Critics who aren't fans of Christopher Nolan usually have three knocks against his work. They say it doesn't have enough heart (which I couldn't care less about). They say his women characters are often underwritten (there's some validity to that). And the snarkiest take is that he makes a stupid person's idea of a smart movie.
That last one has always irked me, not only because I am a fan of Nolan's, but because it reeks of the very snobby pseudo-intellectualism that so many Nolan detractors accuse him of. I think a more honest appraisal is that he makes very ambitious, large scale movies that take big swings at larger themes (particularly time) while succeeding (most of the time) as a commercial entertainment.
Having finally seen Tenet (under covd guidelines in a theater outside of the city) it's easy to see why it quickly has become his most polarizing feature. Even if it was given a proper wide release nationwide, it would likely have confounded a lot of audiences with its labyrinthian plotting and occasionally impenetrable dialogue.
It's true that Tenet is a lot of movie -- but it moves at a ferocious pace, is undeniably well crafted and delivers some remarkable set pieces that rank among Nolan's best. And yet, it also heightens all of Nolan's tics that some people find maddening.
It's hard to defend really loving a movie I could only partially comprehend -- and that's after reading a thorough synopsis after the fact. It has something to do with time manipulation, secret agents and even art forgery. Some of the elements do really click, especially in the last act -- but this is movie best experienced first and then dissected later.
Of course, very few people will see it at all, and that's a shame. If there ever was a movie meant to be viewed on the big screen it's this one and its a tragedy that covd will (rightly so) prevent it for being appreciated by a wider audience.
Especially for Nolan fans this feels like summation of his work around the subject of fate and time, which began in earnest with The Dark Knight and reached a critical peak with Dunkirk. Here, the stakes are technically higher but are less emotionally fraught than in the WWII film but that is no way a slight to the players involved.
Star John David Washington in particular is riveting in the lead. It's impossible not to think of his father while watching him on screen, after all his voice is an almost carbon copy of Denzel's signature sound but his more diminutive stature makes him more vulnerable. Robert Pattison is charming as his sidekick. And Elizabeth Debicki is one of the more fleshed out female characters in his canon.
They are all embroiled in the movie's profoundly confusing plot about plutonium and algorithms, with some car chases thrown in. Some of it can quite silly --like Washington's character literally being called The Protagonist -- but then other conceits of the film that play with time loops are incredibly exciting when fully realized. In fact, the opening sequence alone (a siege in a crowded concert hall) is such a pulse pounding tour de force that it's worth the price of admission. This is a film that can be enjoyed as purely an exercise in style, with flashes of humanity but with an emphasis on precision.
Whether any of this is your cup of tea or not is beside the point. Nolan is at least trying to do something bold here in a big, would-be blockbuster, which ought to be commended. Nolan is not only taking the risk of placing a black man in the center of his narrative for the first time, but he is also risking alienating an audience who may have just barely been able to comprehend Inception.
Tenet, I suspect is not complicated for the sake of being complicated. It's attempting to do a lot of world building and it has to spend a lot of time trying to ground itself with rules for the world it creates. Since the actors are so good and the set pieces so spectacular, I am willing to forgive some of its clunkier flaws. And I wholeheartedly believe its the kind of film that needs to be seen, discussed and debated. I refuse to accept that argument that this film is empty inside.
And sadly, it will likely be remembered unfairly as the film that failed to save Hollywood. Before the film began I was treated to very exciting trailers for the upcoming Fred Hampton film Judas and the Black Messiah and Wonder Woman 1984, films that are still theoretically slated to open in theaters but seemed doomed to an inevitable delay until 2021 like Dune and No Time to Die.
What's particularly scary is the fact that there is genuinely a talk about how movie theaters may never come back which would not only be tragic for lovers of cinema but disastrous for the thousands of people they employ. Tenet, will likely be the last film I see in a theater for at least six months and I was so invigorated by its scope that I have no regrets if it has to be my last.
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