About halfway through The Odyssey<\/a>, I was struck with a question that I did not expect to ask in the year 2026: Is Christopher Nolan<\/a>just now hitting his peak as a filmmaker?<\/p>\n In a filmography as consistently dynamic and broadly successful as Nolan\u2019s, it\u2019s a difficult question to answer. But based on the upward trajectory from Tenet to Oppenheimer to The Odyssey, it\u2019s hard to ignore the possibility that the preeminent blockbuster filmmaker of the 21st century might actually be getting better at his job.\u00a0<\/p>\n Matt Damon and Zendaya in \u2018The Odyssey\u2019Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon\/Universal Studios<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you haven\u2019t heard by now, The Odyssey stars approximately half of all English language movie stars on the planet, including Matt Damon<\/a> as Odysseus, the central hero trying to find his way back home to Ithaca after the Trojan War; Anne Hathaway<\/a> as Penelope, his frustrated but steadfast wife; Tom Holland<\/a> as Telemachus, their earnest young son; and Robert Pattinson<\/a> as Antinous, a sniveling suitor vying for Penelope\u2019s hand in marriage in Odysseus\u2019 absence.\u00a0<\/p>\n Besides Damon, every single actor in The Odyssey\u2018s cast is in far less of the movie than you might anticipate. Many of its most recognizable faces \u2014 Zendaya, Elliot Page, Lupita Nyong\u2019o, Jon Bernthal, Travis Scott, and Charlize Theron, to name a few \u2014 are only in a handful of scenes each, and their moments of dialogue are few and far between.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tom Holland in \u2018The Odyssey\u2019Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon\/Universal Pictures<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The sparse use of each A-lister doesn\u2019t feel like an accident or a miscalculation, though \u2014 it\u2019s a reflection of the reality that The Odyssey\u2019s biggest star isn\u2019t any of its actors, but instead Nolan himself. Though performers like John Leguizamo and Samantha Morton find opportunities to shine, Nolan has such a thorough command of the film\u2019s tone, rhythm, and energy that everyone in the cast blends into the grand tapestry of the narrative rather than fully occupying the spotlight.<\/p>\n As with many of Nolan\u2019s best films, The Odyssey draws on an extremely familiar piece of source material, which means that the surprises and delights of the movie come not from the novelty of the story being told but from the choices he makes while telling it. And though his take on Homer\u2019s epic poem employs some of the nonlinear narrative tricks that we\u2019ve come to expect from the mind behind Memento and Dunkirk, Nolan\u2019s greatest strength on display in The Odyssey is his ability to craft individual pieces of breathtaking spectacle one scene at a time.<\/p>\n Regardless of where you might place The Odyssey in your ranking of Nolan\u2019s work, it feels basically undeniable that the film has four or five of the greatest sequences that the filmmaker has ever committed to celluloid. Within each of these sequences is a remarkable tonal balance: the director\u2019s commitment to practical effects and grounded production design makes the film\u2019s mythical world feel tactile and accessible, yet the disorienting scale of the image (especially on IMAX film) and Ludwig G\u00f6ransson\u2019s pulsing, ethereal score combine to make for an eerie, otherworldly atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n Matt Damon in \u2018The Odyssey\u2019Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon\/Universal Pictures<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As a result, The Odyssey\u2018s strongest sequences provide the all-too-rare sensation of truly not being able to believe your eyes as they\u2019re sucked into the screen. The film\u2019s most fantastical elements all feel distressingly real, to the point where you might briefly wonder if the crew found an actual cyclops or a real-life witch transforming soldiers into swine, and they just happened to point a camera at these impossible creatures at the exact right moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/hermes.media.static.aol.com\/media\/2026\/07\/15\/eeee322a-217d-390a-ba68-16f8e8624baf\/f13bb80f-7ed4-4c8a-8f2b-28a4bfb35011.jpg\"\/)
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