Christopher Nolan has done it again. I feel like you’re waiting to know what is the thing that he has done again. And since there are hundreds upon hundreds of people releasing their opinions about The Odyssey due to a staged backlash against the film ahead of its release, I will say that what he has done again is give me tinnitus. I have only ever gotten tinnitus twice in my lifetime, and both times have been because of Christopher Nolan movies. So I’m pledging right now that whatever Christopher Nolan makes next, I don’t care what it is, I’m not seeing it in theaters. I don’t think theaters know how to properly handle the sound design of his films, and my ears are paying the price. After Oppenheimer, I dealt with tinnitus for nearly three months. That strange ringing vibration eventually went away, and now, thanks to The Odyssey, it’s back. Fantastic. Thanks, Chris. The funny thing is Oppenheimer still ended up in my top five films of the year. I’m feeling similarly enthusiastic about The Odyssey. I don’t think it’s my favorite film of 2026, but I’d absolutely like to see it again. More importantly, I’d like to see it again at home where I can control the sound mix. I know some people will clutch their pearls because Christopher Nolan wants his films experienced on the biggest screen possible, but remember, I’m a blind film critic. The size of the screen doesn’t matter to me. Being able to hear the audio description clearly without walking away with a temporary medical condition does.

It feels obvious that Christopher Nolan has been trying to make The Odyssey for years without actually making The Odyssey. His fascination with the long journey home has appeared throughout his career. Batman Begins opens with Bruce Wayne far from Gotham, eventually returning to reclaim his place. Interstellar revolves around Cooper desperately trying to get back to his family across impossible odds. Those themes have been simmering inside Nolan’s work for decades, and now he’s finally adapted the story that inspired so much of it. That’s why it feels so natural in his hands. Calling The Odyssey “epic” almost feels redundant because Homer’s poem is, by definition, one of history’s great epics alongside works like Beowulf and Gilgamesh. Of course it’s epic. What Christopher Nolan has accomplished is something more interesting. He’s transformed it into genuine movie magic.

Movie magic is what keeps Christopher Nolan one of the last directors capable of turning a film into a true event. That’s becoming increasingly difficult when the theatrical experience itself seems determined to wear audiences down before the movie even starts. I honestly wonder if Nolan, Sean Baker, Tom Cruise and all the people encouraging audiences to return to theaters are going to the same multiplexes the rest of us are. You show up for a listed start time only to be greeted by a Sprite commercial, followed by another commercial, followed by another one, then maybe a trailer, then another commercial before the actual trailer package has even begun. By the time a nearly three-hour film finally starts, you’ve already spent close to half an hour watching advertisements. I miss the days when I worked in theaters and the listed showtime actually meant the trailers were beginning. If theaters want people showing up for more than just event movies, maybe trimming the pre-show would be a good place to start.

Thankfully, The Odyssey is absolutely an event movie. Nolan has assembled one of the most remarkable casts of his career, and I couldn’t help laughing that just two weeks from now we’ll see Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jon Bernthal together again in Spider-Man. If you’re waiting to see both movies, you could easily make it a Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jon Bernthal double feature. More importantly, Nolan surrounds that cast with staggering craftsmanship. Even though the sound mix nearly defeated my ears, the sound design itself is extraordinary. The Sirens sequence is unforgettable, not just because of how it’s staged but because of the creative choices Nolan makes in adapting material that’s over three thousand years old. I won’t spoil those decisions because they’re part of the experience, but they’re exactly the sort of inventive interpretation I hoped to see. The Cyclops sequence is equally memorable, and Ludwig Göransson follows up his Oscar-winning score for Sinners with another tremendous piece of work. It’s thunderous, triumphant, frightening and unmistakably tailored to Christopher Nolan’s filmmaking.

One criticism I simply can’t take seriously is the endless debate over the casting. Christopher Nolan’s cast isn’t Greek? Really? That’s the complaint? Have we been policing the ancestry of actors in every historical epic ever made, or is this suddenly a problem because it’s Christopher Nolan? Before release, people spent months obsessing over Lupita Nyong’o playing Helen of Troy and Elliot Page appearing as a warrior. Funny how those conversations largely disappeared once audiences actually saw the film. The same goes for the claim that nobody can understand Nolan’s dialogue. If audiences genuinely couldn’t understand what was happening, theaters would be flooded with refund requests instead of sold-out screenings. The people making those arguments often spent months predicting that The Odyssey would fail before they’d seen a single frame. When you’ve already built your entire online identity around insisting a movie is doomed, it’s difficult to convince me you’re approaching it with an open mind once you finally buy a ticket. That’s one reason I avoid trashing films before I’ve seen them. I’d rather let the movie speak for itself.

Where The Odyssey falls short isn’t because it fails. It’s because Christopher Nolan has set the bar so impossibly high throughout his career. This isn’t my favorite Nolan film, and that’s probably its biggest disappointment. I wanted to love it more than everything he’d done before. Instead, I merely think it’s excellent. The film juggles an enormous cast and a sprawling narrative, and while Nolan has often mastered that balancing act, there are moments where things become a little messy. He’s capable of astonishing narrative precision. Memento and The Prestige remain masterclasses in structure, revealing everything while simultaneously hiding it in plain sight. The Odyssey isn’t nearly as intricate as those films, but it occasionally struggles to keep all of its moving pieces equally engaging.

Odysseus, played by Matt Damon, begins the story stranded on Ogygia, where Calypso, played by Charlize Theron, has kept him isolated for years, clouding his memory and delaying his journey home. As his memories slowly return, the film moves backward through the Trojan War, the Trojan Horse, battles at sea, encounters with giants, the Cyclops, the Sirens and Circe, all while weaving together the larger story of his long voyage back to Ithaca. Interwoven with that journey is Penelope, played beautifully by Anne Hathaway, waiting faithfully for her husband’s return while raising their son Telemachus, played by Tom Holland, who barely knew his father before he left for war. With Odysseus presumed dead by many, Penelope finds herself surrounded by suitors desperate to claim both her hand and the throne, led by the manipulative Antinous, played with delicious confidence by Robert Pattinson.

The grand emotional engine of the film is watching Odysseus fight his way back to Penelope while everyone around them wonders whether that reunion will ever happen. Along the way, a whole lot of people die, but Christopher Nolan never loses sight of the emotional thread tying everything together. That’s one of the reasons the movie works as well as it does. Beneath the spectacle, the monsters, the battles, and the mythology is ultimately a story about getting home. That’s the heartbeat Nolan has been chasing for years, and now he’s finally built an entire film around it.

As far as the performances go, Samantha Morton absolutely walks away with the movie for me. I would nominate her for Best Supporting Actress tomorrow if the voting started today. She’s phenomenal as Circe, commanding every scene she’s in with a mixture of terror, confidence and mystery. Samantha Morton has always been one of those actresses who seems to exist just outside the awards conversation, and it’s about time people remembered she’s still out there doing extraordinary work. It frustrated me watching her incredible work on The Walking Dead go almost completely ignored, and here she once again creates one of the film’s most unforgettable characters despite relatively limited screen time. She reminded me of Kathryn Hunter in The Tragedy of Macbeth, another performance I thought deserved far more awards attention than it received. Like Judd Hirsch earning an Oscar nomination for The Fabelmans with only a handful of scenes, Samantha Morton proves that impact matters far more than screen time.

Robert Pattinson is another standout. He’s clearly having the time of his life playing a villain, and honestly, it suits him. We’ve become so accustomed to seeing him as the romantic lead or reluctant hero that watching him fully embrace a manipulative antagonist is refreshing. If he’s been chasing an Oscar nomination, this feels like the kind of role that could finally get him there. Anne Hathaway also surprised me. Going into the film, I worried she might feel too young or too delicate for Penelope, but she brings exactly the emotional maturity the character requires. She becomes the emotional anchor of the entire story, and every scene waiting for Odysseus carries genuine weight because of her performance.

Elliot Page is utilized in such an intelligent way that it almost makes all the pre-release outrage seem embarrassing in hindsight. This is exactly why I wish people would stop deciding whether casting works before they’ve actually seen the movie. Elliot isn’t in the film for very long, but every scene serves a purpose, and once you understand that purpose, the casting makes complete sense. It’s even a little heartbreaking in context. John Leguizamo is almost unrecognizable, playing a character whose actions I struggled with despite him technically being on the right side of the conflict. That’s a credit to both the writing and Leguizamo’s performance. Christopher Nolan also gives Ryan Hurst another opportunity on a major stage, and while he doesn’t have a massive role, I was genuinely happy to see him here. I’ve been rooting for Ryan Hurst ever since Sons of Anarchy, and after working alongside Samantha Morton on The Walking Dead, it was nice seeing them reunite. Hopefully, being part of a Christopher Nolan ensemble helps continue pushing him toward the kinds of roles he’s always deserved.

Matt Damon gives a very good performance, but it’s also one of the few performances where I never completely lost sight of the actor underneath the character. His emotional scenes work, especially during the Sirens sequence, but I always felt like I was watching Matt Damon play Odysseus rather than simply watching Odysseus. That might sound like a minor criticism, but when awards season arrives and I’m trying to narrow Best Actor down to only five performances, those little differences matter. I felt something similar about Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary earlier this year. I really liked the performance, but I was always aware I was watching Ryan Gosling. In a cast filled with actors who completely disappear into these mythological figures, Matt Damon’s very good work ends up slightly overshadowed by the extraordinary supporting performances surrounding him.

There are also quite a few performances that landed somewhere comfortably in the middle. Logan Marshall-Green is solid. Corey Hawkins is solid. Travis Scott appears briefly near the beginning, and while I still find the casting a little odd, it’s hardly worth dwelling on considering how little screen time he actually has. Charlize Theron doesn’t receive the kind of material that allows her to leave the same impression as Samantha Morton, but she certainly doesn’t disappoint. Zendaya is perfectly good, and I think people have been unnecessarily hard on Tom Holland. The script occasionally gives him dialogue that doesn’t completely work, but that’s hardly his fault. He does exactly what the role requires. Lupita Nyong’o is also very good, even though she isn’t on screen for very long, and I genuinely appreciated how Nolan uses her dual roles throughout the story.

If I had to single out two performances that didn’t entirely work for me, one disappoints me while the other simply left me scratching my head. Benny Safdie as Agamemnon never fully clicked. Maybe it’s because Brian Cox’s performance in Troy has become so firmly lodged in my mind, but Nolan’s interpretation feels surprisingly modern. I understand wanting a different take, but it never quite matched the legendary figure I expected to see. Then there’s Jon Bernthal. I actually like Jon Bernthal quite a bit, and I think he’s a terrific actor, but he’s developed such a specific screen persona that it follows him from project to project. Whether it’s The Punisher, The Bear, or now The Odyssey, he carries the same cadence, the same swagger, and many of the same mannerisms. It’s almost like Jason Statham, except Bernthal has considerably more emotional range. He’s very good inside that lane, but compared to actors disappearing into these mythological roles, he feels like the one performer who never fully transforms.

I also think the screenplay has a few rough edges that keep The Odyssey from reaching absolute perfection. I’m not surprised it’s likely headed toward an Adapted Screenplay nomination, but I don’t think it’s the film’s strongest element. Some of the dialogue doesn’t flow as naturally as it should, particularly when Nolan tries to balance modern accessibility with mythological grandeur across such an enormous ensemble. I couldn’t help wondering if another pass after casting might have tailored certain exchanges more specifically to the actors delivering them. It’s a small complaint, but it’s one of the few things separating this from a perfect score. I’ve also seen people complain that the movie takes too long to get going, and honestly, I think those people are just impatient. Once the film actually begins, I never felt the runtime. If anything, I was more exhausted by the thirty minutes of advertisements beforehand than by the nearly three-hour movie itself. Maybe after watching enough Sprite commercials, some people simply needed something to explode immediately to wake them up. For me, The Odyssey grabbed my attention from the start.

The audio description is a little harder to evaluate because my theatrical experiences with audio description are almost never flawless. Even after figuring out exactly where I needed to sit in the auditorium for the headset to function properly, I still lost the track a couple of times, and there were moments where Christopher Nolan’s thunderous sound design completely overwhelmed the headset’s maximum volume. I followed almost everything, but there were a few moments where either the equipment gave up or the film simply overpowered it. That’s less a criticism of the audio description itself than it is another reminder that theatrical accessibility still has room to improve.

(Part 3 of 3)

One thing I kept thinking about throughout the movie was just how much effort Christopher Nolan puts into making his films feel tangible. Even though I can’t actually see the practical effects, I still appreciate the craftsmanship behind them because I remember what practical filmmaking looked like before I lost my vision. Reading about everything that went into this production only deepened my appreciation. Nolan reportedly worried that the enormous new IMAX 70mm camera, weighing hundreds of pounds, would leave footprints in the sand if it was carried normally, so he had the crew transport it through the water to preserve the untouched landscape. Matt Damon has talked about the elaborate practical rig built for the mountain climbing sequence back to Ithaca, one sturdy enough that the crew could actually stop for lunch on it. Nolan built a practical Cyclops, combined with a performance and forced perspective techniques, specifically to avoid relying on excessive digital effects. Everywhere you look, there are stories about Nolan asking himself how something could be accomplished for real before turning to a computer. I love that philosophy. Even if I can’t directly see the finished image anymore, I still value knowing that someone cared enough to build it. Too many movies today disappear into a sea of green screens and digital backgrounds until they stop feeling real. Christopher Nolan continues to fight against that, and I respect him immensely for it.

At the same time, audio description can only do so much. It can tell me what’s happening in a scene, but it can’t stop to explain forced perspective, practical construction, camera placement, or the countless filmmaking techniques that make those images special. That’s simply beyond the purpose of audio description. Even so, I never struggled to follow the story itself. If anything, months of people talking nonstop about The Odyssey meant I was already incredibly familiar with the mythology before ever stepping into the theater. In some ways, finally seeing the movie felt like checking a box on a journey that had been going on for months. I have achieved The Odyssey, and my ears are definitely worse for it.

The experience also reinforced something I’ve been thinking about for years regarding modern theaters. I’m honestly not angry with Christopher Nolan. I’m frustrated with theatrical presentation. Moving from film projection to digital projection brought plenty of advantages, but it also quietly eliminated an art form. I used to work in theaters. Projectionists once lived in projection booths, threading multiple films every day, monitoring presentations, adjusting focus, paying attention to sound levels, and making sure audiences were getting the best possible experience. Today, movies live on servers. Files unlock with digital keys. Everything runs automatically on timers. It’s efficient, but it also makes it far easier to crank the volume to the maximum setting and walk away without considering whether it’s actually appropriate for that auditorium. A sold-out theater full of people absorbs sound very differently than a half-empty auditorium. I remember seeing Oppenheimer with almost nobody else in attendance and walking away with tinnitus that lasted months. My screening of The Odyssey had more people, but it still wasn’t full, and once again my ears paid the price. That’s not Christopher Nolan’s fault. That’s an exhibition problem.

So where do I land in the great Odyssey debate? I’m certainly not one of the people who spent months insisting the film was doomed before it even opened. I never cared about the manufactured outrage surrounding Lupita Nyong’o playing Helen of Troy, Elliot Page’s casting, or whether every actor happened to be ethnically Greek. Those arguments always felt hollow because we’ve never applied those standards consistently to historical epics. Russell Crowe is Australian and played Maximus in Gladiator. Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger are Australian and starred in The Patriot. Joaquin Phoenix isn’t French, yet he played Napoleon. The list goes on forever. The conversation was never really about authenticity. It was about finding something to complain about before anyone had actually seen the movie. And after seeing it, I can confidently say Lupita Nyong’o is wonderful, despite having relatively little screen time, and Elliot Page is perfectly cast for exactly the role Christopher Nolan asks him to play. Sometimes it really is worth waiting to see the finished film before deciding whether a creative decision works.

I do agree that The Odyssey isn’t perfect. Looking at the flood of ecstatic reviews declaring it the best film of the year, the best film of the decade, or Christopher Nolan’s greatest achievement, I found myself searching for a little more nuance. Ironically, when you actually read many of those glowing reviews, you’ll often find the same small criticisms I have. They’re there. They’re just buried underneath the headlines. There are moments where the dialogue doesn’t quite land. A couple of casting choices don’t entirely work for me. Matt Damon, while very good, never completely disappears into Odysseus the way some of the supporting cast disappear into their roles. Those little things keep the film from being a perfect ten. But they’re little things.

What ultimately stays with me is the ambition. Christopher Nolan has clearly poured every ounce of himself into this film. Looking back across his career, you can almost trace the path that led him here, seeing pieces of The Odyssey woven throughout Batman Begins, Interstellar, and so many of his earlier films before finally arriving at the adaptation he always seemed destined to make. I genuinely believe this will become the definitive cinematic version of The Odyssey for a new generation. It’s bold, enormous in scale, surprisingly horrific at times, emotionally satisfying, and unlike anything Nolan has attempted before. The action sequences are breathtaking, the score by Ludwig Göransson is unforgettable, most of the cast is outstanding, and yes, the sound design is unforgettable too, although I’d personally prefer to remember it for reasons other than my ears still ringing afterward.

Should you see The Odyssey? Absolutely. This is event filmmaking in every sense of the word. More importantly, it’s filmmaking driven by people. Christopher Nolan continues to champion practical craftsmanship, human artistry, and creative ambition in an era increasingly fascinated by shortcuts and automation. Whether he’s building practical creatures, inventing new ways to use IMAX cameras, or pushing back against the growing reliance on artificial intelligence in filmmaking, he’s reminding audiences why artists still matter. Christopher Nolan’s own Odyssey has been leading to this moment for decades. Now it’s finally here. All you have to do is take a much shorter journey to the theater and experience it for yourself.

Fresh: 8.7/10