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Christopher Nolan identified what he believes is a "fundamental flaw" with film criticism
Christopher Nolan took a cutting shot at film criticism during his promotional tour for The Odyssey. According to Nolan, the belief that identifying a storytelling mechanism therefore invalidates it has become a “fundamental flaw” in modern criticism.
During an interview with Beijing-based podcast host Zhong Shu, Christopher Nolan dismantled what he believes to be a “fundamental flaw” of modern criticism — the notion that being able to identify a storytelling mechanism invalidates it.
Christopher Nolan took apart modern film critics for what he believes is a “fundamental flaw” in their work
According to Nolan, just because someone can pinpoint the inner workings of film’s emotional mechanics does not mean the mechanics are flawed or ineffectual. Basically, pointing out that John Wick emotionally manipulates the audience with the death of his dog does not make that plot device any less legitimate.
“That’s a fundamental flaw of film criticism in a way, or storytelling criticism, because to be able to identify the mechanism does not invalidate the mechanism,” Nolan said. “And that’s a real problem in criticism today, because people have this idea that because I can understand why the story affects me, therefore it didn’t work. That’s not how storytelling works.”
”When I was talking about film criticism, I was talking more about amateur film criticism than professional film criticism… because they feel they’ve identified the mechanism, they feel that it invalidates it. That could be true of certain elements, and film language evolves with that… but we do as filmmakers avail ourselves of that common language.”
Christopher Nolan calls out amateur movie critics for thinking spotting a movie trope means the film failed
“That’s a fundamental flaw of film criticism in a way, or storytelling criticism, because to be able to identify the mechanism does not invalidate the mechanism.”
”And… pic.twitter.com/8GXb5JJada
— Nichole (@NicholeDelly) August 1, 2026
Nolan’s opinion can be applied to any instance of any amateur thinking they’re a professional. For example, just because you accurately call when an NFL team is about to run a play-action pass doesn’t mean that it isn’t the right play call. It also doesn’t make you qualified to be a defensive coordinator.
The Odyssey is on its way to becoming the highest-grossing movie of Christopher Nolan’s career, as its already gross over $900 million at the global box office with IMAX showings still sold out through September.
It’s also yet to open in China, which, depending on how it performs there, could put The Odyssey in contention to gross over $2 billion, which only seven films have achieved before: Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Avatar: The Way of Water, Titanic, Ne Zha 2, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Avengers: Infinity War.