Filmopolis

The Odyssey - Review

So just came from seeing the latest Nolan event cinema outing with mixed feelings.
I fluctuated between 9/10 Nolan standards met, with 7/10 expectations not reached.

This is wildly ambitious trademark Nolan, with an awful lot to like.
Super strong casting anchored by Damon and too many notable other cast members not to nod respectfully to.
Nolan has achieved the status of “who doesn’t want to be in his next film”. Tom Holland raises his game, Anne Hathaway is strong, but it is a cracking Samantha Morton cameo that really stands out.

It has the signature naturalistic film making without over indulging CGI, and stretches what is possible with an IMAX camera, although I didn’t see this in IMAX.

There is so much to celebrate here, yet I was left a little cold in my overall experience, which I didn’t feel with Oppenheimer or Interstellar, which for me are the better Nolan entries. The film just didn’t pull together it’s component parts.

Despite a film like this warranting an “epic” runtime, it could have been two and a half hours as opposed to three.

The problem for me is the bar is so high for a Nolan elite experience, of which comparatively I found Spielberg’s Disclosure Day more compelling, cohesive and narratively satisfying.

Nolan and Spielberg are both masters of their crafts, but Spielberg’s entry at the twilight of his career engaged me more personally in this face-off.

The Odyssey is a must-see cinema outing, but didn’t deliver on my impossibly high expectations with a film I admired more than I loved.

Marty Supreme is superb, it’s a 9/10 good.
Our lead in Chalamet here elevates his status to one of the best character actors in the current crop of Hollywood’s finest.
I’m confident he will keep just getting better too beyond this best performance yet.
He has that egotistical, unlikeable and abrasive disdain for those around him that reminded me of Oscar Isaac’s Llewyn from Inside Llewyn Davis, and the film has a Coen brothers sensibility to it as well in its art house independent feel, yet still reaching multiplex audiences.
Llewyn is a puppy dog in comparison to the irritatingly arrogant and obnoxious Marty.
Like Coen films, this is beautifully shot, scored, and gives depth and purpose to characters with way less screen time to the alluringly hypnotic and ever present Chalamet.
The film hustles, charms and offends through multiple “car crash” sequences, but you just can’t take your eyes off of it for its relatively long run time of two and a half hours.
I guess we’lll see if this is worthy of any awards, but I would highly recommend you watch this ping, as well as pong.

Jake Bugg G Live, Guildford Bigmouth Guildford
Best gig I’ve been to at GLive in a very long time to see the very talented Jake Bugg and his band. Great display of raw accoustic talent as well as full band rocking out 👏🙌

Civil War is an extraordinary film from .
Switching effortlessly from slow burn indie/art house to 100% intense dramatic action cinema. An all round solid cast, cinematography & sound design where character and story are centre stage, for a meagre 50 million for such a brainy “blockbuster”.

Monkey Man Movie 2024
Monkeypaw Productions
Dev Patel
Monkey Man -
10 years in the making for 10 million?
Triumphantly compelling cinema.
A joy to see such a beautifully shot, smart, culturally & politically charged brutal cocktail of a directorial debut.
👏🙌 to all involved.

Oppenheimer
Undeniably a 5* stone-cold classic.
A masterclass by all involved in delivering such a mesmerising masterpiece.
It deservedly owns every moment of its’ 3 hour run time, a rarity in itself these days. 👏👏👏👏👏

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