Christopher Nolan Says He Got Dragged During a Peloton Class

Criticism is always difficult to receive, but of course, it hits just a little bit harder when you're not expecting it. Maybe your dinner guests don’t like your cooking! Partner hates your outfit! Peloton instructor dunks on one of your blockbuster films!

Well, one of those only applies to a single man: Christopher Nolan. The Oscar-nominated director recently spoke about his appreciation for real critics after receiving some harsh feedback about one of his movies during a cycling class. “I was on my Peloton, I’m dying,” Nolan said at the New York Film Critics Circle, after winning the Best Director prize. “And the instructor started talking about one of my films and said, ‘Did anyone see this? That’s a couple hours of my life I’ll never get back again!’”

Maybe the instructor didn’t notice Nolan’s name on the leaderboard, or maybe they just didn’t care. Either way, the comment didn’t sit well. “When [film critic] Rex Reed takes a shit on your film he doesn’t ask you to work out!” Nolan joked. “In today’s world, where opinions are everywhere, there is a sort of idea that film criticism is being democratized, but I, for one, think the critical appreciation of films shouldn’t be an instinct but it should be a profession.”

I understand Nolan’s beef with his Peloton trainer, but I disagree with his musings about who can be a critic! Films are meant for everyone to watch and enjoy. What’s the point of engaging with art if you’re not encouraged—or perhaps, considered qualified enough—to have an opinion of it? Nolan didn’t disclose which movie his instructor was talking about, but the Internet already figured out that it was 2020's Tenet, which was, indeed, divisive amongst critics. You can watch the impromptu roast of Nolan's film below.

During his speech, Nolan said he knew that Oppenheimer included choices that “risk misinterpretation,” and suggested that viewers should turn to critics for context before, you know, gossiping about it mid-workout. “We live in a world where the person receiving the story has the right to say what it means to them,” Nolan said. “I for one love that. It means the work should speak for itself. It’s not about what I say it is. It’s about what you receive it to be.”

Still, Nolan expressed his gratitude to the critics who got it. “The role of the professional critic, or the interpreter and the person who tries to give context for the reader…it’s incredibly important,” he concluded. “I’ve never been so grateful for careful, considered, and thoughtful writing about one of my films as I was for Oppenheimer.”

Go off, Chris! Let's hope that the next time a Peloton instructor takes on a Nolan film, it's Cody Rigsby's review of Oppenheimer. Now that? That I would bike to.

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