Christopher Nolan: A Peloton instructor panned one of my movies mid-class

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”
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[From Variety]

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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