Peloton instructor invites Christopher Nolan to join class after insulting his movie
Fitness and film collide with mixed reviews of Christopher Nolan's oeuvre
Everyone knows the old rule, “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” One Peloton instructor recently had a very unexpected reminder of why, and from none other than Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan.
While accepting an award for best director from the New York Film Critics Circle on Thursday, Nolan recounted an unexpected critique of his earlier film, Tenet, landing during a Peloton class he was in.
“I was on my Peloton doing a high-interval workout. I’m dying,” Nolan said in his speech. “The instructor started talking about one of my films and said, ‘Has anyone else seen this? Because that’s a couple hours of my life I’ll never get back again.'”
That instructor, Jenna Sherman, clearly didn’t know Nolan was one of the riders in the online class. The full impromptu review, which someone has unearthed through the magic of the internet, is more blunt than what Nolan recounted.
“Anybody see this shit? Did anybody see this besides me? Because I need a manual. Someone’s got to explain this,” Sherman says, by way of introduction of the classes soundtrack. “Yeah, I’m not kidding, what the fuck was going on in that movie? Do you understand? Seriously, you need to be a neuroscientist to understand. And that’s two and a half hours of my life that I want back.”
That class took place way back in 2020. So, when Sherman woke up to her name sharing a headline with the acclaimed director, she was excited and not expecting the roller coaster that would follow.
“Huge day for me, when I come to find out that the one and only Christopher Nolan, one of the leading filmmakers of the 21st century, knows who the hell I am. I was excited. And then I read the article,” Sherman says in a follow-up post on Instagram after the initial story broke. “Listen. It was 2020. It was a dark time. I’m on the platform, teaching my little class, and I’m running my mouth off like I’m known to do. And I make a random comment about a movie I had seen the night before. What do you think the odds are that the director of said movie would take that ride some four years later? That would only happen to me.”
Tenet vs Oppenheimer
While Sherman might have been caught off-guard by her past comments coming back to haunt her, she didn’t miss a beat rolling with the new fame. And she sure isn’t backing down from her initial review.
“I may not have understood a minute of what the hell was going on in Tenet. That shit went right over my head,” Sherman said, before adding “But I have seen Oppenheimer twice. And that’s six hours of my life that I don’t ever want to give back.”
Sherman went on to offer Nolan the opportunity to turn the tables and critique one of her classes.
“So, Mr. Nolan, I’m inviting you to come take a ride with me in the Peloton Studio. You can critique my class. We’ll have a great time, you’ll sit in the front row and I promise you, it’ll be insult free.”
