And it's Not Even About The Odyssey

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]Recently, a friend sent me few memes on Instagram.

[00:00:03]I had also seen similar stuff on my own feed. And no, it's not about the Odyssey or any of his other films. In fact, it's not even about him. Then why suddenly the internet hates Christopher Nolan?

[00:00:17]Welcome back. I'm Mahesh, a film buff and an aspiring filmmaker.

[00:00:22]I [music] think what's happening here says less about Christopher Nolan himself >> [music] >> and more about how internet culture treats massively popular artists. You must have seen people on the internet competing by showing their movie taste.

[00:00:38]Saying that I have seen films of so-and-so filmmaker.

[00:00:41]>> [music] >> What's happening really is that for some people, taste is not a genuine way to connect with art. It's just a way to have a cultural superiority or sort of distinction.

[00:00:54]>> [music] >> Basically, for some taste is a status symbol. Take example of clothes, for example. When only few wear something, people call it classy. You see [music] the reels of it on your page, people wearing it, posing it. The moment it become accessible for everyone, people try to make distance from it.

[00:01:15][music] It suddenly becomes trash. Not because these clothes are bad, but because it no more feels [music] exclusive. It's kind of same with Nolan.

[00:01:25]He became too popular to feel exclusive talking about him. People now don't see him as an artist, but more as a symbol.

[00:01:34]So slowly, disliking Nolan became its own form of performance. I remember the times when I had first bought an OTT subscription. I was just a teenager back then and I had [music] discovered most of the foreign cinema through it.

[00:01:51]One of the first and earliest film [music] I had watched on it was Inception. It was a Hindi dubbed film and >> [music] >> I didn't know the director and was not even aware of the directorial aspect of filmmaking. But the film literally took me with [music] it. Even though I didn't know the director, but the algorithm suggested me similar films. I watched the Arrival of Denis Villeneuve, Ex Machina of [music] Alex Garland, Annihilation of the same director. I watched The Prestige, the Batman trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk >> [music] >> and I literally loved The Dark Knight when I had first watched it. It was the film that had actually made me first think about what if I had done if I were directing those films. So, I think I was not alone. A lot of people discovered cinema through Christopher Nolan. He sort of became the symbol for entry-level serious cinema. [music] And in that phase, a lot of people over-praised him. Eventually, the internet created a backlash against that. It is something that happens all the time on the internet. And I'm not saying that Christopher Nolan is a perfect filmmaker or anything. [music] He obviously have his own issues and they are discussed on the internet quite a lot actually.

[00:03:13]>> [music] >> I just made this video to understand the backlash his fans and his films get on the internet.

[00:03:20]So, that's all. I will see [music] you on the next Sunday then.

[00:03:24]Have a nice day. Bye.