Tenet (2020).

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Written by Christopher Nolan

Starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kenneth Branagh

NOTE: There will be minor spoilers in this review. Read at your own risk.

1. (The Stage)

A government agent must use his resources to stop a terrorist who can invert time.

2. (The Good)

It’s always really cool when a filmmaker goes all in on an original idea. The thought that a person can essentially rewind through time - in real time - is awesome and inventive. Nolan also thought of the logistics of this, factoring in how things like lungs and fire work while essentially in negative space. The mechanism of time has always been a theme in Christopher Nolan’s films and this film really challenges the viewer with how we perceive time and how we make sense of what’s happening on screen.

The visuals that go along with this are simply breathtaking. There’s a fight scene in the film that is clearly the best shot of the movie, and I’m still trying to figure out how it was done. On one hand, you have The Protagonist (played by John David Washington, and yes, that’s his ‘name’ in the film) in our timeline, and then you have a mystery man clad in black who’s fighting on an opposite timeline. It’s utterly insane, especially when you consider what happens with that same scene later on. It’s stunning. The other inverted time visuals don’t disappoint either, including one building that blows up, reforms, and then blows up again instantly. It looked great in 4K UHD.

Kenneth Branagh plays international gun runner Sator, and although he doesn’t have much depth aside from being “insanely jealous bad guy”, it’s fun watching Branagh essentially twist his mustache and be evil. Robert Pattinson is fantastic as Neil. Give me a Neil movie, please - Neil has way more charisma than The Protagonist and I was relieved whenever he was on screen.

3. (The Bad)

When the film was over, I had a discussion with my wife and said something along the lines of, “I’m teetering between feeling dumb because I don’t understand certain aspects of the movie and calling this script kind of bad because it doesn’t explain (or understand) some of the elements itself.” I consider myself pretty bright and can normally decipher what’s going on in movies that some would say are tough to understand, but the world of ‘inversion’ just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when you really start thinking about it. How would people eat and digest things? How much air does the person have to breath before their tank runs out of oxygen? How does the actual machine work?

Time stuff aside, the script just seems poorly written in many different aspects. Take character motivations, for one. The Protagonist (who’s supposed to be this cold, no nonsense agent) puts the entire universe in jeopardy for a woman he just met? That same woman takes actions during the film that are insanely selfish and stupid and she makes them more than once. The script also had some laughable dialogue…there’s a moment where they say something to the effect of, “…and everyone on Earth will die.” and Kat replies, “Even my son?” No, dummy. Your son will be the one person who survives. How did people say those lines during read throughs and not say, “This is stupid.”?

Although Pattinson and Branagh give great performances, we spend most of our time with John David Washington’s Protagonist, who has the charisma and charm of a wet cardboard box. I don’t think it’s Washington’s fault - I think the part was written as someone who’s cold and emotionless. I felt no connection to this character. Never once did I think, “Yeah, this is a guy who gets shit done.”

The final battle is a cool looking exercise in utter nonsense. There are three streams of soldiers on the field - good guys in our time, bad guys in our time, and good guys in reverse time…only, we literally never see any bad guys. Who the fuck are they fighting against? There are some really cool special effects in this part of the film, but it’s shot so incomprehensibly that it doesn’t make me care. If there were bad guys on the field, what the heck were they fighting for? “I’d better not let these guys stop the world from blowing up and killing every single one of us!”

Finally, the sound mixing in this film is an absolute disaster. I watched it with the subtitles on but still had to constantly raise and lower the volume on my remote. I’m almost glad I didn’t see it in a theater.

4. (The Ugly)

A thug gets his face pounded with a cheese grater. Now that’s ugly. I’m still getting the hang of how his time stuff worked, but did I also see someone get sealed into a wall at some point? What a way to go.

5. (The End)

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not dumb for not fully understanding the framework of this film. I think the script is dumb and it happens to be wrapped up in awesome visuals. It’s a beautiful looking film with some great ideas that aren’t fully explored and don’t make sense. Tenet is worth a watch, but looking at Christopher Nolan’s oeuvre, I think that it’s his worst film yet.