Today’s newsletter is all about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, but first, we have something new for you! It’s called “DYLgAame,” a movie watching schedule for busy adults, built by Do You Like Apples. It’s like a library reading program, but for movies. (Maybe in the future you’ll get a free pizza from Pizza Hut for your efforts.) Here’s how it works:
Every month you’ll get a calendar of movies to watch.
You can go through and mark each one as “seen” or “not seen.”
Throughout the month, you can watch or rewatch each movie to earn points.
Keep an eye on the Standings tab to see how you stack up and if you can beat us!
For August, we have a great mix of movies old and new, fun and serious, popular and obscure. Here’s a snapshot of the picks for the first week.
Play DYLgAme and watch some movies with us! Click here for the free sign up to get started.
Now, let’s get to the cinematic event of 2026, The Odyssey. First, Drew ranks his 10 favorite sequences, and then, Billy shares some thoughts on the vital collective experience of seeing it in the theater.
Drew Wendt: Homer’s The Odyssey is a foundational adventure epic full of one unbelievable sequence after another, inspiring an infinite number of stories, films, literature, poems, and more Western cultural artifacts. How does Christopher Nolan’s adaptation portray these famous moments throughout the saga? I’ve decided to rank the 10 best sequences from The Odyssey. Be warned: Spoilers ahead.
10. Zeus’ storm
When Odysseus’ soldiers give in to their hunger and eat the Sun God’s cattle, Zeus and Poseidon team up to wreck their ship and leave Odysseus the last man standing. The storm is intense and the emotion of the scene is strong as Odysseus is torn apart from his men, but there are much better sequences elsewhere in the film.
9. Sailing between Scylla and Charybdis
Despite the incredible visual of the massive whirlpool sea monster Charybdis, this sequence doesn’t deliver the same thrills as other parts of the movie because we already know what’s going to happen from the prophecy scene in Hades. However, when the cliffside monster Scylla starts snatching men from the deck of the ship, you are fully immersed in the action anyway.
8. Odysseus slays the suitors
While the climactic action sequence is immensely thrilling and satisfying, it’s not among my very favorites of the film. When Odysseus gets to work eliminating his wife Penelope’s suitors, The Odyssey briefly morphs into John Wick in ancient Greece. It’s slightly repetitive and the fight between Telemachus (Tom Holland) and the traitorous servant in the upper room doesn’t bear the same stakes as what’s happening below. Still, Damon’s action movie chops shine bright here.
7. Laestrygonian giants attack
Odysseus and his crew get their island vacation cut extremely short when the native Laestrygonian giants massacre most of the visitors. The blending of grounded action (giant armored men killing Greek warriors and trashing their ships) with, as the opening title card says, “apparent magic” (the trees in the forest moving to trap the men), is so deftly rendered by Nolan and his team. This scene is also some of composer Ludwig Goransson’s best work on the score.
6. Circe’s “hospitality”
Nolan’s body horror short film? Who would’ve thought? I’ll admit that this is one of the parts of The Odyssey story that I wasn’t familiar with, so the shock and disgust was real when the witch Circe turns Odysseus’ men into pigs. In another wonderful choice, Nolan uses camera tricks and practical effects in lieu of CGI. It’s a visceral scene, further enhanced by Samantha Morton’s ominous and layered performance.
5. Sailing past the Sirens
Here is Matt Damon’s Oscar clip. In these riveting few minutes, we learn more about Odysseus’ arrogance as he wishes to be the only man to ever hear the Sirens’ call and live to tell the tale. This sequence simultaneously features some of Nolan’s best writing and Damon’s best acting.
4. Trapped in the Cyclopes cave
This early sequence is when I knew we were in for another Nolan banger. From the practical puppet effects of the giant Cyclopes to the astounding craft of the scene (the lighting and sound effects are out-of-this-world great), it’s a showstopper and the best scene in any other action-adventure movie.
3. Waking the undead in Hades
The Hades sequence is possibly the most pivotal to Nolan’s adaptation and the most arresting to watch. I love the bleak atmosphere of death that is conjured, the brooding score from Goransson, and the performance from Elliot Page’s Sinon. This scene is also where Agamemnon’s fate is revealed and where most of the rest of the Odyssey is foretold.
2. The sacking of Troy
Near the end of the film, Nolan ingeniously returns to the sacking of Troy, post-Trojan horse trick, this time from Odysseus’ mournful, guilt-ridden perspective. It’s another spectacular action set piece, but that triumphant feeling we had earlier has been stripped away as Odysseus regretfully reflects on how he and the Greeks broke Zeus’ law, cruelly slaughtered and desecrated the city, and hastened the crumbling of their Bronze Age civilization. The edit between the beheading of the Athena statue with Zendaya’s Athena appearing before Odysseus is a brilliant stroke of storytelling.
1. Inside the Trojan horse
How do you depict an ancient story that everyone knows in a way that feels exhilarating and immediate for modern audiences? Christopher Nolan is one of the very few directors that could pull off a stunt almost as daring as the Trojan horse itself. We see the wooden horse on the beach in the opening moments of The Odyssey, but it’s not until Menelaus (Jon Bernthal) is giving Odysseus’ son Telemachus a first-hand account from inside the horse that Nolan immerses us in this brazen and ingenious trick to end the Trojan War. He shows us the horrific conditions the men inside had to endure (recalling a similar scene from Dunkirk). He portrays the punishing physical labor it must have taken to haul a massive wooden horse from the beach to Troy’s temple. And, of course, we are treated to a thrilling exit from the horse that leads to Odysseus and co. raiding the Trojans from the inside and forcing open the gates to let the resplendent Agamemnon and his army rush in. At the end of this sequence, I wanted to stand up and salute the screen for one of the most “total cinema” moments I’ve ever seen.
Billy Rock: Before you read any further you need to know one thing about this newsletter. Upon seeing a new release we will be rushing to The Big Picture podcast with Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins or listening to what Wesley Morris has to say on his podcast, Cannonball. I saved a little bit of time because Sean went on Wesley’s podcast. Both hosts have been on quite the journey with Nolan, but I want to focus on something that Wesley talked about. He said he does not love Nolan movies, but loves being in the full theater with his event style of filmmaking. Hearing that has had me looking back on all my experiences in a full theater. Was it the experience or the movie that I liked? Was it both? How are they connected? How are they not? Does it matter?
The Odyssey hype inside my circles was the most all over the place for any Nolan release since Dunkirk. I would say most were doubting his ability to adapt this famous poem. For most, that doubt probably served them better inside a full theater. For me, though, I was confused why many people around me were doubting Nolan. This confusion is not because I am a Nolan fanboy. If anything I get off on telling people I don’t love Interstellar. It was because Nolan felt like one of the few directors that could capture the scale of this movie. Put away performances, storytelling, the score, and pacing. Those all could be terrible, but the scale for all these mythical stories will be captured correctly. I am happy to report that I loved The Odyssey, but was it the quality or was it the shared experience?
I saw The Odyssey in 70mm (non-IMAX) with a group that I don’t interact with much, but it was a group of movie fans that were all equally hyped. A little pre-smoke, banter about our anticipation, and getting a film strip of the movie set aside the new hang jitters and I was able to sink into the whole experience. It was the type of dynamic that was going to enhance the love or add to the disappointment once the credits started rolling. That slow walk back to the car debriefing the experience is sacred ground. Two weeks after the release of The Odyssey I am confident that this is my favorite movie of the year so far and potentially my favorite Nolan, and after pondering the prompt from Wesley Morris about the shared experience, I have come to the conclusion that I personally can’t untie my critical thought of a movie from the positive shared experience very well.
That disappoints me a bit and I feel like I should surrender to that. In other avenues I am much more comfortable with the shared experience being the main draw. Like a concert, comedy show, a crowded bar, or even a busy airport. Being amongst people is part of the experience so when a friend cares about a musical artist that I don’t care about, but they want someone to go with, I’ll go because I know I’m gonna have a blast because of their excitement and the others around me. Movies have always felt like my own thing so I never thought about my shared experience with them all that much. But looking back, my favorite movies are almost always tied to seeing it with people and as I get older it is harder to get friends to go to the movies with you (except you, Drew). All that being said, go see this with people if you can.
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