“Tenet” Review: Sit Back and Enjoy the Spectacle
Nolan indulges in his greatest strengths and weaknesses as a filmmaker in this no holds barred spy thriller.
If Christopher Nolan made “normal” films, he wouldn’t be one of contemporary cinema’s most impressive, celebrated, and confounding directors. Part of Nolan’s mystique is his seemingly contradictory character. In Nolan, we see a master of the craft using his abilities to transform “low art” into critically celebrated spectacles. He makes the “smart” action movies, the ones with heady themes and confusing plots that make every college stoner really start to “think about movies” for the first time. In interviews we see an impossibly posh, well put together Englishman of high sophistication donning scarfs and overcoats. In his movies however, we find an over-imaginative child minutes after seeing back to the future for the first time, given a hundred million dollar budget, and told to go wild.
Nolan has always been a bankable crowd pleaser because of this ability to translate the silly into the serious; no one could deliver Interstellar’s story with the same grounded tone, or make Batman into even more of a household name specifically for his realism…as a superhero. I bring up Nolan’s reputation as a director because to even attempt to understand Tenet necessitates a grounding of its author as well. Because more than anything, Tenet is Nolan distilled into a film. This is what makes the movie as interesting to analyze as it is to watch: it is an example of everything Nolan, both his strengths and weaknesses as a filmmaker visible due to their absurd amplification. To engage with Tenet thus requires a voluntary relinquishing of one’s agency as an audience member to Nolan and his vision more than any of his previous works, which were already demanding viewing experiences for their heavy exposition. However, Nolan is celebrated for a reason; he manages to balance the impossible task of expositing complicated plots while simultaneously satisfying the promise of his insane premises with technical mastery. Both of these sides of Nolan - the sandbag of exposition lifted by the pull of his cinematic technique - are at their greatest forms in Tenet. This is Nolan’s long rumored, dream James Bond fantasy paired with the sci-fi headyness that has dominated his career. It’s undeniably a thrill in plot, premise, style, and more, making for the most purely action/spy thriller I’ve seen in recent years, and undoubtedly the most technically impressive. But, even if an audience member is willing to put up with Nolan’s familiar shallow emotional beats and disorienting stories, there is still a level of friction in the film’s execution that will undeniably turn some viewers off regardless of the spectacle on screen.
The film begins confidently with an excellently directed action scene; a movie with this confusing of a plot and as much as it has to explain must work fast and quick. Nolan knows exactly what Tenet wants to be - an intention that develops into a thematic through-line - so he might as well trim the fat. However, for Nolan, this meant cutting what some find to be the singular element that makes the cold director’s film’s watchable: the character and heart.
Meaning, “the fat” for Nolan included every element of emotion or humanity that didn’t serve the film’s intention of being the most impressive and analog spy thriller possible. So, in this opening scene we meet our protagonist…the Protagonist. This is his actual name, and when placed in context with the other meta-textual ways Tenet structures itself, what I believe to be a knowing a thematic statement made by Nolan. Played by a suave John David Washington, the Protagonist is introduced with effortless grace to match his impossible cool factor. Working an undercover extraction mission for the CIA, the Protagonist is attempting to track down some assumed McGuffin when suddenly one of the millions of bullets splintering the grandiose opera house turned warzone flies backwards. It’s as shocking for the Protagonist as the audience member, which firmly positions us in his perspective. This is a troubling position to be in; while it’s always exciting to see a hero scared and confused, the viewing experience can be tarnished for the associated viewer when the confusion overshadows Nolan’s cool factor. And so, our vision goes black as the Protagonist takes a suicide pill following the bullet incident leading to a mission failed. Why did people say this movie is confusing, it’s over ten minutes in!
That is, if it wasn’t for the Protagonist being recruited by “Tenet” an organization that has found inverted objects from a seeming World War 3 traveling back in time and coming into contact with our present. It’s here where the plot summary has to stop; any further attempt would send my head back into a spiral and this review to disorienting lengths. Nolan seemingly has the same intention as he sets up the repetitive structure the film begins to follow. The Protagonist visits Barbara, a cold scientist, for some explanation. The back and forth is beyond blunt with no attempts at hiding the “rules” the film wants to establish. “what does this do?” “why does it feel so weird?” Barbara’s response? “Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.”
And so, Nolan personifies his characters to not only establish rules for the film’s world, but rules for how the viewer should approach Tenet. After receiving criticism for his labyrinthian plots overshadowing attempts at emotion resulting in melodrama in its worst renditions, Nolan opted to make the most Nolan film possible: a movie all about rules, defined both by its spectacle and headiness with zero hints at emotional stakes. This theme is a guiding light for Tenet’s structure, and if one is willing to read these strict declarations of inhumanity as intentional decisions by Nolan, then the film becomes all the more enjoyable. The main antagonist is an evil Russian Oligarch who is comically sadistic in a way only spy movies can get away with. The only female lead in the film is just as plain as the man with no name. The characters are purposeful blank slates to make room for what Nolan, and his viewers, are all really here for: the action, the thrills, the sharp dialogue and sharper suits, the globe-trotting excitement and impossibly clean visuals that came to dominate later Bond films. The only feelings in Tenet are excitement, anxiety, and awe at either the stylish spectacle of the action, or the charming dialogue that acts as these characters as their only definition. I find this to be a smart move by Nolan: in its very construction, the film is attempting to tell the viewer that there are simply some stories not meant to be understood. One can shut their brains off, and that’s ok. The only problem with this thought, the one that defines Tenet and illuminates Nolan as a filmmaker, is that he makes it impossible to do so.
The routine structure of the film’s plot drags as one crawls through the runtime. Exposition leads to an action set piece, which leads to a discovery that brings the Protagonist, and the viewer, back to a state of utter confusion. The movie reaches a predictable structure when the fourth or fifth scene that is simply coded as being primarily to deliver exposition before the characters even begin talking shows face. From the framing and setting of a scene alone, I simply knew when it was time to check out. But this does not mean Tenet is a “bad story” or a poorly thought out idea; in fact, I am in love with this film, its premise, and the themes presented. I personally found it to be one of Nolan’s most entertaining films and one worthy of celebration, because when looking into the plot itself, there is a consistent pace with strong and exciting narrative beats. Consistent twists and turns, multiple plot reversals that left me both stunned and intrigued, and action scenes periodically placed to jolt the viewer awake from the ten minute monologue that came prior make for a story that, on paper, is foolproof. However, I’m also of the opinion that Inception was worse because of the forced melodrama. I’m the Nolan fan that comes to his movies to see a revolution in the medium. I go to a Nolan movie thinking about the ways he pushes the technical conventions film once previously adhered to, not what interesting internal conflict his leads will come up against. So, for this viewer, Tenet is a success because it achieves exactly what it aimed to: confusing me into a state of disorientation until nothing mattered except the spectacle. I was happy to turn my brain off with Tenet because Nolan thematically told me it was ok. However, this is obviously subjective, and as such I can see how Tenet is not a film that would work for everyone, despite the fact that the rule of cool is universal.
An audience member will only put up with so much until they throw their arms in the air and give up on a movie. For some, its inconsistencies in the continuity, for others, it’s because the film simply became a bore. I believe Tenet’s mixed reception comes from how little the film is willing to explain itself in an actually cohesive manner, one clear enough to allow audiences the satisfaction that comes with being purposefully confused or shutting their brain off. Dialogue and edits are quick, and the exposition is dense. I had a literal notepad and paper next to me and still found myself going to plot synopses after the credits rolled, and this is Tenet’s greatest flaw: I didn’t know when I was and wasn’t supposed to be confused. I, like many other viewers, put their trust in Nolan once Barbara said to shut up and stop thinking. However, I was too faithful, and eventually ran into exposition heavy scenes that confused instead of elated. This would be an exciting spot to be in as a viewer - the dream for any writer is to get audiences leaning and asking “what could happen next?” - but in Tenet, the film’s incoherence is simply too great to enjoy some of the film’s best moments. It’s difficult to enjoy an action scene when the very design of it is never understood, when stakes are never concretely established, and the fact that within all of that confusion there are intentional ways the film is actually trying to shock the viewer with plot twists. Unable to distinguish between the exciting feeling of being lifted away by a film’s momentum like in Inception, Tenet has viewers asking questions about logistics instead of succumbing to the spectacle. Which is a shame, because Tenet has all the makings of a crowd pleaser. The cinematography is sleek and perfectly captures the seedy luxury cinematic spies operate in. The score is a thumping, unending techno shot of adrenaline straight to the dome. The editing, for as confusing as this film is, necessitated the work of a master. This all translates to some of the most engaging action scenes of recent years, it’s just a shame that Nolan wasn’t able to convince the viewer to come along for the ride.
Meaning, in Tenet, Nolan abused the rule of cool until, for some, cool transformed into confusion, and Tenet into a time sink instead of what it really is: an inventive, daring experiment in spectacle with none of the heart.