Director Christopher Nolan has issued a critique of modern film criticism. His remarks came as his latest epic, The Odyssey, races toward the $1 billion milestone at the global box office, backed by overwhelming audience and critical approval.
The Odyssey’s Christopher Nolan highlights the ‘real problem with criticism today’
Speaking with podcast host Zhong Shu in Beijing, the two-time Oscar winner argued that many amateur critics mistakenly believe identifying a narrative device automatically invalidates its emotional power. He described this as “a real problem in criticism today.”
“The criticism that’s often leveled at movies in general is, ‘Oh, the character has to be made sympathetic, so the character is manipulated in different ways or changed in different ways,’” Christopher Nolan said. “And that’s a fundamental flaw of film criticism in a way, or storytelling criticism. Because to be able to identify the mechanism does not invalidate the mechanism.”
Nolan elaborated that viewers now frequently dismiss a film’s impact simply because they can see the structural gears turning. He pushed back against the logic that understanding how a story affects its audience means the story has failed. “Because people have this idea that, ‘Because I can understand why the story affects me the way it is, therefore, it didn’t work.’ That’s not how storytelling works,” Nolan explained. He stressed that filmmakers consciously build upon a shared cinematic language, one developed by Hollywood over a century and understood globally.
He described this framework as a “very, very accessible modern language of storytelling” that carries specific rules and conventions. Directors can bend or break these rules, Nolan insisted, but must remain aware of them. The responsibility, he suggested, lies partly with critics who fail to grasp the necessity of these mechanisms.
“I’m thinking more of amateur criticism, because they feel they’ve identified the mechanism, they feel that it invalidates it,” Nolan continued. He acknowledged that tropes must evolve when audiences grow overly familiar with them, yet maintained that filmmakers rely on a common understanding built through decades of cinema.
The Odyssey adapts Homer’s ancient epic, following Odysseus—played by Matt Damon—through a decade-long voyage home after the Trojan War. Now, in its third week of dominating the box office.
