The Odyssey follows Odysseus, the legendary Greek king of Ithaca, on his long and perilous journey home following the Trojan War, chronicling his encounters with mythical beings such as the Cyclops Polyphemus, sirens, and the nymph Calypso, while attempting to reunite with his wife, Penelope.

Nolan’s Complete Vision

As a filmmaker, Christopher Nolan is a force of nature who redefined the blockbuster movie experience beginning with 2005’s Batman Begins, and who has successfully tread the line between high-end action blockbuster filmmaking and more intriguing, thought-provoking arthouse work; in my mind, The Odyssey sits there. Interpreting the nearly 3000 year old work of Homer’s in his own vision, audiences find themselves watching a production that is filtered deliberating through Nolan’s own mind, and you almost feel like he’s exploring further ideas he previously explored in Oppenheimer with man’s unique take on both creativity leading to triumph or destruction, and it all makes for a very interesting realm on which to explore this ancient work.

Told with a structure that moves back and forth across time, itself a fabled Nolan trope, we come to see a disjointed and lost Odysseus who following the fall of Troy searches for a way to get back to his ancient home of Ithica, and tis narrative is juxtaposed with his loyal wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and his son Telemachus (Tom Holland) who wait holding out hope in Ithica for Odysseus return all while a vile group of suitors, led by the cruel and sadistic Antinous (Robert Pattinson) scheme and vie for Penelope’s hand in marriage, and total control of Ithica. With such a sprawling canvas, Nolan’s The Odyssey approaches its subject matter through a lens of memory, rage, and the passage of time, and it is less your standard action-adventure picture and more a thinking man’s blockbuster. Violence and action abound, but all of it is in service to Nolan’s study of the figure of Odysseus, and this work almost feels like a character study of a classical character, with all the veneer and polish stripped away so only the man is left.

A Cast of Titans

For Matt Damon, The Odyssey feels like an interesting choice for studying a hero stripped of his power and forced to contend with the reactive forces of fate and the will of the gods. Damon cuts a striking figure as the powerful Odysseus, but here Nolan really shows us him as an ordinary, if not gifted man, who is tested by the gods, must contend with forces beyond his control, and which test his will to its very limit. Damon delivers a man wrestling with the past and the consequences of his choices, making for a nuanced portrait of the legendary hero.

Juxtaposed with him are Anne Hathaway as his great love, Penelope, and Tom Holland as his loyal son, Telemachus, both of whom serve key roles in the production. For Anne Hathaway’s Penelope, we find a woman wrestling with the pain of longing, holding on by a very thin thread; she sees the bigger plan at play in Ithaca. Immense emotional power drives her performance as Penelope, and we see her holding on to her husband’s memory for dear life. Holland as Telemachus is a young man with everything to prove, but who is not schooled in the art of palace politics, and who must suffer the viper-like motions of the suitors who sit in his father’s hall. Seeking a chance to prove himself, he ventures out into the unknown, desperate for answers, and has to follow a path that will finally turn him into a man without his father’s presence.

Nolan’s The Odyssey also features a large cast of supporting characters, with some key standouts. Robert Pattinson’s Antinous, the leading suitor to Penelope, is a vicious and vile character who moves like a viper through Odysseus’ hall in Ithaca, seeking a way to claim what we view as his, and he’s incredibly frosty and repellent and again plays into Pattinson’s wheelhouse of delivering characters who can truly stand out. John. Bernthal also makes a solid presence as Menelaus, King of Sparta and husband to Helen, whose rage incites the Trojan war, and he delivers a hulking, muscular presence to the film, which is tinged by arrogance and power, but whose adherence to honour and loyalty leaves its mark on Telemachus. But the film’s scene-stealer is, hands down, John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, Odysseus’s faithful servant and blind swineherd, who holds to his master’s return and utterly seizes the audience’s attention with his performance.

Sheer Spectacle

In terms of the experience of Nolan’s The Odyssey, this is a picture where the fantasy is made real, and Nolan brings to life the famous moments that have defined Homer’s epic, from the Cyclops to the Sirens to the witchcraft of Circe, and all of it is presented in a way that feels mythical yet entirely practical and real. And all of it is captured in IMAX, making for a profound and exciting sight. Watching Nolan’s The Odyssey in IMAX is an experience unlike anything you’ve ever witnessed before.

The scale and scope only serve to magnify this gigantic story, and all of it is captured in pristine detail, with a grand attention to detail, and it utterly washes over you. Production design and the total ambience of the picture also ground the audience in the Bronze Age, and you feel like you’re watching a picture that is both ancient and also weirdly contemporary at the same time, or a legend that exists outside of time and place where mysticism and the real clash side by side, and where gods and ghosts walk amongst us. Academy Award-winning Ludwig Göransson’s soundtrack is also tempered by sounds of a time long passed, echoing with the chimes or strikings of bronze, and heavy percussion riffs that echo throughout the theatre, and again it elevates the experience of the picture.

But if The Odyssey does have a moment where its heightened feeling comes to a cataclysm then its definitely the fall of Troy, when Odysseus and Greeks creep from the Horse, and ignite a trap that sees Troy sacked and left to fiery ruin, and not only does its heat and fire and flame quench the very limits of the IMAX screen, but this moment is where the film cements its thematic moment. Told in flashbacks that move back and forth across the narrative, it is Odysseus’s revelation in the powerful third act, where both his genius and fury are visited upon the Trojans, and where Nolan’s exploration of time, memory, regret, and consequence comes into play. This third-act moment is where the whole film comes together, and its presentation of the grand theme will truly affect the audience who witness it.

Final Verdict: Nolan’s Vision

The Odyssey is a vision of cinema fully shaped by the mind of Christopher Nolan, and he takes audiences into the size and scale of this story through the immense spectacle of IMAX and delivers a narrative that is his definitive take on the subject matter of the original text.

Image: Universal Pictures

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The film follows the life of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project in World War II, and his contributions that led to the creation of the atomic bomb.

Looking to the past and adapting Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s American Prometheus, filmmaker Christopher Nolan tells the doomed and tragic story of American theoretical physicist and father of the ‘atomic bomb’, J. Robert Oppenheimer. And the result is a pulse-pounding and terrifying film of what the fullest pursuit of genius can do to the human spirit. Nolan’s narrative in Oppenheimer is a cautionary parable for the modern age of innovation and what the blind pursuit of knowledge can lead to. Drawing on the Greek myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods, and who, for gifting it to mankind, was chained to a rock by his angry creator and who was forced to endure intolerable torment for all of eternity, Nolan takes his audiences on an emotional and shocking journey to the creation of the Atomic Bomb. And it is an awe-inspiring work.

Christopher Nolan’s stance in the realisation of Oppenheimer is that of conductor of the grandest visual orchestra arranged. Light, colour, sound and performance all merge together in the telling of the grand American tale, with Oppenheimer being a perfect symphony of the cinematic arts. Nolan stands as a painter with this portrait of the most defining moment of the 20th century, and not a brush stroke is missed. Layered emotions and the complex juxtaposition of the pursuit of glory mirrored with the realisation of the tragedy of success are brought together in the film. He brings a highly focused attention to detail to this titan of a narrative, and audiences will find themselves pulled deeper and deeper into its continually evolving story. Like the realm of quantum physics that he seeks to pull his audience into, Oppenheimer is a continually evolving production, and it is not until the final scene that its full meaning can be felt.

As a guardian of the cinema experience, Nolan makes Oppenheimer a feast for the eyes, and it is a glory to watch in the IMAX format. Together with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, production designer Ruth De Jong, art director Samantha Englender, and costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, Nolan creates a broad and sweeping canvas that captures the change of humanity’s entire direction in the mid-1940s with the race to the creation of the bomb. The scope of IMAX captures an almost Norman Rockwell influence on the lighting, costuming, and design of Oppenheimer’s world and its Los Alomas setting. The familiar and classic Americana landscape acts as an inviting portal for audiences to enter into, but it also hides the world-changing discoveries that are at work. The use of both colour and black and white in the storytelling mechanism acts as a way to define the film’s two unique narrative perspectives, and audiences will not be able to look away from what they witness.

At the centre of Oppenheimer and with the eyes of the audience fully focused on him is Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer. And let me say that Murphy’s performance is excellent. Through appearance, stance and behaviour, Murphy transforms himself into Oppenheimer, the man who would move the world, and he’s never been given greater responsibility for a character. In his portrayal of ‘the father of the Atomic Bomb’, Murphy moves between the polarities that existed in Oppenheimer’s life. He’s a man whose enchanted by the natural world and who seeks an understanding of it to bask in its beauty and triumph but who is also ensnared by the jealousies, failings and fears that afflict all men. J. Robert Oppenheimer was complex, challenged and evolving, and so too is Murphy’s presentation of the man.

Standing in Murphy’s shadow in Oppenheimer is celebrated actress Emily Blunt as she carries a grand weight as the central character’s traumatised and problem-stricken wife, Kitty. Both a drunk and uncaring wife and mother, Kitty is an incredibly difficult woman who straddles a line between her admiration and bitter spite of her husband. She’s also a woman whose unafraid of an argument, and she’s ready to get in the faces of the men she despises. While you could label Blunt’s character as unsympathetic, we bear witness to her own emotions and the humiliation that she suffers through with her husband’s ongoing affair with the pretty and spritely Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), his communist fling. Nolan revs up the disgust and trauma as she confronts her husband’s blatant and open infidelities. Blunt is at the top of her game in Oppenheimer, and she’s never given a better performance.

Via Christopher Nolan’s presence Matt Damon finds a new direction for his presentation as the classic American character. Cast as Brigadier General Leslie Groves, a man who led the creation of the Manhatten Project and America’s response to the race for the bomb, Damon leans into Groves’s documented persona as ‘a doer, a driver and a stickler for duty’. As Groves, Damon is a complete bulldog. Argumentative, relentless and determined to get his own way, he repeatedly hammers the threat that failure is not an option. Like many of the other characters present in this story, Damon’s Groves shares a complex and constantly progressive relationship with Murphy’s Oppenheimer, and this leads to an interesting relationship on screen.

Finally, Robert Downey Jr. steps into the polished visage of Lewis Strauss, Chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and he’s the narrative’s most complicated character. Strauss appears in the narrative as the ultimate politician, thanks to Downey Jr.’s portrayal of him. Best described as a two-faced, bureaucratic prick, he’s willing to go to any length to paint himself in a positive light, and as Nolan’s film develops, his festering contempt, heightened distrust and loathsome disdain for Oppenheimer unfolds. Robert Downey Jr. as Strauss is pure unchecked ego, and he has a considerable appearance in the film’s third act, and like many of the actors in the piece, Downey Jr. elevates to a whole other level in Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer is a pure operatic experience thanks to the tremendous scale given to it by the scope of the IMAX format. Its defining centre piece relates to the testing of The Trinity Test, the first time the world ever saw witness to an atomic device, when Oppenheimer literally captured the power of the sun on Earth. And in IMAX, it’s a thunderous moment. Imagery and sound capture its orange and yellow mushroom cloud and both its beauty and horror in a single moment. The film’s presentation of The Trinity Test is matched to Nolan’s exploration of the world of quantum physics. The director visualizes this through pictures of vivid colours and fractured light, and there’s a certain psychedelic rock and roll vibe that is present in the picture’s exploration of theoretical physics.

Thematically Christopher Nolan takes his audience on a considerable journey with this narrative, and there’s an immense danger and darkness that exists at the heart of Oppenheimer. Nolan’s vivid exploration of the creation of the atomic bomb is then juxtaposed with the harrowing and haunting realisation of Oppenheimer’s own actions and the terrifying realisation of the destruction he has unleashed upon the world. Oppenheimer is existentially sobering in its final delivery, and the audiences will feel their minds throb with its questions and messaging. By its final scene, I was completely spent with emotion, and its hard-hitting final statement continued to reverberate throughout my mind for many days to come. I had never before witnessed a more intellectual, harrowing and important cinema experience in my whole life.

Oppenheimer is a film of cause and effect, action and consequence, and how innovation can lead to both discovery and destruction in the same moment. The film’s final statement is a definitive statement on human choice, action and free will, and this is the ultimate cautionary tale for our modern age. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a cinematic masterpiece in every sense of the word and is likely to be one of the most important narrative events of the 21st century. And humanity should head its message.

Image: Universal Pictures

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Watch and behold the extraordinary power of Oppenheimer below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

The film follows the life of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project in World War II, and his contributions that led to the creation of the atomic bomb.

With a dynamic and all-consuming passion, celebrated filmmaker Christopher Nolan is readying to bring audiences the incredible true-life story of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) and the creation of the Atomic Bomb in Oppenheimer. Based upon the award-winning biography of Oppenheimer, American Prometheus by Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin, Oppenheimer is shaping up to be an incredibly powerful and dynamic story that will leave audiences spellbound by the portrait of its subject and layered with dynamic characterization and grand visuals.

Nolan is joined once again by noted cinematographer and together they have fully embraced the power of the IMAX format with Oppenheimer being filmed in IMAX 65mm and 65mm large-format film. It is also the first film to shoot sections in IMAX black and white analog photography. And this will be a grand event to witness on the big screen.

Alongside Murphy, Nolan has assembled an incredible line-up of talent for this picture which includes the likes of Emily Blunt as Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, Matt Damon as Leslie Groves, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Benny Safdie, Michael Angarano, Josh Hartnett, Kenneth Branagh and Gary Oldman, and Oppenheimer will test all of them to the core limits of their craft.

Prepare yourself for a miraculous and powerful cinematic experience when Oppenheimer arrives in cinemas on July 20.

Image: Universal Pictures

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So speaks Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer in the first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming blockbuster epic, Oppenheimer, which has just premiered an all-new trailer that captures both the beauty and terror of the world’s discovery of atomic power and its possibility to both create and destroy with incredibly moral ambiguity in what is shaping up to be our most anticipated film of 2023.

Watch the full trailer for Oppenheimer below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

The film follows the life of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillin Murphy), the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project, and his contributions that led to the creation of the atomic bomb.

Adapting the book, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Oppenheimer is a blockbuster of massive scope and scale as Christopher Nolan captures the mind and moment that would forever change our world with the dawn of nuclear age and the Oppenheimer’s creation of the world-shattering power of the atomic bomb.

Murphy leads one of the greatest ensemble casts ever crafted which as J. Robert Oppenheimer and is joined by Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, Academy Award winner Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

Additional cast members include Academy Award nominee Florence Pugh as psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie as theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano as Robert Serber and Josh Hartnett as pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence.

Academy Award winner Rami Malek and eight-time Oscar® nominated actor, writer and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh will also be present in Oppenheimer as will Dane DeHaan, Dylan Arnold, David Krumholtz, Alden Ehrenreich and Matthew Modine.

Beautifully shot thanks to lens of the film’s cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, Oppenheimer was filmed in a combination of IMAX 65mm and 65mm large-format film photography including, for the first time ever, sections in IMAX® black and white analogue photography.

Oppenheimer has power, intensity and dread to its narrative as the restless and fractured soul of J. Robert Oppenheimer battles with his conscience and the terror that his mind is able to conjure in events that will change the world forever.

This new trailer for Oppenheimer is simply incredible on every level and cinema audiences will be absolutely mesmerized by the imagery and narrative that Nolan brings to the screen with this picture.

Oppenheimer will arrive in theatres on July 20, 2023.

Image: Universal Pictures

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And now Nolan has made a very special announcement and has revealed some of the first footage from his latest film project. Check it out below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

The film follows theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project and his contributions that led to the creation of the atomic bomb.

Stark in its imagery and bringing to life a sense of foreboding and tragedy, Nolan is being cryptic with this first look at Oppenheimer, but it’s clear that this movie is doing to be something different for audiences and it’s dramatic depth will leave a very real impact on them.

Mixing layered black and white imagery with burning colour, and with its moody, hollow score and clipped dialogue narration that announces ‘the man who moved the earth’, Oppenheimer is shaping up to be an epic film that brings together an intimate character study, along with strong ethical questions and the triumphs and sorrows that are brought upon by the act of creation. In essence, this is Nolan presenting a work of intense drama and feeling and audiences will be drawn into the visual poetry that he brings to life on the screen.

Along with Cillain Murphy in the lead role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Nolan has packed out Oppenheimer with a top of their game cast including Emily Blunt as Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, Matt Damon as Lieutenant general Leslie Groves, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, and Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock. The best of the best are working on Oppenheimer and this is an event movie you are going to want to witness up on the big screen.

Prepare for the grand experience of Oppenheimer when it arrives in cinemas on July 20, 2023.

Image: Universal Pictures

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So sets the scene for Christopher Nolan’s new WWII epic Dunkirk, which blows all expectations away. Whether it be cinematography, sound, music, costuming, set design or the performances of a diverse group of actors, Nolan transports audiences to one of the most dangerous and heroic moments of the 20th century.

Basing his narrative on a triptych, Nolan follows the events of Operation Dynamo from land, sea and air.

While his approach to telling his story keeps with his usual grandiose style of filmmaking, he forgoes the normal three-act structure and instead lets the film unfold in real-time.

This almost documentary style really amps up the tension and suspense of the narrative where every decision has a consequence. I found that my mind would begin to spin analytically as I was trying to decipher where each individual decision would take the characters and just what kind of outcome would arrive for each of them.

I stress that if you are going to watch Dunkirk then make sure that you watch it in IMAX. This is a necessity as 75% of the film was shot with IMAX cameras and the resulting footage is truly beautiful and immersive. The scope and size of the IMAX footage hits you full on, and you can’t help but feel sucked into the screen. Its scope is so grand that you truly feel like you could be on the wing of an actual Supermarine Spitfire as it climbs through the white of the clouds before diving down to attack a Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Praise must be lauded on cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, who breaks away from the standard profile and stationary shots of regular IMAX filmmaking and does something totally unique. If you’ve ever seen an IMAX camera you know that this is quite a task, but somehow Hoytema and his team pulled it off. I have no doubt that the limits of these cameras were truly pushed on Dunkirk, and the resulting footage is spectacular.

Also, prepare for things to get loud. Really loud. Especially in IMAX, because editor Lee Smith and his specialised audio mixing team crank up the volume. From the crashing of the waves on The Mole to the roar of a Spitfire engine to the scattered clang and crack of enemy bullet fire, everything individual sound explodes with power. Used collectively they add to the tension and suspense of the film and bring to life the harrowing atmosphere of the Dunkirk landscape.

Hans Zimmer’s supercharged score also plays an enormous role in Dunkirk’s success. While I can’t comment on the film’s dialogue without going into spoiler territory, Zimmer’s synthesised and mechanical score becomes, in a way, the film’s largest piece of dialogue. The music not only intertwines with the underlying themes of the movie but also speaks to the images that are unfolding on screen. I truly felt that Zimmer’s score was talking to me, for example in a harrowing sinking scene the brutal riffs of the audio add to the horror and the desperate fight to escape the hull of the wreckage before it sinks.

I was also particularly impressed in Nolan’s adherence to history and his mission to not ‘Hollywood’ the film by going for a cast of high-end stars who physically do not look the part. Instead, the director cast a group of young, unknown actors that helps you to believe that these young soldiers are just normal people caught up in an event bigger than them. This also extends to the wider extra casting, which is again littered with teenage boys who appear overwhelmed at what faces them and keeps with real historical precedent.

While I can’t discuss the cast without leading to spoilers I will say that I was very impressed by Harry Styles performance, and I hope he continues to pursue more film projects because he sure has the talent.

But the question remains is Dunkirk Christopher Nolan’s literal masterpiece?

With each new project, the revered British filmmaker has continued to push the limits of what the cinematic experience can be. I myself have viewed all of his films on multiple occasions, and have spent hours letting their narratives and images wash over me. But after seeing Dunkirk I can say that without a doubt it is truly his masterpiece. Both intimate and epic at the same time, Dunkirk brings together all aspects of the filmmaking process in flawless perfection to tell its harrowing and heroic story. Not a frame, note, or mannerism is wasted up on screen and as the film comes to a close you will be left saying wow.

Image: Roadshow Films

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Master filmmaker Christopher Nolan is returning to the big screen with the phenomenal true story of courage in the face of overwhelming odds with Dunkirk.

The new trailer has just been released, and is a completely mesmerising watch. Check it out below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

May 1940. The British Army and their Allies find themselves surrounded on the edge of the French Peninsula under threat of annihilation by the German Wehrmacht. With mounting casualties, a miraculous operation codenamed Dynamo is utilised and everything from warships to motorboats is used to get the troops back home safely.

Joining Nolan in this courageous story is a group of Britain’s best performers including Sir Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Sir Mark Rylance, James D’Arcy and Harry Styles.

Dunkirk will be released in cinemas on July 20 in New Zealand and Australia, and on July 21 in the US and UK.

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