The Odyssey: Matt Damon, Casting Controversies & Why the R Rating Surprises with Adam Holtz

Everybody's talking about The Odyssey — Christopher Nolan's sweeping epic starring Matt Damon as Odysseus — and Adam Holtz from Plugged In joins Brian From to give the full breakdown. The film generated significant pre-release controversy over casting choices including a Black actress as Helen of Troy and Elliot Page as a warrior, plus concerns about a more progressive interpretation of Homer's source material. But the early numbers tell a different story: 96% from critics and 97% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Adam notes something worth acknowledging: the movie's version of Odysseus is actually more redemptive than the original — a faithful family man trying to get home to his wife and son after 20 years, not the arrogant womanizer of Homer's text. The R rating is the real curveball: the violence is intense but not gory, and Adam traces the rating almost entirely to three F-words — one over the PG-13 threshold — in what he reads as a very deliberate creative decision. His bottom line: know your family's convictions, because this R-rated film is less problematic than a lot of movies that carry that same rating. And teaser: Little House on the Prairie is coming up next week. Full review at pluggedin.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.