And who delivers the worst?
Schwartz: I didn’t love Zendaya as Athena, the only deity depicted onscreen. There is a heaviness and sorrow to that wise, ingenious goddess that obscured the character’s power and playfulness—a choice made by Nolan, no doubt to emphasize his dark themes.
Brody: All of these actors are professionals, charismatic and persuasive; when a performance is off, it’s usually the director’s fault, as here, with Matt Damon, in the lead role of Odysseus. He portrays the character, as per Nolan’s script, as a reserved, terse, inexpressive, stoic American soldier—it’s not Damon’s fault that his performance, however committed and skillful, suggests nothing of the sly ruses and scheming quickness that mark Homer’s complex hero.
via an interview with Caroline Mimbs Nyce, New Yorker Newsletter editor
A person protests to fate:
“The things you have caused
me most to want
are those that furthest elude me.”
Fate nods.
Fate is sympathetic.
To tie the shoes, button a shirt,
are triumphs
for only the very young,
the very old.
During the long middle:
conjugating a rivet
mastering tango
training the cat to stay off the table
preserving a single moment longer than this one
continuing to wake whatever has happened the day before
and the penmanships love practices inside the body.
A Person Protests to Fate, Jane Hirshfield
