Tenet

[Will]

The first hour or so of this is, quite possibly, the worst thing Nolan has ever done. Nothing makes sense, the expository scenes are endless, the editing is as confusing as ever, and the characterization is frustratingly reductive (oh joy, another suffering wife in a Nolan movie, what are the odds).

Then he enters the turnstile and things start clicking together. I stopped begrudging the film so much because Nolan is showing the premise rather than telling it. This is great because the premise / core idea is inherently visual. It's also incredibly silly so I don't understand why Nolan is so restrained from indulging in the many creative possibilities he could do with it. Nolan strikes me as a guy who would take out all of the funny character bits in a FAST & FURIOUS so he can exclusively focus on cars. His stuffiness hits an apex with TENET. I doubt the man even knows how to laugh.

[etdoesgood]

This film currently takes up the #36 spot of the 36 films I've seen this year. The elements that are supposed to seem "badass", like the bullet shooting back into the gun, seem labored, and he's just way too excited to tell you how these ultimately banal things work. Whether the bullet comes out of or is sucked into the gun, maybe I'm missing the significance, but either way will kill a person. To me, Tenet is Nolan in full embrace of Big, Dumb Entertainment in a way he's approached but never fully indulged before. I know some will take exception to how I characterize it, I just don't find much value in spectacle for the sake of spectacle. You might be right about the humor aspect, but then, with my limited experience with the Fast and Furious franchise, I don't recall laughing all that much. The humor may not have been as forced as the run-of-the-mill MCU film, which, outside of Thor: Ragnarok, are painfully unfunny, but just not funny to me. Glad at least Nolan isn't trying to force levity, which I don't think he'd be good at anyway. The score and sound design make it all the worse, so focused on thumping and yawning bass and rat-tat-tat, there is nothing even somewhat subtle or human about what we're seeing OR hearing. And I braved Covid for THAT.

[jdc]

It is not all the time loops and confusing world that he has created that took me out of the film.  It was the number of times that they made it seem like it was all for the boy or she mentioned her son as the motivating factor, when after all, the evil genius might possible end all of humanity.  Plus, the most unbelievable seen is when the wife returns back in time near the end (twice inverted?) to distract her husband and he falls for it. There is no moment where you would believe this couple has the slightest chance to emend anything and he could fall something like lets start over and watch the sunset together but he turns into the the biggest simp there ever was. 

[The Deer Hunter]

I think the worst part of the film is the set piece at the end where dozens of professional paintballers run around an area occasionally shooting into the air at nothing. Nolan's strong desire to stay PG-13 and get as many people in the theatre is starting to get in the way of the product. It gave me Dark Knight Rises vibes.

[Will]

I think the worst part of the film is the set piece at the end where dozens of professional paintballers run around an area occasionally shooting into the air at nothing. Nolan's strong desire to stay PG-13 and get as many people in the theatre is starting to get in the way of the product. It gave me Dark Knight Rises vibes.

Yeah, Nolan either needs to go R rated again or get silly. Personally, I think it would be fascinating to see Nolan apply everything he's learned into a tight 30 million budget film noir.

[Junior]

The best moments in this movie were when things got as un-Nolan-y as possible. The two(?) scenes with bright colors, the few line readings and bits of acting that show some life in these otherwise matter-of-fact characters/exposition delivery devices. I think I had the most fun trying to figure out just how much influence Denzel had on his son's whole deal. There were times when he almost seemed like a clone of 80s/90s Denzel sent forward in time.


Oh, and did Nolan really think he'd get away with rejiggering one of the best closing lines in movie history for the almost-end of this ok movie? Don't remind me of greatness when you can only reach mediocrity!

[1SO]

Oh, and did Nolan really think he'd get away with rejiggering one of the best closing lines in movie history for the almost-end of this ok movie? Don't remind me of greatness when you can only reach mediocrity!

[Junior]

Lol