The Odyssey Week

If you go see one summer movie, make it The Odyssey.

This story has endured three-thousand years, and now we have one of our finest filmmakers bringing it to our screens.

Happy Odyssey week!

In This Issue:

• Spoiler-Free First Impressions

• House of Satisfactions Update

• Ranking Nolan

• Reading the Classic

• What to [watch] this weekend

I watched the film Thursday with my family, and we each came out of the movie with very different takes.

This feels like an incredibly faithful retelling of the classic story with stunning locations, awesome production design, and a commitment to practical craft.

Nolan injects an idea into the character of Odysseus that feels so fresh.

I was impressed more that gripped, but that last hour is incredible!!

I am excited for a rewatch on a larger screen. And I am excited for future students to have a definitive edition to watch in school when their coach didn’t prepare for the lesson, lol.

House of Satisfactions is my alternative comic book studio that is publishing a Southern horror anthology on Kickstarter in October.

The only update this week is that we got three concepts for our A cover that are incredibly strong. We’re speaking with our artist and designer soon to finalize the concept and move forward.

In the meantime check out this cool comic on Kickstarter called Entrailers by Jess Winston.

Sign up for the House of Satisfactions email list so you get VIP pricing for the comic.

Pre-Save "Hangwater, TX" on Kickstarter

This is an insanely hard exercise. The Batman trilogy is what trips me up the most. Those movies are extremely impactful to me, but each movie is full of flaws that I struggle to get past on rewatches.

Nolan is a big budget blockbuster filmmaker who also creates extremely experimental movies full of ideas. I imagine your rankings will vary wildly. And so much of Nolan’s filmography depends on what works for you in the moment.

Many people consider Interstellar the masterpiece, but I find a lot of it a slog. And TENET is probably the most divisive, but I came out of that movie thinking it was one of the best things I had seen and was shocked by the response.

Even the films at the bottom I hold above most of the movies that hit theaters.

The Ranking w/ micro-thoughts:

12) Following - Early Nolan.

11) Insomnia - Barely remember

10) Oppenheimer - Beautiful, slow, and boring

9) Memento - Carrie-Ann Moss!!

8) Interstellar - Second watch made me love it way more

7) The Dark Knight - I just don’t like the last hour

6) Inception - The set-pieces, cast, and ideas are undeniably great. It just bends over backward to explain itself

5) The Dark Knight Rises - I don’t know why I love this so much

4) Batman Begins - Ninjas!

3) Dunkirk - Kind of perfect

2) The Prestige - So watchable. So many layers.

1) TENET - Nolan makes a cooler Bond movie. Plus the fashion! “I ordered my hot sauce an hour ago!

Follow all my reviews on Letterboxd.

Last year I read the latest translation of The Odyssey Emily Wilson. It’s an extremely readable translation that captures the poetry of the text. It includes an invaluable introduction that gives context to the customs & practices of the ancient Greeks.

I am now listening to the audio version of the same translation. I thought it would be a cool idea to listen to the poem because it was created in an oral tradition. The story used to be told out loud in mead halls to illiterate commoners. Also it’s narrated wonderfully by Claire Danes.

If the film sparks your interest even more, I recommend revisiting the classic.

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Logline: “After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Calypso along the way.”

Have I watched it yet? Yes

Where to watch? The biggest screen you can find. 70mm if possible.

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See you next week.