Critical Darlings

“The Odyssey” And Christopher Nolan’s Sad Dad Triumph (With Fran Hoepfner)

Critical Darlings

Show Notes

Daddy, tie us to the mast, we’re off to see The Odyssey!

Christopher Nolan’s epic about a dad going out for cigarettes has vanquished all foes, critical, commercial, and discourse-able. To unpack it all, we’re joined by Vulture’s Fran Hoepfner.

Nolan’s Oppenheimer follow-up both revisits and expands the director’s thematic palette. Among many aspects of the film, we discuss Nolan’s controversial choice to reject many of the signifiers of sword and sandals epics, his thematic quirks, the massive scale of the film, and how the ultimate hero’s journey is also a reflection of Nolan’s own filmmaking journey. We also get into spoilers (with warning), the movie’s possible political aims, and where Nolan might go from here. Finally, we do our Nolan rankings.

Next week, we’re swinging with Olivia Wilde’s The Invite.

You can email us now! We’re doing an upcoming mailbag episode, so feel free to drop us a line at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More from Critical Darlings

Oct 22, 2026

Critical Darlings is going LIVE at The Savannah Film Festival!

Oct 15, 2026

Critical Darlings is going LIVE at The Savannah Film Festival!

Oct 8, 2026

🚨🚨🚨 Big News! 🚨🚨🚨

Oct 1, 2026

Heads up to listeners, this episode includes sensitive discussions of abuse due to the nature of the film.

Sep 26, 2026

In this bonus episode: After a month of festival hopping, we're back in the studio to discuss the fall festival season, its big premieres, and paint a very rough picture of how award season is shaping up. But first, we take a question from the mailbag to demystify the fall festival circuit and how these giant star-studded events actually work.

See all episodes →