And yet even with that it’s still incredibly difficult to follow because Nolan goes so far down his own rabbit hole of time travel that one almost needs to take notes to keep up (and I still think it arguably wouldn’t all add up if they could). “Tenet” spends roughly two hours of its 150-minute run time explaining what is happening, why it is happening, and what might happen next.
Red telugu movie review movie#
However, there’s never been a Bond movie so stuffed with expository dialogue. Blend Nolan’s obsession with time-twisting high concepts and his love of classic action construction and you have some idea what “Tenet” feels like. When one becomes so rich and powerful that they can literally shape world events, why not try to shape world history too? Sound a little familiar? Andrei is very much cut from the same cloth as classic Bond villains, complete with unchecked opulence, Russian accent and snarling line delivery. On a very basic level, “Tenet” is about the extremes of unmonitored power. To get closer to this mega-wealthy madman, The Protagonist uses Andrei’s wife Kat ( Elizabeth Debicki), who loathes her abusive husband but is being blackmailed into staying with him via threats that she will lose her son if she doesn’t do exactly what he says. Teaming up with a mysterious partner named Neil (a charming Robert Pattinson), our hero tracks inverted objects to a villainous Russian arms dealer named Andrei ( Kenneth Branagh). But what if an object could go in the other direction through history instead? Apparently, objects have been doing exactly this, and the Powers That Be need to control it because if a bullet could be sent back through time, what happens if a nuclear weapon takes the same trip?
That’s obvious from elementary school science class. We look at an object and it is traveling forward through time along with us. The Protagonist is taken to a remote facility and introduced to the concept of inverted objects. He survives, and his allegiance to the system and his orders leads to a promotion of sorts, a top-secret assignment that involves a new technology that has the potential to literally rewrite human history. Our hero is captured by the enemy, tortured, and takes a cyanide capsule, as he was ordered to do in training. One of the agents sent in to retrieve a high-profile asset during the assault is a man known only as The Protagonist ( John David Washington, proving more than capable of carrying a blockbuster film with his charismatic performance). “Tenet” wastes no time, dropping viewers into an attack on a symphony performance in Kiev and barely allowing anyone to get oriented. More certainly seems to be the operating principle of “Tenet,” even if the chewing can get exhausting. There are war action scenes that recall “ Dunkirk,” an espionage narrative that feels like “ Inception,” and even a whole lot of people talking through masks a la Bane in “ The Dark Knight Rises.” It is 100% designed as an experience for people who have unpacked films like “ The Prestige” and “ Memento” late into the night, hoping to give Nolan fans more to chew on than ever before. Finally, at times, it even seems to echo previous Nolan projects like an album of remastered greatest hits. Second, it contains one of those time-twisting narratives that have defined the Nolan brand, one that blends robust action sequences with high-concept stories that viewers have to legitimately strain to follow.
There’s so much money in every bursting frame of this opulent film that a scene in which gold bars are literally dumped on a runway feels almost like a self-referential wink. First, it has the kind of budget that only Nolan could get for an original screenplay.
No one could possibly mistake “Tenet” as being by anyone but Christopher Nolan.
It is an analysis of the work itself for posterity. The intent of this review is not to encourage or discourage anyone from attending a theatrical screening at this specific time. For transparency’s sake, it feels important to state that this film was screened for limited press in Chicago with extreme precautions that simply won’t be in place for most ticket buyers at least for weeks, including 1% capacity of a huge, sanitized theater first thing in the morning.