Tenet (2020)
Opening as the self-proclaimed savior of cinemas (despite charging struggling cinemas an incredibly high 63% rental to run the film and refusing to allow drive-in theaters to play the film where laws wouldn't allow indoor theaters to play), Tenet comes as the newest outing for the often controversial and ambitious Christopher Nolan. Following the mysterious story of a young man who is known by the audience simply as the Protagonist (John David Washington) who is investigating a mysterious new weapon which threatens the safety of the entire world. Finally being available on VOD for those not willing to risk their lives in a global pandemic to see a movie, Tenet is yet another large action thriller from Christopher Nolan that sadly stands as one of the directors weakest outings signaling the fundamental flaws within the trajectory of Nolan's filmmaking mindset.
The immediate thing to stand out when watching Tenet is how dull the feature is. Christopher Nolan has historically played with the idea of a narrative with recent projects such as Dunkirk abandoning the traditional idea of what a narrative is more and more. Nolan has proven to be more concerned with atmosphere and feeling than building the most complex characters or dramatic plot points yet traditionally Nolan at least has some emotional hook to get audiences to invest in a film's world and care about the characters on display. Tenet completely fails in this regard. The sole piece of the film that the audience is supposed to care about are the stakes of the situation which are unrecognizable compared to most other outings in the action drama. The film doesn't give a single character any piece of depth or personality to stand as memorable or engaging. The audience doesn't know anything about who they are watching and therefore doesn't care. Within Tenet there is nothing to connect or care about causing the feature to feel remarkably hollow and boring. Especially considering the film's clearly bloated 150-minute runtime, this is easily the largest flaw within Tenet and what makes the viewing experience of the film as painful as it ends up being. It doesn't help that the plot is filled with continual white noise with characters having to go through multiple hoops to get to the next step of the journey that feels more serviceable to the film wanting a longer runtime than actually being justified.
One could argue that the action and larger set pieces are supposed to be captivating due to their use of the mysterious inverted quality of certain weapons and individuals but this concept is shockingly uninteresting and unmotivated. Not only does the film do a truly horrendous job setting this concept up - constantly feeling as if it is making the rules up as it goes along - but even as a concept it doesn't do much. There is no thematic weight that is found to elevate the material leaving it to feel like just another action film gimmick that at this point is to be expected from the genre. Due to this, perhaps the most disappointing piece of Tenet is how much it resembles the genre it is part of rather than a truly ambitious Christopher Nolan feature. The sense of shocking brilliant reveals and filmmaking that traditionally elevates Nolan's projects and gives them a unique and moving identity is completely lost within this effort. Instead, it is a long and ultimately standard action film with competent filmmaking that does nothing to stand out within the already bloated genre.
Not only is it clear that Tenet is consistently held down due to Nolan's ignorance towards fundamental world-building, instead choosing to lose himself within the science fiction set pieces of the film, but also due to his ignorance towards the fundamental basics of filmmaking itself. Where Tenet is without a doubt a competently directed film especially within its action sequences, its attempt at stylization does more to alienate the audience than stick with them in a positive sense. The sound design is atrocious within Tenet not allowing the audience to hear the majority of the dialogue spoken within the feature which is the piece of the film supposedly working to engage audiences and where this can be fixed at home with subtitles, audiences needing to fix a film with supplements to be able to understand and enjoy it speaks to an utter failure of the film more than anything else. The actual visual design of the film also feels off, where the general shot composition is rather strong from cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema the film is quick to use color correction to give the film a forced feeling that again takes the audience out of the film and its world much more than connecting them with it deeper.
Easily the best aspect of Tenet is the performances within it which says a lot on its own considering the characters they play are so uninspired and forgettable. Where John David Washington has proven himself as a charismatic and valuable talent in the past, Tenet easily is his biggest test when it comes to taking control of a scene in a large blockbuster setting and for everything he has to hold back performance-wise due to the nature of his character, Washington is rather impressive here. In a clearly much more supporting role, Robert Pattinson also stands rather tall ending up as the best actor in the entire film. Continuing the actor's tradition of putting on an accent and playing more into a quiet and thoughtful performance rather than loud and over the top, Pattinson felt like a breath of fresh air escaping with at least personality in a prison that is overall void of it otherwise.
To say that Tenet is disappointing would be a massive understatement. Where the large action might be enough to be a serviceable theater outing, outside of the big screen Tenet is easily one of the most boring and worthless features in recent memory. Nolan has gone so deep with focusing on complex sci-fi concepts that he seemingly has lost the basics on how to make a compelling film. When added that those complex sci-fi concepts are not even that engaging in the first place, Tenet is left with nothing to stand on. Similar to its claims of being a savior of cinema, Tenet is a film that will claim genius without any piece of substance or value to back those claims up which creates somewhat of an anomaly for Nolan's filmography which normally contains at least something of value with each addition. One can just hope that this is a one time miss for the director and not a sign of what is to come in the future.
The immediate thing to stand out when watching Tenet is how dull the feature is. Christopher Nolan has historically played with the idea of a narrative with recent projects such as Dunkirk abandoning the traditional idea of what a narrative is more and more. Nolan has proven to be more concerned with atmosphere and feeling than building the most complex characters or dramatic plot points yet traditionally Nolan at least has some emotional hook to get audiences to invest in a film's world and care about the characters on display. Tenet completely fails in this regard. The sole piece of the film that the audience is supposed to care about are the stakes of the situation which are unrecognizable compared to most other outings in the action drama. The film doesn't give a single character any piece of depth or personality to stand as memorable or engaging. The audience doesn't know anything about who they are watching and therefore doesn't care. Within Tenet there is nothing to connect or care about causing the feature to feel remarkably hollow and boring. Especially considering the film's clearly bloated 150-minute runtime, this is easily the largest flaw within Tenet and what makes the viewing experience of the film as painful as it ends up being. It doesn't help that the plot is filled with continual white noise with characters having to go through multiple hoops to get to the next step of the journey that feels more serviceable to the film wanting a longer runtime than actually being justified.
One could argue that the action and larger set pieces are supposed to be captivating due to their use of the mysterious inverted quality of certain weapons and individuals but this concept is shockingly uninteresting and unmotivated. Not only does the film do a truly horrendous job setting this concept up - constantly feeling as if it is making the rules up as it goes along - but even as a concept it doesn't do much. There is no thematic weight that is found to elevate the material leaving it to feel like just another action film gimmick that at this point is to be expected from the genre. Due to this, perhaps the most disappointing piece of Tenet is how much it resembles the genre it is part of rather than a truly ambitious Christopher Nolan feature. The sense of shocking brilliant reveals and filmmaking that traditionally elevates Nolan's projects and gives them a unique and moving identity is completely lost within this effort. Instead, it is a long and ultimately standard action film with competent filmmaking that does nothing to stand out within the already bloated genre.
Not only is it clear that Tenet is consistently held down due to Nolan's ignorance towards fundamental world-building, instead choosing to lose himself within the science fiction set pieces of the film, but also due to his ignorance towards the fundamental basics of filmmaking itself. Where Tenet is without a doubt a competently directed film especially within its action sequences, its attempt at stylization does more to alienate the audience than stick with them in a positive sense. The sound design is atrocious within Tenet not allowing the audience to hear the majority of the dialogue spoken within the feature which is the piece of the film supposedly working to engage audiences and where this can be fixed at home with subtitles, audiences needing to fix a film with supplements to be able to understand and enjoy it speaks to an utter failure of the film more than anything else. The actual visual design of the film also feels off, where the general shot composition is rather strong from cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema the film is quick to use color correction to give the film a forced feeling that again takes the audience out of the film and its world much more than connecting them with it deeper.
Easily the best aspect of Tenet is the performances within it which says a lot on its own considering the characters they play are so uninspired and forgettable. Where John David Washington has proven himself as a charismatic and valuable talent in the past, Tenet easily is his biggest test when it comes to taking control of a scene in a large blockbuster setting and for everything he has to hold back performance-wise due to the nature of his character, Washington is rather impressive here. In a clearly much more supporting role, Robert Pattinson also stands rather tall ending up as the best actor in the entire film. Continuing the actor's tradition of putting on an accent and playing more into a quiet and thoughtful performance rather than loud and over the top, Pattinson felt like a breath of fresh air escaping with at least personality in a prison that is overall void of it otherwise.
To say that Tenet is disappointing would be a massive understatement. Where the large action might be enough to be a serviceable theater outing, outside of the big screen Tenet is easily one of the most boring and worthless features in recent memory. Nolan has gone so deep with focusing on complex sci-fi concepts that he seemingly has lost the basics on how to make a compelling film. When added that those complex sci-fi concepts are not even that engaging in the first place, Tenet is left with nothing to stand on. Similar to its claims of being a savior of cinema, Tenet is a film that will claim genius without any piece of substance or value to back those claims up which creates somewhat of an anomaly for Nolan's filmography which normally contains at least something of value with each addition. One can just hope that this is a one time miss for the director and not a sign of what is to come in the future.