2
votes
Christopher Nolan's Odyssey and the rise of the single issue filmgoer
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- Title
- Nolan's Odyssey: Why We Can't Talk About Movies Anymore
- Authors
- HoldMyDualshock
- Duration
- 24:01
- Published
- Jul 14 2026
I don’t find this very compelling. For one, it lumps together many things as “Hollywood” without defining what exactly the synecdoche is referring to, then proceeds to make sweeping generalizations without specific examples.
Also, the headline has the Odyssey in it, and the actual contents it’s essentially not mentioned at all, which is just clickbait.
The main thesis is that “Hollywood movies” are made with the idea that the movie is made as an element of support to some kind of movement and identity and banking on the support of that movement or identity.
The only thing I can think of that actually fits that is the Black Panther marvel movies, which, while not being a terrible movie, did advertise itself implicitly as a landmark for the African American community.
The video didn’t really have any elaborated examples, and at the end they threw in… supergirl? What single issue is that supposed to be about? Feminism? It’s not really that kind of movie, nor was it advertised as such.
They tried the same thing with Bros and the queer community. And then blamed straight people for its failure when they didn’t show up to “support” the movie.
Thats a fair critique, I guess this video doesnt do a very good job of rigorously proving its point, it only appealed to me because I already agreed with the concept going into it.
One thing I would push back on is that I dont think its saying that movies are necessarily being made as an element of support, rather this is an aspect of their media engagement strategy in advertising it.
I’ve gotten these guys on my YouTube feed, as part of the thousands of channels that make similar content. Their video on James Gunn was slightly more interesting, but I find their actual essays to be incoherent.
They also conflate the actual marketing of the film with the interviews that the actors give. Yes, that’s part of the marketing, but Lupita Nyongo giving cringe inducing answers to questions doesn’t mean that Universal Pictures is shaping the marketing of the film around that pop-feminist lens. Same with Milly Alcock saying the film is a female empowerment film, and Rachel Zegler saying that Snow White was a victim in the original film.
When a film’s marketing involves that messaging it’s in the actual marketing materials. People brought up Black Panther and Bros, and those are great examples because that’s exactly what those films did. Heres a discussion we had during the release of Bros..
The lead creative behind The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan, who has been bombarded with questions of its casting, has called all of it nonsense. He said it doesn’t matter. If he was pushing a message then he would use those opportunities to push a message, like Paul Feig did with Ghostbusters (2016).
Barbie (2023) was a message film and they could have made the marketing for it exactly that type of Captain Marvel “her-o” stuff. But they didn’t. Their tagline was “if you love Barbie. If you hate Barbie. This is for you.” Which is part of trying to appeal to everyone that this essayist is saying doesn’t exist.
There’s just too few examples to back up this thesis.