Review: “The Odyssey” is Signature Christopher Nolan (Both Good and Bad)

By Ben Miller

13 feature films into his career, director Christopher Nolan has developed a string of touchstones for his films. You can expect an all-star cast, massive practical set pieces, underdeveloped women, stunning visuals, and clunky dialogue. With his new film The Odyssey, Nolan again delivers on everything you come to expect from a Nolan movie.

This time, Nolan (a well-documented child of cinema history), decides to take his chances with a sword and sandals epic in the vein of Ben-Hur or Quo Vadis. While the filmmaker might not have the reverence for the genre, he dives headfirst into the craft and scope necessary to make a film of this magnitude. When this film is big, bold, and a little silly, that’s where everything excels. It’s when things get more intimate that the film loses its way...

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First Predictions: Music / Sound Categories

by Nathaniel R

The year's surest bet: A 55th Oscar nomination for John Williams scoring DISCLOSURE DAY © Universal

Encourage me to keep going with these charts via comments. Let's talk sound and music. These categories generally stay mysterious until late in the year since post-production is such a heavy part of eligibility and credits for music and sound categories. Sometimes they'll switch out composers after filming has ended! And of course Original Song is notoriously hard to predict. 

One thing that feels certain, though, is that John Williams will receive his 55th nomination for the score to Disclosure Day. John Williams just turned 94 which will mean that he is likely to break two of his own records (again) as the most nominated person ever AND as the oldest person to ever receive an Oscar nomination (any category). He currently holds the latter record for his nomination at 91 for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023). The Academy's music branch never passes up an opportunity to vote for him, even if the film isn't in play anywhere else...

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