Up and down the CN tower

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey opens on Friday. I didn’t particularly care for Oppenheimer, but I am excited about this one, not least because historian Tom Holland, having seen an advance screener, said on X that he loved it and even got into a spat with Elon Musk over it. (Men are so emotional.) The ‘intertextuality’ and nonlinearity of the text is apparently honoured here, and - we gettin’ old - GenXer Matt Damon is playing the gray-bearded Ulysses. Rumours swirl that Nolan used Emily Wilson’s plain and unfussy translation, which is fine by me. I am a wee bit worried about some brazen historical and geographical inaccuracies in the trailer, but maybe there is a way that medieval armour can be meaningfully employed in an ancient Greek epic? I’m going in with an open mind.

-> Previously on Long Play: A man of many twists and turns, much travelled, wily: Reading Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey

The Odyssey: Final trailer

Meanwhile, one of the best films of 2025 is now available to stream on Crave: the unfortunately titled Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie directed by Matt Johnson of the Blackberry fame.

I thought I’d have to be familiar with the history of the Nirvanna characters, previously of the Viceland-CityTV series, but turns out not at all. There is a MacGuffin propelling the action: two friends nearing middle age still pursue the dream of being programmed at the Rivoli by coming up with increasingly mad pranks to get noticed, including a time machine. Rivoli doesn’t really matter, it all probably comes down to getting the ladies to finally pay attention to them, or not even that - it’s the business of filling your days and finding a purpose, MacGuffins or religions, potato-potahto. The pleasure of this film is in its wild roughhousing imagination and formal inventiveness.

There are multiple trips to the top of the CN tower and two jumps off it, and by the end of the movie it’s like going to the corner store. A huge number of local cultural references are employed and we find ourselves inside a CP24 report too in one tense moment. Jokes are often skirting politically incorrect, and many scenes appear to have been improvised (“Where’re you from? France! Welcome to Toronto, now can you hold this cord/press this button/do me a favour” is regularly heard as Johnson lures unsuspecting tourists into scenes being filmed.) If I compare anything to Jacques Tati’s Playtime, one of my favourite films ever made, it’s a huge compliment, so here I go: there’s something of Playtime here, cinema using cinematic tools (as opposed to text: dialogue, exposition) to make its point. I just regret not seeing the film on the big screen and getting to laugh with all the others as the boys, transported back in 2008, are greeted by a gigantic CBC billboard of Gian Ghomeshi and the NOW magazine cover promoting Bill Cosby, and isn’t the script also lampooning Drake with those mega-stardom scenes? Start to finish pure joy.

How do artists and poets make it work, financially? Currey looks at some of artists who are now part of the western canon, and groups them by the earning model: the trust fund babies, the married-wells, the jobbing, the parallel careers, the make art around other full-time job people, etc. Some chapters are more interesting than others. Those that tell you how someone made the most of their inheritance or guaranteed annual payments are a bit of a snooze, and the book is at its best in chapters showing artists working against obstacles. The must-read sections: how Virginia Woolf - through Hogarth Press and journalism - stabilized her finances together with Leonard (I wrongly had her down as a trustafarian), and how Octavia Butler managed to write around a series of full-time jobs (2 a.m. wake-up call and “forget inspiration; habit is more dependable”).

Americans (often couples, as it’s easier with two incomes or pensions) moving to France. Living in France. Overcoming bureaucratic obstacles and cultural differences. Learning French. Finding their lives enriched and so much happier. Changing entire philosophy of life.

Delightfully Disoriented in France is a great example, and Valerie often recommends other Americans-in-France substacks and does joint live videos with them. That’s how I learn of Kamille Longstreet’s Once Upon a Castle, for example: a Substack by two people who bought a run-down castle-like dwelling in la France profonde and are renovating it - while (re)building a life in France. There was also a guest the other day on Valerie’s livestream who chose Paris, and as a single person, so the two hosts discussed and compared experiences. I’m addicted.

I have finally found a new venue for Long Play Presents. Stay tuned for some fall event news coming later in August.

Are you a regular reader? Would you like to endorse this publication publicly, in a sentence or two that I can use to promote it? Yes, it’s like a book blurb or movie critic quote. You can send me your copy with your full name to greeksandromans at gmail dot com. Thank you for being here.