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A Peloton Instructor Cracked on Christoper Nolan's Film While He Was in the Workout Class
Isn't it hard enough getting through a Peloton workout without having your films bashed?
Well, apparently Christopher Nolan’s films aren’t for everyone… or at least not for all the Peloton instructors out there.
While accepting the Best Director award from the New York Film Critics Circle yesterday for his blockbuster bio-pic Oppenheimer (currently available from Universal Pictures Home Video), Nolan relayed a funny little tidbit about a certain Peloton instructor who was decidedly not a fan of one of his films (he didn't mention which one), which in turn illuminated just how important actual film criticism is to the auteur.
Christopher Nolan Says a Peloton Instructor Panned One of His Films
“I was on my Peloton. I’m dying. And the instructor started talking about one of my films and said, ‘Did anyone see this? That’s a couple hours of my life I’ll never get back again!'” Nolan said (via Variety). “When [film critic] Rex Reed takes a sh-t on your film he doesn’t ask you to work out! In today’s world, where opinions are everywhere, there is a sort of idea that film criticism is being democratized, but I for one think the critical appreciation of films shouldn’t be an instinct but it should be a profession.”
RELATED: Oppenheimer Reviews: Christopher Nolan's "Stunning" Bomb Thriller Praised as Best Film of 2023
While Nolan has generally been appreciated by critics (at least those not riding stationary bicycles) throughout his career, 2023’s Oppenheimer – the story of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, as he leads the Manhattan Project that created the first atomic bombs during World War II – has generated his best reviews yet. With nearly 500 reviews tallied, the film currently holds a “certified fresh” rating of 93 percent among critics on Rotten Tomatoes. So yeah, perhaps he has a reason to like the critics even more lately.
“In today’s world, as filmmakers you can’t hide behind authorial intent,” Nolan concluded. “You can’t say, ‘This is what I intended.’ We live in a world where the person receiving the story has the right to say what it means to them. I for one love that. It means the work should speak for itself. It’s not about what I say it is. It’s about what you receive it to be. In that world, the role of the professional critic, or the interpreter and the person who tries to give context for the reader… it’s incredibly important. I’ve never been so grateful for careful, considered and thoughtful writing about one of my films as I was for Oppenheimer.”
RELATED: What's Next for Christopher Nolan After Oppenheimer? Director Says He's "Open to Anything"
With such a critical response (not to mention nearly a billion dollars in total box office, enough to become the highest grossing biopic ever), there’s a good chance the New York Film Critics Circle won’t be the only awards body handing out hardware to Nolan's latest. We'll see if the winning continues on this Sunday's Golden Globes broadcast, where the film has eight chances to win some statues, including two noms for Nolan himself for writing and directing Oppenheimer.
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy as the titular "father of the atomic bomb," is now available from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
