Christopher Nolan is having one of the best years of his career and already won awards for Best Director across regional film critics associations for his work on Oppenheimer. This could be the year he finally takes home an Oscar and adds that to an already impressive catalog, but he found himself getting hit by an unsolicited review–while riding in a Peleton class.
The Oscar-nominated director told an anecdote while receiving Best Director for Oppenheimer during the New York Film Critics Circle awards. Nolan didn’t confirm which film it was, but it was obvious the instructor had no idea who was in his virtual class at the time.
“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 [The Observer’s film critic] Rex Reed takes a shit 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.”
While Nolan’s work is appreciated, there have been a few misfires in the past couple of years, but that doesn’t bother him. “Do we read reviews? Let’s start with the fact that I’m British,” he joked to the audience. “A typical family gathering will involve relatives saying to me, ‘You know, Christopher. You probably shouldn’t open The Guardian today.'”
While they can’t all be winners, Oppenheimer has earned some of the best reviews of Nolan’s career and has become the highest-grossing biographical drama of all time, edging out Bohemian Rhapsody by almost $50 million.
Image credit: Getty Images/Samir Hussein
