The Tara Theatre. Photo by Noah Washington/The Atlanta Voice Bold, serene, and dangerous, audiences previewed Christopher Nolan’s latest Greek epic, The Odyssey, at the historic Tara Theatre this past Monday. Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s foundational text arrives in IMAX theaters July 17, following a monthslong marketing campaign built on secrecy, record-breaking presales, and controversy over its casting choices. Advance word suggested a film unafraid to reinterpret its 3,000-year-old source material for a modern audience. That reinterpretation is most visible in the casting of Lupita Nyong’o, rapper Travis Scott, and Corey Hawkins, all three of whom bring new energy to a story usually rendered in marble and myth. Nyong’o takes on a dual role as Helen of Troy and her twin sister, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife. Where online speculation ahead of the film’s release framed her casting as historically incongruous, that speculation proves wrong on screen. Nyong’o brings an ethereal beauty to both roles. As Helen, that beauty is complicated by a lazy eye and a scarred face, a striking departure from the “face that launched a thousand ships” framing that has defined the character for centuries. As Clytemnestra, however, the otherworldly glamour is on full display.  Scott, cast as a wandering bard, is a bolder swing. Nolan has said he wanted the bard’s presence to echo how the Odyssey survived for centuries through oral poetry, a tradition he likened to rapping. It’s a clever piece of stunt casting on paper, and one that generated its own share of internet chatter months before the film’s release. Benny Safdie’s Agamemnon is the film’s most commanding presence, exuding an aura reminiscent of Darth Vader in every scene he’s given, a king whose menace lands as much through stillness as through action. The Cyclops sequence delivers the film’s most effective tension. Bill Irwin’s Polyphemus picks off Odysseus’s men one by one, and the sequence is genuinely terrifying, a rare stretch where Nolan’s “tactile realism” approach to Greek myth pays off in full. Elsewhere, the film takes several swings, like Odysseus’s sword, and misses the tension it aims for. Uneven pacing and slower beats tend to drag the film down, but for those looking for a long movie weekend, the 2hr and 52-minute runtime might be for you. “The Odyssey” opens in theaters everywhere July 17. The post Odyssey brings Nolan’s mythic epic to Atlanta at the Tara Theatre appeared first on The Atlanta Voice. ...read more read less