- Nolan’s Tenet starts in medias res like a Bond film with the vast crowd in the opera house (Nolan has declared his love for the 1977 Roger Moore Bond The Spy Who Loved Me)
Tenet starts in medias res like a Bond film with the vast crowd in the opera house
- Nolan delivers on his now trademark colossal set pieces, editing precision and MacGuffins- worthy of comparisons to Michael Mann and Hitchcock
- The story is complex to say the least—at one point the character played by Clémence Poésy says “don’t try to understand it—feel it”-
- a great 360-degree shot of Washington, Patttinson, and Himesh Patel at the 37-minute mark
- It is assuredly auteur cinema, confident filmmaking—beautiful large format (65mm) establishing shots, some parallel editing (though not like his best work), crisp suits, posh locales, BMW’s and luxury (this is leaning into the Bond-comparison more than most Nolan even)
Nolan delivers on his now trademark colossal set pieces, editing precision and MacGuffins- worthy of comparisons to Michael Mann and Hitchcock
- Hard to watch the impressive highway stunt sequence and not think of The Matrix Reloaded (2003) from the Wachowskis
- Bogged down by seemingly never-ending dialogue-laden exposition after the opening Kiev opera sequence—there are more words in the first 25 minutes of Tenet than the entirety of Dunkirk– and this just isn’t where Nolan is at his best
- What is a great strength of Nolan’s is the use of a driving music score to push the editing along— this is the first time since 2006’s The Prestige Nolan is not working with the great Hans Zimmer. This Tenet score is from Ludwig Göransson (Coogler’s collaborator- doing scores for Creed and Black Panther) and this work here is magnificent. There are hours of music covering this film from nearly end to end—even the pages of explanation delivered by the actors are accompanied by the score. It is a driving-jig mixture of Inception and Contagion a little bit. I’m not trying to take away from Göransson (or Zimmer) but Nolan has a specific type of score he’s looking for. I noted this during the most recent rewatch of Memento (there’s a pulsating score during the action sequences). Like Hitchcock, Nolan knows exactly what he wants.
- Speaking of Hitchcock- the reliance on simply explaining things (he’s better than this) and jargon – inversion and brokers- (Hitchcock got lost in the psychiatry a little), and the sort of mid-career stumble (for an all-time great auteur) makes me think of this as Nolan’s Spellbound
- Like most of the rest of his work (going all the way back to Memento)- the real subject here is time—time reversal, manipulation (think of the three strands of Dunkirk) inversion—featuring protagonist (literally David Washington’s name here)— Nolan is carefully constructing the film around doubling, palindromes. Branagh’s “Sator” is a five-line palindrome in Latin followed by “tenet” and “opera”. I’m positive repeat viewings will help.
- The actors all equip themselves well enough- John David Washington, Pattinson continues his work with talented auteurs, Elizabeth Debicki is very good—but none will rank among the best performances of the year
The actors all equip themselves well enough- John David Washington, Pattinson continues his work with talented auteurs, Elizabeth Debicki is very good
- High-minded (especially for a 200 million dollar budget movie—maybe people are more used to seeing this in like a Shane Carruth movie), ambitious and yes- a bit convoluted
- At some point I had to just resign myself to the fact that a big part of Nolan’s focus in Tenet is the complex reverse photography sequences- and this just doesn’t translate to great cinema
- It is difficult following up a film like Dunkirk—even if this lands with a bit of a thud—it is relative to his prodigious talents and grand vision (it isn’t fair to talk about what this or any movie does not do well- so I won’t overdo it here). Tenet will still be better than all but a few of the very best films of 2020
- Recommend/ Highly-Recommend border
@Harry: Thanks for the invite. Joined.
@Drake – has this film grown on you at all since the last update to this page? Also less than 5 hours till I can see The Odyssey, can’t wait!
@Harry – it hasn’t- but I haven’t seen it in 5 years at this point. That is so exciting about The Odyssey! Enjoy!
@Harry- First impressions. How is it.?
@AP – Here are my thoughts after one viewing. I will mark spoilers as best I can
Very much a Nolan film despite the new genre and setting. Odyssey has memory loss and is recovering his story piece by piece. Also in a non linear fashion we have the Ithaca strand where Nolan effectively uses the cutaway style of editing as characters share history. Time and non-linear story telling are still at the forefront here. Years go by with no weight in the Ithica strand.
Some of the photography ranks among the most staggering beautiful of the decade so far. Nolan returns to shooting beaches like how he did in Dunkirk, remarkable compositions using negative space. It’s also impossible not to feel the weight of the IMAX format with the giant establishing shots of Ithica and also the many epic shots of boats.
Ludwig Göransson’s score does not measure up to the Oppenheimer soundtrack. It takes a lot more of a background role in the audio mix despite being present in every scene. The drum heavy track during Odysseus’ final test is epic though. Hope this can grow on me with more viewings.
The cast is so uneven it hurts, especially coming from Oppenheimer which was incredibly cast. Worthy of praise are Matt Damon, John Leguizamo, Samantha Morton, Robert Pattinson. Weaker parts of the ensemble were Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway. Otherwise the acting ranges in quality. Benny Safdie brings a lot of aura but his voice does not much the presence of the character. Zendaya’s role is small but is fine as a consult for Odysseus. Travis Scott is jaring but with only two smaller scenes it is hard to complain too much, having him open the film is not great though.
What hurts this film a lot is it isn’t directed as ambitiously as Oppenheimer and Dunkirk. The confident editing isn’t carried all the way through the film and there are longer dialogue sequences where not much exciting is happening with the camera. I’d like to see if I’m missing a lot and further viewings can correct this.
[SPOILERS BELOW FOR SET PIECES]
[ SPOILERS BELOW]
Somewhat comparable to Dunkirk in that a bulk of the film is moving from one tense setpiece to the next. None better than Polyphemus’ cave. Excellent sound design, I haven’t heard anything more unsettling in a theatre than his screams when blinded. The cave being blacked out everyday when he seals it with a rock is effective. Samantha Morton’s isle is another highlight with gruesome body horror and effective cross cutting to build tension. The siren encounter has a great touch where the soundtrack becomes muted when the men put wax in their ears. The other nautical encounter with Scylla and Charyboidis is quite underwhelming and not given as much weight. The Trojan Horse interior is very similar to the grounded boat in Dunkirk, where the men there had to survive being shot at, here they have to survive for longer and dodge piercing melee attacks.
One of the best sequences is Odysseus’s violent stand in his house against the suitors. It’s aided by the soundtrack being at its best and effective parallel editing with Telemachus’ securing weapons.
The siege of Troy is weaved throughout the story, we are just given glimpses throughout the film before being shown the sacking near the end. Very Nolan-like way of doing this.
A masterpiece.
@Harry- Thank you for the share. High praise. Look forward to it even more. Hopefully soon.
@AP – btw would you like to join the cinema archives discord? We have 15+ commentors from this site and frequently do community ranking lists and discuss film everyday. Would be great to get you onboard since you’ve been around here for years.
Invite: https://discord.gg/BunK6N7jF
I’m glad to see you’ve got a positive review. A lot of thoughtful observations here.
I’m cooler on Nolan than others. What would you say the script was like? And how’s the mise-en-scene? Those two things are stumblingblocks for me, when I watch Nolan’s films.
@K – I don’t think either would blow anyone away. Nothing about the script stood out to me as particularly weak but it is exposition heavy and that can feel clunky at times. The best mise en scene comes from the palace in Ithaca and the beach shots, but otherwise it’s more about the scale and set pieces.
@Drake-Did you see The Creator from Gareth Edwards? Do you think it is good or worthy of the archives? I thought the film was a bit slow to begin with, but after a while, it got really interesting. Since that point when they met the kid and the journey really began.
@Drake-Did you see the Creator from Gareth Edwards? Do you think it is good or worthy of the archives? I thought the film was a bit slow to begin with but after a while it got really interesting. Since that point when they met the kid and the journey really begins.
Have some new thoughts:
With a second watch I honestly think I adore this film now and don’t mind it soaring up in my Nolan ranking.
The opening in the opera is perfection, a really intense counter-terrorist set piece that comes back up later on. It’s a small thing too but also love the costuming of the riot gear, looks so sharp.
The train yard just before the title card – excellent photography and we have Nolan’s thesis beginning with the trains moving in opposing directions. The Ukrainian here absolutely looks like Kaydanovskiy from Tarkovsky’s Stalker.
I’m coming to really appreciate Hoyte Van Hoytema. The photography isn’t on the level of Dunkirk (Nolan’s best-looking film) but more than any other Nolan film I do feel like there’s a consistent mood and atmosphere through the lighting, a very consistent colour palette with the muted blues, greys and yellows. The establishing shots are still stunning and make the best use of the larger format. The sailing scene (matched with one of the soundtrack cleanest songs) is brilliant, Nolan gets a really fine angle out of mounting the camera to the boat. This film is less wall-art and more drenched in a high atmosphere.
The soundtrack is so good. No complaints with not being able to hear audio as were common when this first came out. It obviously overpowers the dialogue when Pattinson scopes out the Freeport but that’s a strength, more in line with say the use of the train sound in The Godfather.
Nolan uses editing to make some of the exposition less tedious, cutting between multiple locations as the key people talk. Decent approach to fixing this problem.
Every set piece just absolutely lands, the firey crashed plane, the highway scene and Nolan becomes Griffith, Lean with the truly epic battle at the destroyed Stalsk-12 site. In the highway chase in particular Nolan’s editing excels, not only is it tied to the score but he also just cuts between so many angles that it feels fresh.
This feels so formally perfect, every moment realised. The set-pieces aren’t just big spectacle, the logic behind them is so detailed and interesting to pick apart. I’m really impressed with how tight this film is and how fast the 150-minutes go by. I want to say this film is more incredibly detailed rather than convoluted, I’m stunned with how well everything ties together, how much pay off there is for earlier moments we revisit….
The reverse-photography makes this further stand out against every other film.
Trademark parallel editing in the finale. In Dunkirk it’s tense setpiece x tense setpiece x tense setpiece and here’s it’s tense encounter x epic battle x dramatic confrontation.
Acting is strong enough here, not the focus of the film.
A must-see film, I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s a Nolan film more for the Dunkirk fans than the Interstellar fans I believe.
[…] Tenet – Nolan […]
What did you think about Kenneth Branagh’s performance here?
@Harry- You know I’ve seen it twice and don’t really have a strong opinion on Branagh’s performance. Do you? What did you think of his work here?
I really have no opinion on it either, only seen Tenet once though. Dunkirk remains my favorite of his 2 collaborations with Nolan.
I think he’s serviceable. There’s a great reading of how Tenet uses science as its own form of divinity. The Tenet organisation are its believers while Sator is trying to dominate and manipulate the laws of the universe for his own purposes. Brannagh is certainly intimidating in that role and fulfils it well, but I don’t think he especially stands out. If I were to highlight a performance from anyone in the film it would probably be Robert Pattinson, but even that isn’t really “best of the year” quality.
I’ve watched it three times now which makes it my most watched movie of 2020, and it’s gone from an R to a low HR for me. The exposition is still an issue, but I am more blown away by the reverse photography sequences and some cinematography than Drake seems to be.
There’s a shot early on with JDW tied up on train tracks, and on either side of him there are trains moving in opposite directions. It’s a great visual motif that comes up a couple more times, and could have strengthened the film even more if it was used more consistently.
Well on the bright side at least we can be certain there will be a top 10 of 2020 now, haha.
I’m really looking forward to you getting to Small Axe, I’m halfway through and it’s inspiring me to revisit McQueen’s earlier filmography – it’s been much too long. I think Nomadland and Minari are also looking promising.
@Declan– haha yeah I’m up to 10 now. It’s strange, I’m reading a ton of 2020 recaps and top 10’s from critics and they all seem to think that 2020 was a really solid year. I hope I feel the same way in a month or two when I get to more of these. Now that I’ve hit the Nolan and Fincher films– certainly McQueen’s Small Axe is the film I’m most excited for.
I’m going to choose not to overreact to this… recalling that I would not have wanted to be held accountable for my initial reactions after a single viewing, and therefore extending you that same courtesy. Just put a pin in your comments regarding the editing and what does or does not “translate to great cinema”, and if repeat viewings do not clarify things we may need to revisit this less tactfully further down the road. For now, I think I’ll hop over to the Ran page and comment there instead!