Jonathan Ross, who presented the BBC’s flagship Film programme for more than a decade, has dubbed Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer “one of the most boring” movies he’s ever seen… and suggested he wasn’t much of a fan of The Odyssey either.
Despite being best known as a chat show host, Ross was formerly the face of film coverage at the BBC, succeeding the late film critic Barry Norman as the host of its Film programme from 1999 to 2010. He’s since presented ITV’s Oscar coverage and currently hosts the movie podcast Reel Talk – all of which makes his Nolan admission all the more surprising.
In a new interview, Ross admitted that he is “not part of the cult of Christopher Nolan” and in fact couldn’t stand Oppenheimer, Nolan’s 2023 nuclear bomb epic.
Ross said he was “begging for release” while watching the film, adding that it was “one of the most boring movies, one of the dullest experiences I’ve ever had at the cinema”.
“It has some incredible moments in it, so [Nolan’s] skill as a filmmaker is beyond doubt and unquestionable,” Ross told Metro. “But I do think, as a writer, I find him wanting sometimes. And that was possibly my problem with The Odyssey as well.
“Ultimately opinions, of course, are all valid. I do often find that I’m very surprised by the movies that people rave about and the movies that get awards. Obviously, I like to think I’m right and everyone else is wrong, but I’m old enough to realise that’s just vanity.”
Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy as the inventor of the A-bomb, won Nolan his first Best Director Oscar, and also took home the prizes for Best Picture and Best Actor (for Murphy) at the 2024 Academy Awards.
Speaking to The Independent in July, Nolan explained that the success of Oppenheimer directly led to him being able to make his most recent movie, The Odyssey.
“Coming out of Oppenheimer, which was a film that had far more success than we’d ever imagined, it leaves you with an opportunity,” he explained. “You have the chance to do something that you wouldn’t have otherwise. And so the scale of The Odyssey, and what that was gonna require, was suddenly possible.”
The Odyssey stars Matt Damon as the Greek king of Ithaca, who is tasked with making a perilous journey home following the Trojan War. The film’s star-studded cast also includes Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Samantha Morton, and Zendaya.
It is Nolan’s most successful film to date, grossing a massive $1.104b (£819m) worldwide. This figure surpassed Nolan’s previous record-holder, the 2012 Batman instalment The Dark Knight Rises, which earned $1.085b (£805m). Its 2008 predecessor, The Dark Knight, had previously grossed $1.0b ($745m).
In a review of Oppenheimer back in 2023, The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey praised the film for being “constructed in a way that allows its audience to comprehend, on an intellectual level, the profound power and chaos that led its central character to see himself as the ‘Death, destroyer of worlds’,” but she added that it just misses greatness overall.
“I’m not sure that it burrows [deep] … into that profound, emotional space that can be both overwhelming and difficult to verbalise,” she wrote. “It’s a little too conscious of itself, and the ways cinema crafts its own reality.”
