Big Screen Baby: The Odyssey aka Rosie Knight Eats Her Shoe

Hello dear readers!

Sorry it’s been over a month but a lot has happened since I last wrote about how angry the Punisher special made me and how my friend Steph William's incredible DC GO comic Warriors and Wee Wonder getting renewed made me smile.

Luckily most of that intense period of life changing stressors is coming to a calm close and I’ll soon be debuting a new office for recording X-Ray Vision as well as a cozy visual home for some cool new yapping endeavors that may feature me on camera and even live?!??

Stay tuned for more on that soon.

So, with everything going on I realized that I must update you all on one of the most shocking parts of 2026 so far: I loved Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

Trust me I'm as surprised as you are.

I won’t rehash my feelings about Nolan’s filmography here, you can find my controversial and oft-repeated takes around. But I don't share the reverence others do for my fellow countryman lol. Saying that I did get at least Nolan-pilled during his stunning presentation at Cinema Con which showcased early footage, including the stunning Trojan Horse set piece that is not only a key action sequence but is also once you’ve watched the film is revealed to in some ways be at the emotional heart of the film and its timely message. It was there that I learned Nolan, like me and many other film nerds, had spent his early years watching any IMAX release possible at Science Museums around the country. His excitement for not just the story but the format was where I began to feel a lil anticipation for The Odyssey.

So without further ado dive into the deep blue of the Aegean sea to join me as I rave about the most unexpected banger of the year (for this Nolan cynic) But...

BEWARE ALL YE WHO READ ON: TONAL, THEMATIC, AND NARRATIVE SPOILERS FOR NOLAN’S ADAPTATION OF THE 2800 YEAR OLD HOMERIC EPIC FOLLOW.

Okay now all the people who didn’t spend all their time reading Greek mythology books as children have left, Nolan’s spin on The Odyssey has an earned grandiosity and texture that his catalog has often lacked for me. There is no sterile Hollywood sheen, no grounded lens flares on modern shining cities with no soul, here every single, beautiful IMAX frame bleeds color, artifacts caught on lenses, 40ft close ups on Anne Hathaway’s face that will take your breath away as surely as they’ll secure her an Oscar nom. This is event cinema that feels of a different age, many directors want to make their great epic and few succeed yet with The Odyssey, it feels as if Nolan has somehow in an age of ambitious misses, done just that.

Showcasing a true masterclass in balancing all-star casting with a pared down and organically written script that allows the huge names it boasts — Matt Damon as Odysseus, Himesh Patel who shines as Eurylochus his right hand man — and Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Zendaya as Athena, Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, Jon Bernthal as Menaleus, and Robert Pattinson as Antinous to name but a smattering of the astonishing A-list core cast — to disappear into the epic in a way that feels elegiac, poetic, and esoteric even when the use of American English might at first not.

I grew up as a super fan of Ray Harryhausen, his majestic stop-motion work in Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans a staple I looked forward to on every British Bank Holiday when they would religiously rerun. Those imaginative high-seas adventure brought to life all the monsters and gods and creatures that I had grown to love from reading Greek Mythology books throughout my childhood.

My undisputed favorite was Marcia Williams’ Greek Myths for Young Children which combined both sequential storytelling and the brutal myths I loved.

Somehow in his near 3hr long fantasy epic Nolan manages to distill that childhood fantasy, horror and awe that first drew us to the historical yarns based on The Odyssey and The Iliad. This isn’t a film that shies away from magic or godly powers in fact Nolan opens it with a simple mission statement and place setter “In an age of apparent magic”. Whatever you call it, whether magic, analogy, faith, in this version of Ancient Greece strange and unexplainable things happen every day. There is no fear of the oddities and tall tales that make The Odyssey so appealing, we get Cyclops', the wrath of the gods, humans being munched on alive, and even Charybdis the monstrous whirlpool and Scylla the giant spider-like beast.

That’s a fact that those within the walls of Troy, Ithaca, or the many small islands we see ravaged as Odysseus and his crew try to return home, accept and live with in a way that allows us to do the same. The world building here is second to none, the kind of lush colors and epic scope that bring to mind Technicolor cinema of the Golden Age in of Hollywood and fairytales in equal measure. On the Citywalk IMAX screen, it was a rich tapestry to lose yourself in, and for this viewer at least it all felt so lived in and true that I believed the political machinations as much as I instantly accepted the giants looming out of the trees towards our roving soldiers.

Admittedly it was the fantastical and magical elements that struck me hardest — Samantha Morton as Circe is a true revelation of body horror witchery that made men in my screening squeal in fear as the women cackled in joy. For those here for dramatic impact and a message that means something Nolan also crafts a deeply human story about war, regret, imperialism, evil, and because it's Christopher, a father trying to get back to his family facing insane odds the biggest his own doubt.

Interestingly the Nolan of it all actually worked here for me. This felt like a synthesis of all his tropes, themes, and tendencies, streamlined yet creatively unleashed in a way that spoke to me far more than most of his movies. Luxurious and strange, driven by the passions of its traumatized and ambitious characters, when it comes to his previous work The Odyssey most reminds me of The Prestige. Just as people were referring to Spielberg's most recent Disclosure Day as "Weirdberg" this is a Nolan who is unafraid to make something unexpected and wild, oddly paced, and according to a few of my colleagues unconventionally and sometimes distractingly edited. But imho, it's a non-stop fantasy banger.

With such a sprawling cast, it's understandable that many were worried about the cast getting their time to shine. I generally found the ensemble balanced and believed with standouts, including — an under utilized yet powerful — Nyong'o as Helen of Troy and her sister who eventually and cathartically kills her husband. We also get the answer to a big Hollywood question here. For a long time people have been wondering whether Tom Holland has the leading man juice outside of the MCU system that blew him into the stratosphere. As Telemachus — in a "coming of age / becoming a man" role that feels as smartly meta as casting Jon Bernthal as violent veteran — Holland proves he's got it in gallons.

Alongside his real life wife Zendaya (who brings to life Athena in a role so slight it feels like you might not miss it if it was on the cutting room floor until Nolan reveals its heartbreaking truth) Holland brings a much needed innocence and naivety to what is otherwise an honestly horrifying world. Telemachus' love for his mother Penelope and his optimism about the fate of his long lost father offer a soft light at the heart of the brutal action and constant scheming. Which brings us to the arguable MVP of the film, Robert Pattinson as Antoninus, alongside his potentially salacious suitor-focused storyline that is so well handled and thrilling it feels almost as if Nolan dipped into the female gaze to channel just how terrifying it is to be a woman or a child at the whim of violent unwelcome men in your home.

As Damon's Odysseus battles his way back against every monstrous nightmare from your favorite Greek myth and Telemachus adventures to find him, Penelope must sit in her once warm home, now made prisoner by men who would marry her and kill her son in order to gain power and replace her husband. Pattinson leads them with an S-Tier villain performance which veers from his sniveling best to his manipulative Twilight charm. It's a masterclass that plays as a nightmarish thriller as Penelope attempts to survive the men who invoke "Zeus' law" to take up ownership of her palace and attempt to take ownership of her life and body.

Hathaway also gets a line so furious with a close up so huge that it'll be forever burned into my cinematic memory. And it is somehow matched by the film's final gut punch of a reveal that this isn't really Nolan's magnum opus, it's his anti-war magnum opus and he isn't giving anyone the space to deny it this time around.

So uh, yeah... I liked The Odyssey guys.

Thanks for supporting indie entertainment journalism and helping me pay my rent! Every read and share means so much and I appreciate your time - Rosie!