A Review of TENET From A Guy Who Braved The Pandemic To See This Movie For You People

September 1, 2020September 1, 2020 Kenny

**RELAX, THERE ARE NO SPOILERS IN THIS POST**

For the first time in 6 months, I ventured out to the theater to see Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. I’m no hero, but if Tom Cruise can risk being exposed to Thetans and make it out to see Tenet in a theater, I feel as though it’s my duty to do the same for KB nation.

Tenet is Mr. Nolan’s first film since 2017’s Oscar nominated Dunkirk and will likely share the same fate come awards season. Not because it’s on the same level (because it’s not) or because it deserves it (because it doesn’t) but simply because it will probably be the biggest film of 2020 by default.

Tenet is the story of “The Protagonist” (in quotes b/c it’s literally the character’s name) played by former St. Louis Rams undrafted free-agent John David Washington; who finds himself in the middle of a espionage cluster-truck after a failed extraction attempt at an opera house. At least I think that’s what was going on. If i’m being honest, it was kinda hard to tell. The problem with Tenet (unlike Nolan’s other films) is that it doesn’t set up a-who, what, when, or why-very well. In the past he’s given you context before he proceeds to screw with your mind. He didn’t ask for consent this time. Right away we’re brought into a crazy “time manipulation” space where we’re expected to have some understanding of quantum mechanics and the other characters seem inconsequential to us…at least until later on in the movie.

2010’s Inception was the closest comparison I had to this film, but at least with Inception, we as the audience felt like we were part of dreamscape-Ocean’s Eleven. With Tenet, we’re about 5 steps behind the plot for the entire film, and we’re also not clearly aware of what’s at stake, even though they say it’s the end of humanity.

I spent the first half of this movie feeling stupid, and the second half still feeling pretty stupid, but also was thoroughly entertained. If I stop looking at my watch in the theater to figure out when I’ll be able to leave and live my life again, I know I’m watching something special. Tenet did that. Even as I felt way over my head, I would’ve been good with another 30-45 minutes of it… which is saying something given its 2 hour and 31 minute runtime.

I certainly wouldn’t say this is my favorite Nolan film (in fact it might be my least favorite), but in classic Nolan fashion, it’s going to occupy a portion of my headspace for the rest of my life. A bad Chris Nolan movie is still a great freaking movie. Interstellar is considered to be his worst (one of my favorites b/c I’m a freaking outlaw) yet still to this day has a 72% on RT… a score 27% better than Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close which was nominated for best picture in 2012.

The brightest aspect of this movie is simply it’s cast. John David Washington is an actor who has outshined his roots in the past few years (and by roots I mean his time as an NFL running back and not his father Denzel). Robert Pattinson is also fantastic in the film and truly shows why he is probably one of the best actors in Hollywood today. This could also be the film where Kenneth Branagh will FINALLY break free from the shadow of Dr. Arliss Loveless in 1999’s Wild Wild West. It’s also rounded out from other great supporting performances from Elizabeth Debicki, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Himesh Patel.

In closing, I certainly would recommend this film even though it likely will take several viewings to truly comprehend. I know I’m going to need a 2nd pass at it. Simply recommending it isn’t going to do anyone any good though… I think we need to officially have a Korked Bats Movie Rating system and it only make sense it’s baseball related: