Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey isn’t evidence of a cultural void. It’s the opposite |
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is the most-anticipated film release of the year. What’s not to like about a beloved director taking on such an ambitious story? Well, it is a terminal affliction of the culture critic to mine the world for negative angles. And so here it is: this is just more evidence that culture in the 21st century is stuck. Has Nolan lost the ability to come up with his own material? What a shame that we rely on the work of a poet from 3,000 years ago. Why can’t we produce anything as definitive, original, sprawling and, well, “epic” now?
Here’s a spiel you prepared earlier: in 2026, artistic production is in stasis. Hollywood is handcuffed to the franchise-industrial complex – Marvel movie upon Marvel movie. And what is with all these remakes? The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Gossip Girl. The bodies of the Harry Potter films are still warm, and yet money-hungry vultures are taking the story to the television studio. We are meme-ing ourselves into the abyss; no one has anything new to say; it’s impossible to identify emerging artistic movements. When we look back on this period all we will find is a void.
In fact, this might actually be “the least innovative, least transformative, least pioneering century for culture since the invention of the printing........