Photo courtesy of Unsplash.
So, through ways that I’ll be keeping as secret as the actual movie, I recently managed to see Tenet. Now, if you’ve been living under a rock, which in turn is kept under a Truman Show style dome, which in turn was blasted into the depths of space to serve as some sort of last refuge of remaining human life, the world is on fire, and movie theaters are struggling as studios continue to pull and delay new films to avoid COVID related box office failures. Tenet is really the first major studio blockbuster to be released exclusively in theaters since the pandemic began, and although its aspirations were to be a sort of savior of the multiplex, it unfortunately is more of a cinematic canary in a corona ridden coal mine. People really just aren’t ready for movie theaters yet.
Aside from box office results which aren’t too bad considering the circumstances, what is the film actually about? And how does it measure up not only as a movie, but also as something worth risking your health for? Tenet is director Christopher Nolan’s first film in a little over three years, and has been described as “Bond on acid,” as it’s more or less a spy movie, but heavily integrates science fiction concepts and Nolan’s trademark style of messing with time.
Nolan is truly a unique filmmaker, especially in the modern era of blockbuster filmmaking. He may be the pinnacle of an exciting cross section between big budget action entertainment, as well artistic auteurship. He may also be the only director out there making completely original, high concept action films that both feel like they were made by an actual person (rather than a studio team), are at least on the Oscar’s radar, and (under normal circumstances) guaranteed to make bare minimum half a billion at the international box office. The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar and Dunkirk were Nolan’s past five films before Tenet, and each was a critical and financial success. Tenet however, is somewhat of a disappointment. Every single “Nolanism” has seemingly been turned up to eleven, and it makes it definitively one of the weaker films in his catalogue.
Let’s break the flaws down on two levels. The first is maybe the more surprising, which is the technical. I’ll go as far as to say that Christopher Nolan’s films are typically immaculate on the technical side of filmmaking. Collaborating with cinematographers like Wally Pfister and Hoyte Van Hoytema usually make Nolan movies look breathtaking, they are edited prestinely, and Nolan is dedicated with an admirable conviction to the use of practical effects. If a stunt, shot or set piece can be done for real rather than with CGI, that is the way he prefers to do it. Sadly with Tenet, most technical components are just a touch less sharp than usual. While the movie looks very good, I wouldn’t say great. While it’s cut well, I wouldn’t say it accents the tension as well as The Dark Knight or Dunkirk, nor does it help the audience’s understanding of what’s happening like Inception.
And perhaps most disappointing is the sound design. Christopher Nolan movies usually have near flawless sound design, and have on at least three occasions won Oscars for it, but here it’s way over done. In certain sequences it functions up to this high standard, but far more often than can be excused is the sound design so blaring, that it not only distracts from the movie, but actually kept me from being able to understand what characters were saying. With all that said, I was at least relieved that the stunt work, visual effects, and score were all still fantastic. Shoutout to composer Ludwig Göransson for stepping up and filling the nearly unfillable shoes of Hans Zimmer while he worked on Dune.
On a story level Tenet also suffers. As I mentioned, a reviewer for Empire called Tenet “Bond on acid,” and I think this is true (No Mom, relax. I haven’t done acid… without you). However, it may be more true than intended. The big sci-fi factor, and what makes Tenet unique is its use of “inversion.” Inversion is basically when things move backwards through time, while everything else continues to move forward. If you saw someone who was inverted doing the “Cha-Cha slide,” you would see them criss-cross, slide to the right, then slide to the left. The Village People would be spelling “ACMY.” You get it. And as expected, this stuff is a total mindf**k. The best way I can describe what it’s like to watch the inversion sequences is similar to how your brain feels when you’re watching something in another language without subtitles. You get the drift based on visual cues and context, but if you focus too hard on it for too long your brain will start to hurt. This is another visual language. At one point, this movie’s version of “Q” basically says a line that’s blatantly more intended for the audience than the characters: “Don’t try to understand it, feel it,” and this is basically your only hope of getting through the movie. At a certain point you have to just say “F**ck it,” and kind of accept all the commotion on screen like a wave washing over you. Only then could I start to think it was cool.
But inversion is clearly supposed to mess with your head. I can accept that this is supposed to be somewhat confusing, just as components of The Prestige, Inception, and Interstellar were. What I don’t find excusable is that even the non inversion related majority of the plot is just as incomprehensible. Whereas those other three movies more than adequately explain their stories and more complex concepts both verbally and visually, Tenet struggles to do either. I sincerely could not tell you the plot of this movie other than that some characters are good guys, some are bad guys, and the good guys need to stop the bad guys from doing the bad thing, and all of them are occasionally messing with time. Maybe that’s all you’re supposed to need, but I certainly didn’t feel satisfied.
By the same token, my brief character descriptions are just about as much as the movie gives you for character personalities or motivations. Even our main star, played by John David Washington (who actually is the son of actress Pauletta Washington! His father also acts) has no name and is only referred to as “The Protagonist.” While this trope can be cool with characters like “The Bride,” “The Driver,” or “The Man with No Name,” here it only frustrated me as I continued to try and find any coherent information, or any sort of character to latch on to. And while stars Washington, Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki act well, do plenty of cool stuff, and look great doing it, they don’t have much to do as characters other than move through the plot––whether forwards or backwards. Debicki is the only one with even a shred of palpable motivation, but it’s a basic one at that. Kenneth Branagh’s generic Russian villain is, again, well acted but overall a bit cartoonish. His motivation more or less is one that’d come from that one s**tty kid your parents made you invite to your elementary school birthday party and would cry when you’d get a present and he didn’t. These characters are half an archetype each at their most complex.
Perhaps my expectations were too high for not only a film from a director I love, but also my first theater experience in six months. Tenet is a good movie, it’s just not as good as it could, or perhaps should have been. If it serves one purpose, let it teach Nolan what things he does too much, and what things he should work on. While there’s plenty of sick stuff, I think people would rather watch The Dark Knight for the tenth time, or Inception for the eighth than watch Tenet for a second. Give this one a singular watch, but wait for it to go on streaming––or until we’re safe again. I appreciate, and to a degree even agree with Nolan’s commitment to the moviegoing, full cinematic experience, but it’d be easier to agree if the movie was better. Keep yourself and the ones you love safe. Stay home. Give Nolan some motivation to make something awesome again. •
