Christopher Nolan's epic adaptation has been met with almost universal acclaim – from mostly male film critics. Might women find the journey less comfortable?
Long ago, almost as long ago as Homer composed The Odyssey, I was a film critic on the Sunday Telegraph.
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People sometimes ask me how sexist the scene was then, back in the bronze age mid-noughties, when male critics outnumbered female by about eight to one.
Well, there wasn't any sexism. It was actually totally fine and everyone was really nice.
They were nice in Soho, anyway. Farther afield, less so.
Particularly certain readers, when it came to certain films, made by certain directors. Quentin Tarantino, obviously.
Ken Loach, weirdly. And Christopher Nolan.
Question their genius and prepare for epic correction by a legion of self-appointed bouncers.
I'd forgotten about that until 2020, when Peter Bradshaw was away and I reviewed Nolan's sci-fi drama Tenet.
I didn't really like it and was duly admonished.
I've since deleted much of the feedback I received at the time, but an old Reddit thread gives a flavour: “silly cow”, “bitter”, “probably a feminist”; “I can guarantee that bird was on the blob when she wrote that review lol”; “women make decisions based on emotion rather than logic”.
It is not Nolan's fault that some of his fans are so emotional they insult strangers online for reviewing a movie they want to see.
