Christopher Nolan recalls getting roasted by his Peloton instructor mid-workout

"That's a couple hours I'll never get back," the exercise leader apparently told a class about one of the director's movies.

Christopher Nolan is riding a wave of acclaim thanks to the success of Oppenheimer, his sweeping biopic about the "father of the atomic bomb." But you can't please all the people all the time.

While accepting the award for Best Director from the New York Film Critics Circle on Wednesday night, Nolan related an amusing story of a recent criticism he received in an unexpected arena.

"I was on my Peloton doing a high-interval workout, I'm dying," the filmmaker recalled. "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.'"

The anecdote was meant as a defense of professional film critics, like the ones who make up the NYFCC.

"When [film critic] Rex Reed takes a s--- on your film, he doesn’t ask you to work out!" Nolan quipped. "In today's world, where opinions are everywhere, there is a sort of idea that film criticism is being democratized, but I for one think the critical appreciation of films shouldn't be an instinct but it should be a profession."

Footage of the speech was captured by critic Matt Neglia, who posted it on social media.

It seems unlikely that the Peloton instructor was talking about Oppenheimer, which has proved popular with both critics and audiences. The film has earned nearly $1 billion at the global box office since opening in July, and the home video release was one of the most-sought gifts this holiday season.

More likely the instructor was referring to Tenet, Nolan's pandemic-era film whose movement backward and forward in time is more than a little confusing on first watch.

In fact, 404 Media reporter Samantha Cole appeared to discover the Peloton clip in question, in which instructor Jenn Sherman slammed Tenet even harder than Nolan recalled.

"This song is from a soundtrack of a movie called Tenet," Sherman said in the clip, referring to "The Plan," by Travis Scott. "Anybody see this s---? Did anybody see this besides me? Because I need a manual. Someone's got to explain this. Yeah I'm not kidding, what the f--- 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."

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.