Christopher Nolan recalls Peloton instructor's harsh 'Tenet' review: 'What was going on?'

NEW YORK – Getting roasted by your workout instructor. It's a nightmare scenario for most of us, but a very harsh reality for "Oppenheimer" filmmaker Christopher Nolan.

Accepting the best director prize at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards Wednesday night, he recalled a mortifying moment during a virtual cycling class.

"Directors have a complex emotional relationship with critics and criticism," Nolan said onstage. "I was on my Peloton doing a high-interval workout. I'm dying. 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.'"

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Internet sleuths uncovered the disparaging clip, which comes from a 2020 workout class by Peloton instructor Jenn Sherman. After queuing up Travis Scott's song "The Plan" from the movie "Tenet," Sherman asked whether anyone else had seen the heady sci-fi thriller.

"I need a manual," Sherman bemoaned. "I'm not kidding, what 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."

After Nolan's speech went viral, Sherman took to Instagram Thursday to post a lighthearted apology video.

"Listen, it was 2020. It was a dark time," Sherman said. "I'm up on the platform, teaching my class, 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."

She went on to say that while she still doesn't understand "Tenet," she has seen "Oppenheimer" twice. The cycling instructor ended her video with an open invitation for Nolan, asking him to join her for an in-person workout.

“Mr. Nolan, I'm inviting you to come for a ride with me in the Peloton studio," Sherman said. "You can critique my class. You'll have a great time. You'll sit in the front row. And I promise you it'll be insult-free.”

The time-bending "Tenet," which stars John David Washington and Robert Pattinson, was released at the height of COVID-19 in September 2020. The film was labeled "Nolan's most confusing movie" by the New York Post, but still managed 69% positive reviews on aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.