact that his love for the profession has only deepened in recent years as the rise of social media and other outlets have turned every casual moviegoer into a critic with a platform to express his or her opinion.
“Directors have a complex emotional relationship with critics and criticism,” he told the audience during the Jan. 4 ceremony at New York City’s Tao Downtown. “A question we’re always asked is: Do we read reviews? Let’s start with the fact that I’m British. A typical family gathering will involve relatives saying to me, ‘You know, Christopher. You probably shouldn’t open The Guardian today.’”
Nolan summed up his appreciation for film criticism by telling a story about how he was once using his Peloton for a workout class only to have the instructor pan one of his movies. The Oscar nominee did not disclose which film it was, but clearly the Peloton instructor had no idea Nolan was in his virtual class that day.
“I was on my Peloton. I’m dying. And the instructor started talking about one of my films and said, ‘Did anyone see this? That’s a couple hours of my life I’ll never get back again!’” Nolan said. “When [film critic] Rex Reed takes a sh-t on your film he doesn’t ask you to work out! In today’s world, where opinions are everywhere, there is a sort of idea that film criticism is being democratized, but I for one think the critical appreciation of films shouldn’t be an instinct but it should be a profession.”
“What we have here tonight is a group of professionals who attempt objectivity,” Nolan continued, addressing the professional film critics in the room. “Obviously writing about cinema objectively is a paradox, but the aspirations of objectivity is what makes criticism vital and timeless and useful to filmmakers and the filmmaking community”
”
I genuinely cannot wrap my head around Christopher Nolan, the driest piece of British toast anyone has ever imagined, using a Peloton and getting upset when one of the instructors disrespected one of his films. Nolan uses a Peloton? Really? But I like what he said about film criticism, and honestly, he doesn’t have to worry too much about professional film critics. His films are always well-reviewed. It probably shocked him when his Peloton instructor dissed his film – no one had ever done that before!
OMG, they found the clip!!!! NSFW for language.
They found the Peloton instructor and she’s brutal pic.twitter.com/i79Css1NLG https://t.co/dRcYUakC3C
— Jacob Oller (@JacobOller) January 4, 2024
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- New York Film Critics Circle Awards at TAO Downtown Featuring: Christopher Nolan Where: New York, New York, United States When: 03 Jan 2024 Credit: Dave Allocca/Starpix/Startraksphoto.com
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- New York Film Critics Circle Awards at TAO Downtown Featuring: Christopher Nolan Where: New York, New York, United States When: 03 Jan 2024 Credit: Marion Curtis/StarPix for NYFCC/startraksphoto.com
What a whiny baby. Regular folks get to critique the films they PAY to see too Chris.
Huh? He didn’t say they can’t. He was drawing a distinction with the professionals, and that he appreciates their attempts at objective takes when every “FirstName736374837” on Twitter is also chiming in. Fair enough. Nothing whiny about it. 🤷♀️
And look, for the record? I didn’t like Tenet either. 😂)
The fact that he even felt the need to whine about what a random person thinks about his film shows that he takes issue with “non-professional” critics. He was PRESSED by what she said. Because he’s used to having his a$$ kissed the majority of the time.
Exactly ameerah. Studio critics don’t want to be snubbed from freebies so they will post VERBATIM what the pr people say. Then you have the fact that the critics are usually related to Hollywood in some way. They started icing out regular critics after Ebert passed away.
I found Oppenheimer to be an expensive yet cheap “made-for- masterpiece theatre” movie. The sound was awesome the bomb was cut-takes.
And she was right…Tenet was ridiculously overcomplicated and I hope he absorbed that
You also couldn’t hear half of what the actors said because he likes to turn up the music and ambient noise in the mix I guess? I love most of his films, but what the actors are saying is always hard to discern in each one. Not just Tom Hardy in the Bane mask.
Ehehehehe. The Peloton lady was brutal–and rightly so. 😈🤣Tenet was everything awful about Nolan’s movies–incomprehensible, cold/flat characters, good actors squashed into cold/flat characters, twists for the sake of twists, time-bending just because–and an irritating self-satisfaction that it’s too clever for us groundlings to understand. And let’s not even get into one of the weakest female characters he’s ever off-loaded on us. Nolan is brilliant, but like later Stanley Kubrick, he gets cut a lot of slack for things he should be criticized for. Sounds like he’s smart enough to start listening, for that other way lies decayed talent and unwatchable ego-trips.
“an irritating self-satisfaction” – I’ve always said Chris Nolan’s films have a smug machismo vibe or narcissistic masculinity to them. The cold, flat characters are dead-on; it’s about that too-cool modern man; a rational and very male hero. Inception is similar to Tenet.
GyrosTime–it also really feels like Nolan is so desperate/compulsive to stay ahead of the audience (and generate so many water-cooler moments) that he goes crazy in the twist department. You often want to tell the man to calm down, for Christ’s sake. But that compulsion could very much be a show of superiority over the viewers…🤮
Deering24, agree with you. You always feel like he’s very aware of the audience and desperate to be smart. A great film should let you disappear into the characters and story rather than make you constantly aware of how smart it is (or trying to be). Anyway, usually his male characters make me feel uneasy and his female characters (often a means to an end to the men or to the plot) have me rolling my eyes.
^A great film should let you … unless you’re deliberately trying to be meta like Quentin Taratino.
@GyrosTime: much as I love gyros, I have to disagree. Quentin doesn’t get off the hook. his female characters are badly written too.
Thanks for pointing that out and I totally agree about issues with QT’s female characterstoo. Just to clarify, I just meant in reference to QT’s film that a film should let you disappear into the story unless you’re deliberately trying to be meta/self-referencing/self-referential – where the audience is constantly reminded they’re watching a film – a major trait of QT’s film but not CN’s.
He won’t. Lodged so far up his own that I’m a little surprised he heard anything over the sound of his own ego and sycophants. I said what I said.
Eh.. everyone’s a critic applies nicely to the Peloton instructor lol.
I think I love her.
She made me lol so I want to hear all her reviews.
Also, how old white Mann is it that he thinks only professionals get to have an opinion on movies? Jesus.
“ he thinks only professionals get to have an opinion on movies”
OK I am officially fascinated that a number of people seem to think that’s what he said. I don’t get it. He said that film criticism from professionals carries a different value. He’s right. Please tell me that no one is going to argue that a nuanced and critical essay on Oppenheimer’s flaws from Pulitzer Prize winner Peggy Noonan is of the same value as BigMan675678 on Twitter screeching “it was too WOKE!!!”
Both are opinions they are entitled to have and express, but I’m fine saying only one of those opinions has any value for a filmmaker to consider.
If you are invoking Peggy Noonan, you are losing the argument .
Meh. I needed an example closer on the political spectrum to the Anti-wokster nuts on Twitter. Otherwise it’s just left versus right (too easy). I think she’s full of s**t, but she’s coherent at least. 🤣
@Mia- the only critic review worth worrying about is the people that pay to watch a film. Not the critics who might want to curry favour with the filmmakers or further their own careers by playing to a specific audience of their own. It’s true. Nolan would be a regular Joe, were it not for those who pay to watch his pretentious films. Everything else is just a circle jerk.
Me too! I generally enjoy Nolan’s films, but Tenet really confused and annoyed me.
I didn’t get the impression it upset him? Felt a bit more like he was joking, “hey you guys may critique my films but at least you’re not making me bike another incline while you do!”. It’s a good story.
I don’t love the Internet identifying the instructor. He didn’t name her or the film even, and the busy bodies with too much time on their hands ID her, and she ends up feeling she has to make a statement. That makes me uncomfortable. He wasn’t upset or looking for an apology. He just told a funny story. And now because social media lacks nuance and common sense this will have opened her up to harassment. Ugh. People need to get outside and touch grass. 🙄
If she does bother to comment, I hope she says “I said what I said and I meant it.”
She did comment. She saw Oppenheimer twice and loved it, and invited him to an in person class. It’s a good comment but she shouldn’t have had to.
I don’t like that aspect either. And I blame him for that. This in the age of the internet. Of course people were going to go looking for who said it. IMO it was a passive aggressive move on his part.
Yeah, I don’t think he was upset by the Peloton criticism, maybe just more of a “I’m trying to work out and I can’t even escape the criticism there!” kind of reaction.
I do think he’s drawing a distinction between “everyone is a critic” vs those who are more trained or objective in their criticism bc its part of their profession, which I think is fair. Someone who is actually a director is going to look at his films very differently than someone like me who has never set foot on a movie set.
It doesn’t mean my criticism is less valid or that my opinion is worthless, its just going to come from a different place.
Also I think people are overlooking the event at which he said this — it was the New York Critics awards. So he was thanking and validating their profession.
She was identified on several Peloton associated accounts, with the general theme of “her brutal honesty is why we love her”. She seems unbothered by it all.
@Mia45 Definitely — he wasn’t whining, just very dry.
I’ve seen a lot of interviews with actors he has worked with who say he’s really warm and funny. It’s interesting because he does seem like he would be very a serious and cold person, so I like getting this glimpse of his personality.
Ah Jenn. I love her and her big mouth. I hope this doesn’t bite her. I’m a big fan of her rides.
That clip made me want to get a Peleton! From my perspective, this reflected well on both her and Peleton.
Ugh Kaiser. I didn’t enjoy Oppenheimer for the same reasons you loved it. The jumping back and forth between timelines rattled my brain.
You’re not the only one – I also thought it was ponderous and self-important. I didn’t feel like I really got to know any of the characters – it was more about the filmmaker saying “look at how good I am at camera tricks and CGI!”
I couldn’t finish it. It was less the jumping around (he loves to do that in his films) but the fact that he fast tracked through Oppenheimer’s early years and relationships so quickly that much of it didn’t make sense. The editing pace was all over the place. He has also continued his streak of not being able to write for or direct females. What a waste of talent. Florence Pugh is topless and sad for 90% of her scenes but no real context is given and Emily Blunt’s character is introduced super quickly and then is either sitting silently out of focus in the back of a room or being an alcoholic and terrible mother to their baby. Admittedly I turned it off halfway through so it could improve but I just didn’t feel the need to go on. It’s beautiful to look at and RDJ is very very good in it, as is Josh Hartnett, but it isn’t Nolan’s or Cillian’s best work.
If you turned it off halfway through…..how do you know its not Nolan’s best work? I think it was definitely one of his best movies, maybe THE best movie he’s made.
I find his sexism and lack of insight into female characters to be a serious problem for me in his films, and Oppenheimer was no exception. Flo’s character was a nuclear physicist in her own right. Extremely well educated and a complex individual herself, and she was introduced literally asking him to explain some shit to her in Sanskrit, then the titties were out the rest of the movie. Why??? I just couldn’t.
Why are Nolan’s female characters always naked/under duress/stupid/dead/suicidal?
I know everyone is like “It’s such a clever indictment of the way misogynistic men perceive women and their motives.” No it’s not. It’s vapid. When privileged white men attempt to indict other men, it comes off as a wink + naked Florence Pugh. It’s not groundbreaking. It’s not interesting.
I walked away from this movie with my only thought being: “men are gonna men”. Boring.
The nuance in Emily Blunt’s performance was interesting. Kitty herself was more interesting and her backstory deserved more time… I low key hated Oppenheimer, if I’m honest.
We have enough stories about men who destroy the world. I can just turn on the news, honestly. I don’t need to glorify them and lionize them with feature films.
100%, I said the same thing above.
Heh–never thought I’d stick up for James Cameron in this regard, but he’s a lot savvier/skilled at female characters than Nolan is (though Cameron’s Wonder Woman rantings _were_ goofy. 😈😉) And Nolan has way, way less of an excuse, for he puts more time into characterization/dialogue than a lot of blockbuster directors. He knows enough to write well-rounded narratives. So, why does he keep falling down here? It’s not like he doesn’t know any interesting women (his wife is a producer.)
Yep, agree with all of you. James Cameron – also technically excellent like Nolan – is better at writing female characters than Nolan. I don’t find Nolan’s female characters believable except for Emily Blunt / Kitty, Carrie Anne Moss in Momento, and Scarlett and Rebecca in The Prestige. Interstellar was okay with Jessica but Anne Hathaway was not believable and framed as a love object (with zero indication she’d even be mildly interested in Matt M throughout the earlier scenes in the film) in the closing sequence, for no reason but just to give his character a male-gazey purpose. Marion’s character in Inception didn’t make ANY sense. List goes on and on. Jean Tatlock was 10 years older than Florence is now when she was with Oppenheimer. It’s not just that the female characters are poorly written and often framed from a very masculine perspective; it’s that his heroes and villains drip with a narcissistic macho vibe, from Batman and Bane to the guys in Tenet and everywhere else (Tom Hardy’s over-the-top hero in Dunkirk, which was otherwise fine) except Momento and The Prestige (wonder if he collaborated with other writers on those). Christopher Nolan is technically excellent but is subtly problematic. Lucky he had Cillian; otherwise Oppenheimer might have felt very smugly macho as well.
I think two things can be true: art criticism can require some context and understanding, requiring a professional or educated eye.
But also, if you make art that is specifically for public consumption (like movies), and the public doesn’t like it, you don’t get to complain that people without a masters in film don’t understand it.
Just say “well, it’s not for everyone” and move on with your day.
The gate keeping of art is historically racist, classist, sexist, and worse. Art for privileged people end elite critics by privileged people, isn’t art. It’s masturbation.
I don’t get the whole Peloton thing, it’s just another fad turned cult like CrossFit to me. Anyway. I think if I were in a situation like this (any sort of fitness class) and the instructor starting trashing my work without realizing I was there, I’d feel weird about it/get taken out of my workout too. That’s just a human reaction. Not saying the instructor can’t have and share opinions, only saying I would also be like “whoa lol awkward” to myself.
I found Oppenheimer’s story within a story within a story far more engrossing than I expected it to be. The 3+ hours moved very quickly, unlike Killers of the Flower Moon, and there were some gems performance-wise. Cillian and RDJ
are definitely Oscar contenders but Matt Damon, Jason Clark, and Emily Blunt are also solid and the little cameos from Tom Conti, Kenneth Branagh, and Rami Malek, whose character steals the film, were delightful.
I do understand Nolan’s point distinguishing between professional critics and the rest of us, I don’t think he’s complaining. And Tenet made no sense to me. I predicted what happened with Debickii’s and Branagh’s characters early on but was completely baffled with Pattinson and Washington
That’s what made me walk away thinking Oppenheimer was the movie of the year – those three hours went very fast for me. I never once thought “is this close to being over?” And I’m the queen of saying after almost every movie “eh, could have been a half hour shorter.” Not so with Oppenheimer.
I watched it at home at night and thought for sure I’d fall asleep but didn’t. I was riveted. I remember feeling the same way watching Dunkirk.
I thought Rami Malek and Alden Ehrenreich’s characters were badly written and directed. Good actors in bad roles. Florence’s too. She was so miscast. Commenter above is right; CN’s women are often troubled or IMO plot accessories for the men.
A writer should write about what inspires them. Oppenheimer was based on a book. Some men can write for women and some not and some women can write for men and some other women cannot. The fix this situation is not to require someone to write about a group but to have a diverse group writing about their inspiration. Nolan movies are good as they are in my opinion. A lot women worked on this movie so does his wife on all of his movies.
Ok but like, why are we still making so much room for boring war dudes to tell us boring war dude stories, for critics to tell us these are subversive and nuanced takes on why war is bad and some bullshit about human nature? ANYONE with one single myelinated neuron knows that war is bad and men are gonna men. Why do we need to keep talking about it? We don’t. We are all sentient and live in a world with journalists. This is a boring war dude movie. I’m not even sure who it’s for. Making three hours go by quickly with visual interest and artistic direction does not make a good movie.
Ehehehehe. She was brutal–and rightly so. 😈🤣Tenet was everything awful about Nolan’s movies–incomprehensible, flat characters, good actors squashed into flat characters, twists for the sake of twists, time-bending just because–and an irritating self-satisfaction that it’s too clever for us groundlings to understand. And let’s not even get into one of the weakest female characters he’s ever off-loaded on us. Nolan is brilliant, but like later Stanley Kubrick, he gets cut a lot of slack for things he should be criticized for. Sounds like he’s smart enough to start listening, for that other way lies decayed talent and unwatchable ego-trips.
Ugh–sorry, this was meant for another thread. Carry on…😉
I so agree about Christopher Nolan and his inability to handle compelling female characters. The only exception I can think of is Anne Hathaway as Catwoman in TDKR, but IMO that was b/c of how well Hathaway elevated the material with her skill and stylistic choices, not how Selina Kyle was written.
That said, I do think Emily Blunt did gave a tremendous supporting performance in Oppenheimer and I am so excited that she will (likely) finally get her due come Oscar nomination time. Whether she’ll win or not remains to be seen though, given how absolutely STACKED and competitive the Supporting Actress category is this year.
To each its own, respectfully. I want Kaiser to write more about Cillian Murphy but she is not into him. I respect that she is not inspired by him as I am. I shared her fascination with Cumberbatch way back then. We all cannot be the same. I want great women write to make great women stories. That is all! Nolan to me is great!
Loved him as an actor from years back. He can do anything and never over does it, which – overacting – is easy to do in a Chris Nolan film.
Nolan vs. Scorsece? Marty S. for the win.
I fell for all the hype on Nolan and Christian Bale Batman trilogy.
Watched all 3. Bale, Murphy, Hardy all fine. Michael Caine always worth seeing.
But, the plots, the constant moving camera shots, the darkness in scenes it was all disappointing for me.
Oppenheimer, a 3 hour long movie in which we all know the plot, the ending, etc.
Nolan has talent but his films are ego driven to me.
You buy a ticket, you get to give a review. Butts in seats, box office results. Show Business Baby.
The mental picture I have of Christopher Nolan in this Peloton class while holding little weights doing this arm workout is amazing. It is giving me late Friday evening giggles.