'Tenet' Review—A Mind-Bending Spectacle

Today, I took a bus to New Jersey and attended the 3:10 showing of Nolan's newest film at Kerasotes ShowPlace 14. It was my first time at a theater since March when I watched Bloodshot. Yeah, this movie is way better than Bloodshot.

Christopher Nolan, the man behind movies such as Inception, Dunkirk, and The Dark Knight trilogy, has blessed audiences with a brand new film: Tenet, a sci-fi action spy film starring John David Washington as an unnamed Protagonist who must manipulate time to prevent World War III.

As mentioned earlier, Nolan has made many acclaimed films. He is a genius of a director and my favorite filmmaker. Even in his weaker films, he still manages to communicate something fascinating, unique, and original, which are all words that could easily apply to this film.

Nolan has crafted something special with Tenet. This is Nolan at his most ambitious, almost as if he is trying to out-Nolan himself with the amount of sheer chaos he throws at the screen. Some may appreciate the film's energy and originality, while others will be frustrated by the needless complexity.

In many ways, this movie shows Nolan at his best and his worst. Let's talk about the best: he once again uses the concept of time to his advantage by making a Bond-esque espionage thriller. He manipulates time like a cat playing with a ball of yarn, and the results are enthralling.

On a technical level, Tenet is above and beyond the norm for a Hollywood blockbuster. There are scenes in which people and objects are moving forward in time while others are moving backward in time, all of which happens in the same shot. These sequences are a marvel to behold.

Like with Nolan's other films, the first half of the film asks many questions that he answers in shocking fashion during the second half. There are mysteries that the audience doesn't know are mysteries until Nolan expertly surprises us with surprising revelations.

As this is a sci-fi action film, the movie boasts many large-scale action setpieces. Like in The Dark Knight trilogy, Nolan uses practical effects to perfection, with an opening setpiece at the opera ending in real explosions. A later scene where a Boeing 747 plane crashes into a building is accomplished with a real aircraft as well.

This shows Nolan's commitment to authenticity with his action films, and during a car chase on a freeway, you can feel the weeks of planning and stunt training it took to execute this white-knuckled setpiece. Furthermore, a fight scene in a kitchen is directed far better than previous Nolan fight scenes.

However, this film also contains Nolan at his worst, with exposition comprising most of the film's dialogue. Every scene feels like characters are endlessly moving the plot forward, leaving the audience scrambling to keep up with a heavily abstract, intricate story.

Throughout the film, the movie shifts from being about a painting to plutonium to something else entirely, and it can feel like it lacks a clear focus beyond its original concept. With the film's heavy verbal exposition, it's unfortunate that the sound mixing makes a lot of the dialogue inaudible, as it is under loud music that goes "BWAAAHHMM."

What makes the film strange is how Nolan simplifies the complex and complicates the simple. While it is clear how the "inversion" concept works, the story surrounding it is difficult to follow. This comes out of Nolan's failure to communicate a grandiose story to a mainstream audience.

Another disappointing aspect of the film is the characters. Nolan forgets what made films like Inception and Interstellar work—it wasn't just the visuals and the spectacle; it was the characters and how their larger-than-life journey was intertwined with a deep internal struggle.

However, the Protagonist (as Washington's character is referred to) has no personal goal, and neither does Robert Pattinson's character, Neil. They can feel less like characters and more like vehicles to move the plot forward in a plot-heavy movie where it's hard to imagine what they are like outside of the film's events.

Kat (Elizabeth Debicki) has the most emotion of any character in the movie. She is the film's heart and soul, but Nolan recycles his go-to idea of "I want to see my child again" for this character, and it can feel derivative of his other work, but much inferior.

But the movie remains a mind-bending spectacle. It's a feast for the eyes, and you can see the effort Nolan put into this film from the littlest detail to the largest explosion. The way Nolan structures the film is quite genius, and everything he throws at the screen is jaw-dropping.

While Tenet may not be one of Nolan's better films, it is undeniable that we are watching an auteur at work with this film. His missteps arise from his misguided ambition, and it is a sci-fi epic that requires in-depth analysis with multiple repeat viewings to unlock this time-bending puzzle.

Grade: ★★★★☆ [8/10, B+]