Month: July 2026

Post-“Odyssey” Decompression

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Sitting in my car in a Westport AMC parking lot…

Chris Nolan’s The Odyssey is really quite the ambitious head trip mixed with a weary, middle-aged beardo’s guilt trip — an ancient, bountiful, psychedelic realm unto itself…unruly, raw-feeling, sea-sprayed, exotic…atmospherically artful and at times a real mind-bender …a big-sprawl, hurly-burly thing that really puts you through it.  And it’s certainly woke as far as the casting is concerned (i.e., DEI City).

Say it plain and straight: The Odyssey is unlike any ancient period war-and-adventure film I’ve ever seen — an arthouse epic that warrants respect at the very least, and will probably work even better if Joe Popcorn is on mescaline or peyote buttons (it’s not my idea of an LSD film).  

The best way to see this thing is to read a synopsis of the original Homer poem a day before seeing it, and then read it one more time as you’re on your way to the plex while dropping a tab of whatever you choose…okay, you could try acid but something a little gentler and more soothing might be a wiser way to go.

And yet Nolan works so hard at Nolan-izing the damn thing, which is to say aloofing and obscuring the basic Homeric story and weaving all the threads into a kind of eff-you Gordian knot with flies buzzing around and, for people like me, allowing for only an occasional grasping of the dialogue.  

Nolan doesn’t really care if you…okay, if I, the frazzled but diligent proprietor of Hollywood Elsewhere…Nolan doesn’t care if anyone on my level understands this or that or whatever. It doesn’t make any “sense” or really lead anywhere except for the big final slaughter, and that’s almost sorta kinda the point. (Right?) The idea might even be to pulverize and half-confuse.

Nolan to Joe Popcorn: “You won’t really get most of this on your first viewing and that’s fine…the main idea is for you to understand more and more fully that I’m on a much higher plane than you…I am a cold-fish creator or bequeather of wild, imaginative greatness, and you are…well, not cattle exactly but you’re certainly not gazing out at the Aegean with me on an even-steven basis…I am Zeus-like and you’re…well, you’re okay.”

There’s nothing linear about this thing because…well, it’s The Odyssey after all. It’s One Arthouse Freakout or Bloody Beatdown After Another. It’s not really an “audience movie.” It was made for the connoisseur class.

Brief digression: The cyclops is naked the whole time but Nolan never offers even a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glimpse of his gross animal member or ass-crack. So why not have him wear an animal skin for the sake of modesty? Cross-purposes.

Honestly? For the first 70 or 80 minutes I was bored and impatient and tapping my fingers on the armrest. Nolan wrote the script with a determination to stay as far away as possible from the sword-and-sandal cheesiness of Ulysses, the 1954 Kirk Douglas popcorn flick. But his narrative really tricky-dicks and counter-weaves and almost drives you mad because there’s no real through-line here…no thread you can hang onto except at the end.  

This is why some might want to think about dropping mescaline a half-hour or 45 minutes before it starts. There’s no peace in it, but then peace is hardly the point. It’s about guilt and ancient PTSD and deploring brutal men and “dear God, I’m so plagued by the rage and bloodlust that simmers in my gut…I need to somehow cleanse or transcend the beast within.” 

Did I like The Odyssey? Not all that much, to be totally honest. But I knew it was a high-end brain shroomer. During the first hour I was saying to myself “well, at least I don’t have to sit through this again….I’ve done my duty.” And yet I was sporadically impressed with portions of it.

The big bloody finale on Ithaca (which goes on for what…20 or 25 minutes?) is the only section that Joe Popcorn will relax and settle into and feel good about. (If he’s not tripping, I mean.) And despite the American accents and coarse language — most of the dudes sound like guys sitting in the Fenway Park bleachers — the performances are first-rate and earnestly delivered.  

I was especially pleased by Matt Damon (this really is one of his best-ever perfs — he’s really burrowed inside — he’s certainly not cruising or just gliding along), Hamish Patel, Samantha Morton, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, etc. But it’s sooo complex and Nolan-y in a dense, off-center way…so studied and layered and labrynthian and long. 

I wish I’d seen it in IMAX (1.43:1). Maybe next time.

Booze, Regrets, Cigarettes, Despair

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I’ve mentioned this scene before, but every time I catch it Gladys George‘s emoting melts me down. 100% non-verbal, all in her eyes. The catch in Roman Bohnen‘s voice before he says “Captain Derry” is what triggers it.

George’s brief performance in The Maltese Falcon (Miles Archer’s unfaithful wife, Sam Spade‘s about-to-be-jettisoned sidepiece) is what first caught my eye.

“Ink” Saves Venice Film Festival By Occupying Opening-Night Slot

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Variety‘s Leo Barraclough is reporting that Danny Boyle’s Ink, a journalism drama about the birth of Rupert Murdoch‘s tabloid scourge in the late ’60s, will open the 83rd Venice Film Festival (9.2-9.12).

Pic will world premiere in the main competition section. Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy are the big stars.

Posted last spring: Will Danny Boyle‘s Ink, a saga of the launch of Rupert Murdoch‘s The Sun and the hungry, tawdry beginnings of his British tabloid empire, wind up being the tastiest big-city journalism drama since Tom McCarthy‘s Oscar-winning Spotlight (’15)?

Who knows and maybe not, but Ink sure sounds like a rough and tumble serving of some sort…a “this is how Murdoch coarsened journalistic standards while launching the British tabloid industry 57 years ago” thing…a nervy romp that may or may not resemble the story of how Charles Foster Kane‘s unscrupulous New York Inquirer got started, but maybe a bit of this.

Guy Pearce plays the 38-year-old Murdoch, but the principal star appears to be Jack O’Connell (Sinners), who portrays go-getter journalist-editor Larry Lamb, whom Murdoch hired to be The Sun‘s editor in 1969. Claire Foy plays the opportunistic, tabloid-minded Joyce Hopkirk.

The film is based upon James Graham‘s 2017 stage play of the same name. (Graham adapted his play for the screen.) Pic was directed and co-produced by Boyle, and produced by StudioCanal, Media Res and House Productions.

No Sorkin? What A Bummer for the Venice Film Festival

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Earlier today World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy exclusively reported that Aaron Sorkin‘s The Social Reckoning will not be submitted to the 2026 Venice Film Festival, due to a decision to shoot extra footage sometime later this summer.

This in itself tells us Sorkin’s film is in trouble.

This is bad, bad, bad for Venice. No Sorkin, no Tony Gilroy (Behemoth!), no Joel Coen (Jack of Spades), no Inarritu (Digger), no Fincher (The Adventures of Cliff Booth).

It’s A Hit (Fuhgedaboudit)

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Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Peter Farrelly and Peter Gamble‘s I Play Rocky (Amazon/MGM, 11.6), and certainly the most surprising by any measure, is the fact that Sylvester Stallone had and still has no connection to it…not creatively, contractually, consultingly, nuttin’.

“I was shocked to read [about] it,” Stallone told The Playlist‘s Rodrigo Perez last September. “I have zip to do with it.”

A docudrama about the development and production of Stallone’s Rocky, which won a Best Picture Oscar and launched Stallone’s acting career, I Play Rocky is going to make M-O-N-E-Y when it opens in early November.

Academy wokeys are still out to “get” Farrelly over Green Book having won the Best Picture Oscar in early ’19, but I Play Rocky might snag a few nominations regardless.

Farrelly directed; Gamble wrote the screenplay. You can tell it works. You can tell that Anthony Ippolito‘s performance as Stallone is a slam-dunker. It’s an urban northeastern goombah movie — a hit waiting to happen — yo!

Urged on by wife Sasha Czack, Stallone wrote the Rocky screenplay in three and a half days. He refused to allow the film to be made without him playing the lead; United Artists eventually agreed to cast Stallone after he rejected a six-figure deal for the film rights.

Principal photography began in January 1976, with filming primarily done in Philly. Having cost roughly $1 million to produce, Rocky premiered in New York City on 11.20.76, and was released on 12.3. Rocky became the highest-grossing film of 1976, earning roughly $225 million worldwide

It costars Anna Sophia Robb (Sacha), Toby Kebbell, P.J. Byrne, Stephan James, Jay Duplass, Robert Morgan, Tracy Letts and Matt Dillon.

“Public Enemies” + Michael Jackson Connection

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Last night I re-watched Michael Mann‘s Public Enemies, and on the good old 65″ HDR Sony OLED it looked ultra-sharp and exceptionally crystal clear. I’ve only seen it once in a theatre, and that was 17 years ago — Thursday, 6.25.09 in Manhattan. Somewhere on the upper west side.

Those who were there will no doubt recall what a shock it was to hear just before the screening that Michael Jackson had died. I’ve always suspected that Jackson’s demise adversely affected Public Enemies reviews, at least among those critics who attended that night..

The main reason Public Enemies seemed so visually striking that night is that the projected image didn’t look like film but super high-def video. This was how digitally-shot films, still a semi-exotic concept in the late aughts, appeared at the time. Nearly all feature films were still being shot on celluloid.

Public Enemies was shot on five or six different film / digital cameras — ARRIFLEX 235, ARRIFLEX 435, Sony CineAlta F23, Sony HDC-F950, etc.

I remember what a big deal it was five years earlier when Mann announced that large portions of Collateral (’04) had been shot on digital.

The big changeover happened in April 2010 with the introduction of the Arri Alexa, a digital motion picture camera system developed by Arri. It was the company’s first major transition into digital cinematography, and from pretty much that point on features shot on this camera looked like 35mm film when projected upon movie screens. The Public Enemies video look had became a thing of the past.

Jackson was officially pronounced dead at 2:26 pm Pacific daylight time (or 5:35 pm NYC time). It only took about an hour or so for the news to get out. It was just after 7 pm when I heard.

Public Enemies opened nationwide on Wednesday, 7.1.09.

Admiring, Less-Than-Fully-Wowed Reactions to “The Odyssey” Spark Panic Among Nolan Whores

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“The Odyssey is a veritable banquet of such loud, grandiose, movie-movie pleasures,” a major-league critic has written. Well, good! Banquets offer tons of food and audiences, therefore, will feel pleasurably sated. Except it’s not that simple. Because Chris Nolan‘s new film, which offers “so much to feel here at a sensory level”, nonetheless exudes a “slightly aloof, soul-skirting chill.”

That’s putting it plainly and succinctly, but with relatively few exceptions most film critics write their reviews, for safety’s sake, so as not to stir things up too much. They say what they feel they can honestly say within the bounds of political caution.

In response to The Odyssey (which opens tomorrow), this is more or less what they’ve all done today. They’re praising with honesty and passion as far as it goes, but — it pains some of them to indicate this — they’re not blown away because this nearly three-hour film is cool and oblique and doesn’t exectly spin a rousing yarn. But most critics would rather not say that in so many words.

If Claude Rains‘ Cpt. Louis Renault was a know-it-all critic tapping out reviews in 2026, his reaction to The Odyssey might be “I have no conviction if that’s what you mean…I blow with the wind…and for now the prevailing wind happens to be from the big-spending Universal as well as from the social media chorus of the Nolan whores.”

But even given Cpt. Renault’s practical-minded attitude about job security, Odyssey reviews by Guy Lodge and David Rooney, the lead critics of Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, are sincerely respectful and generally positive without being absolute raves.

One reason is that Nolan is a cold fish, and it shouldn’t therefore surprise anyone to discover that he’s once again created an epic work of self-portraiture.

Call me intemperate, but I’m imagining that these “very impressive except for this, that and a few other problems” reactions have struck fear if not panic in the hearts of Nolan loyalists, most of whom have been expecting unqualified hosannahs. The whores were looking to orgiastically dance around the Odyssey bonfire, but now they’re anxious and restless.

Rooney sez:

(1) “A high-minded if at times snoozy spectacle”….snoozy?;

(2) “A meditative action movie both immense and intimate, albeit one whose [narrative] flow is impeded by the inherently episodic nature of the nonlinear source material“…an impeded narrative resulting in a patchwork meditative vibe?;

(3) “The internal transformation of Matt Damon‘s Odysseus “from a hubristic warrior to a man humbled by trauma and loss, is as near to a continuous plotline as the movie gets“…stating that a film lacks a continuous plotline is another way of saying there isn’t very much of a campfire-tale “and then what happens?” quality, right?;

(4) The “dull interludes” involving Charlize Theron‘s nymph Calypso “stop the narrative dead in its tracks, recalling Sean Penn’s purgatorial wanderings in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life“…dull interludes that force a barely-there narrative to stop dead??…jumpin’ jehoshaphat!!

Lodge sez:

(1) The headline reads “In Christopher Nolan’s vast, thrilling, slightly aloof epic, Homer Is Where the Heart Is Not“….it’s more sensually than emotionally felt”….aloof and not all that emotional?…boinnnggg!

(2) “[Pic] has been reshaped to fit the director’s predilection for trickily non-linear storytelling, its disordered timeline a feat of intricate weaving and unweaving”…in my book the term “tricky” applied to a film tends to mean that it’s elusive, spotty, a tad unsatisfying;

(3) “The Odyssey is consistently involving and frequently dazzling, [but] it’s never exactly moving; it keeps the eyes and ears so lavishly occupied, while engaging the mind with its structural games of cat’s cradle, you almost don’t notice, or mind, that your heart isn’t quite in it“….what is a movie that doesn’t quite touch your emotions?

(4) “Yet if we care in the moment for [Odysseus]’s survival, it’s harder to summon as much feeling for his return…Nolan’s writing is sharper and more surprising on matters of honor and betrayal among men than it is on more vaguely outlined family relations“…not much feeling generated by Matt Damon‘s return to Ithaca?….that’s the climax, no?

From a review by The Film Stage’s Nick Newman:

“But if everything is amazing, then nothing is; and if everything conveys the grandeur of IMAX 70mm, then little shall. This is a tantalizing concept that does not bear fruit. When close-ups and landscapes are applied in equal size, a kind of visual enervation settles into The Odyssey’s three hours — no Trojan Horse for film exhibition, but a 1.43:1 monument to itself.”

Film Threat’s Alan Ng: “The sound was the toughest element for me to get over. Right off the bat, from Travis Scott’s poetic performance to simple dialogue, the sound mixing was off. I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying.”

HE sidenote: This is what Nolan has often done. The murky dialogue can be infuriating. He gets high by pissing people off in this respect.

Back to Ng: “The editing is relentless. It felt like the three-hour final product was an attempt to squeeze in an eight-hour movie. There are very few stops and virtually no breaks in the story. Moments of quiet felt like they were edited out for time. Every transition was a quick cut, and stories felt like an adventurer’s highlight reels.

“In the end, I just wanted The Odyssey to feel like an epic, grand adventure, and, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I wanted this story to say something about humanity. Anything that felt inspiring or profound. Instead, we just got this grand adventure for the sake of being a grand adventure.”

Throw The Bums Out! Homeless Encampments Afflicting Musso & Frank

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As a longtime lover and admirer of the fabled Musso & Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard, it’s nothing short of tragic that the 107-year-old establishment isn’t getting the business it needs and may even be in financial jeopardy. Why? Nearby homeless encampments — scurvy bums in tents — are scaring away regulars and tourists alike.

And the bad guy, it’s being alleged, is Los Angeles City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez, who’s apparently adopted a kid gloves approach to the bum crisis. Hollywood Boulevard street vending is cool, of course, but not tents filled with the lowest of the low (filth, garbage and drug-dealing)…a pestilence that’s not only hurting poor Musso & Frank but also local mom and pop stores.

Karen Bass statement on Facebook: “I’m proud to have the support of Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, a partner who shares a deep commitment to progressive, people-first policies” — i.e., allowing homeless encampments to create a urine-and-junk-food stench and scare away tourists. Bass: “Together, we’ve strengthened tenant protections, advanced housing stability, and worked to address homelessness.”

Cliff to Musso & Frank passerby: “Don’t cry in front of the bums”

Gilroy Finally Returns to Adult, Recognizably Earthbound Realism

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After God knows how many years in the far reaches of space, Michael Clayton‘s Tony Gilroy is back from Andor and the equally faraway realm of Rogue One…thank God almighty!

The newbie is Behemoth!, an intelligent, earthbound film about musically-driven adults.

Plus I’ve got an early draft of Gilroy’s script (reading it tonight). It obviously gives off Tar vibes although the jeopardy facing Pedro Pascal‘s Alex Serian, “a renowned, prolific cellist returning to Los Angeles to compose film scores”, is almost certainly different than what Cate Blanchett dealt with.

An obviously top-tier cast — Pascal plus Will Arnett as Alex’s brother; Eva Victor as Nadia, “Alex’s colleague and love interest”; Olivia Wilde as Alex’s ex-girlfriend; Hank Azaria as Alex’s father plus Alexa Swinton, Kaya Ralls, Erik Griffin, JoBeth Williams and Matthew Lillard.

The last major film with the word “behemoth” in the title was released 67 years ago:

Another Dystopian Wasteland Deal

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The 8.28 release date of Ridley Scott‘s The Dog Stars (20th Century) tells you that 20th Century isn’t strongly invested. Not with the Venice and Telluride film festivals kicking off in late August and early September. Plus the Scott film seems nearly identical to Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann‘s The Last Of Us, the highly-praised 2023 miniseries about an apocalypse is triggered by a mysterious, highly lethal virus. Dog Stars is about a flu pandemic that has almost destroyed humanity, etc. But no zombies — just hungry survivors struggling to survive with limited food and fuel.

Odysseus Is Half-Repelled by The Idea Of Being Domesticated?

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The only way that a metaphor behind The Odyssey…the only way it works for me is that it’s not about a weary Ithacan warrior trying to return home but being delayed, distracted and detoured by the gods for ten long years…

For a wandering decade-long journey can only me processed as a story about a warrior who doesn’t really want to return home. This, at least, makes sense. Who wants to return to the chains of matrimony? Mowing the lawn, taking out the garbage, cleaning the gutters.

Odysseus is nominally trying to return to wife Penelope and son Telemachus, but he’s too curious, too much in love with brawny adventure, and too attracted to grappling with all the godly manipulations and exotic strange-itude.

Odysseus is ostensibly trying to return home, but not really. Deep down he isn’t fully into it. This is the only interpretation that seems understandable.

HE to those who’ve seen The Odyssey: Does Chris Nolan‘s film suggest that this is what’s really going on with Matt Damon‘s Odysseus, deep down? Does Nolan acknowledge that this is the core motivation at work here?

Scholars have argued that Odysseus subconsciously sabotages his own journey. His insatiable wanderer’s instinct and burning curiosity constantly pull him into danger rather than leading him toward Ithaca.

I’m told there’s a line in the film about Odysseus’s ambivalence blah blah. But this is not really a core issue.

Why do I like this interpretation? Because if applied and developed, it could make Homer’s “The Odyssey” seem grounded by something real…something psychologically understandable.

Ten years of grappling with the Gods and chasing exotic thrills around the Aegean sea makes no sense, of course. Zero story tension.