Tenet. (12A.)
Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Dimple Kapadia, Himesh Patel and Kenneth Branagh. Out now on 4K UltraHD, Blu-ray and DVD. 150 mins.
All I want for Christmas is a set of Tenet subtitles. Oh, and access to a rewind button. Back in August, I was up for the challenge of attempting to throw my head around the back and forth of Christopher Nolan's head spinning palindromic time travel puzzle but, fair's fair, at least let us hear what they're saying. There's a perversity in walking out of a spectacular Imax biggest-screen-in-Europe viewing having just witnessed what could be the last hurrah of big-screen entertainment thinking how you'd really like to see it on your telly.
(I may have been the only reviewer not to mention the sound mix on its release. It's such a relief to know it wasn't my hearing.)
So is it any comprehensible, second time around? Not really, but at least now I'm totally clear on what it is I don't understand. For a start the ending. (That's a very Tenet sentence.) The army man does a briefing right before it happens but I was still entirely lost. I was going to write here that the sequence, with the red team going forward and the blue team going backwards, reminded me of a Jim Davidson joke I dimly remember from childhood where a man being interviewed for a job as train controller was asked what he would do if the Up train was on the Down line and the Down train was coming on the Up line.*
I was going to write that but I realised that there was very little chance I could get across to the reader why that was such a strong connection to me, because it's too obscure, (probably even Jim Davidson doesn't remember the joke) and it would take up too much time to explain and even after that you may well still not get it. Which is very like Tenet. After watching it again, I strongly doubt it is possible to get its concepts across to a general audience in an entertaining way. The pay off between the opportunity to do wild action scenes with people going backwards and forwards in time simultaneously is never going to be worth the effort of trying to get people to grasp the plot mechanism propelling it.
And that may be another key flaw with the film: even when you understand it, you don't get it. You're down with the theory, but not the practice.
As before, the first 20 minutes are thrilling if only because the possibilities they throw up are limitless. The crux of the issue is the notion of temporal pincer movements, groups moving backwards and forwards in time towards the same point to complete the same task. I think the idea of two forces working in opposite directions is inherent in all of his films. Nolan's imagination seems to work like Jacob Rees-Mogg on acid: as wild ideas and images spin around him his instinct is to remain calm, clench buttocks and hum Rule Britannia until everything works its way back to a sensible equilibrium. There are some striking images in Tenet but they are counterbalanced by some remarkably dull ones. The big ships crossing the sea in reverse and the seagulls flying backwards: are these the best examples he could come up with to illustrate his notion of inverted entropy? Even the baddie's luxury yacht is a bit drab.
To fully enjoy it you must, at some point, give in trying to piece it all together and take it on trust: believe that this would all makes sense if you sat down and studied it, but you're not going to worry about that now. But your faith in his grasp of theoretical physics is shaken by his slapdash application of basic dramatics. His failure to find a visual representation of the film's major concepts is forgivable but perhaps should've given him pause. Also having yet another film end in a race against the clock to stop an explosive device going off suggests he's not as original as he's made out to be.
Worse though is the dialogue (even more so now that you can read it) and the characterisations. First time round I thought there would be some twist reveal as to why Washington's protagonist is so devoted to the Debrecki character but I think we are to take it as just an expression of his nobility. Debrecki exudes calm, cool assurance but what comes out of her mouth is often a dumb blonde betrayal of her. Informed that SPOILER if the bad person gets his hands on the bad device to do the bad thing it will mean all life now and in the past will never have existed, she gasps, "Including my son."
Tenet could fairly be described as 2020's most ambitious – frustrating – disappointing – memorable – historically significant film, but really it was its only film. Probably being the lone major film to come out in the summer was a blessing: in a normal year it would've been a legitimate flop, but in 2020 the $350 million it made worldwide in socially distanced screenings and with many cinemas closed in vital US cities feels like a noble sacrifice, a necessary loss leader. All concerned are likely to be grateful for never finding out how big or small the gap would've been between its actual gross and what would've been accrued from an unhampered run. If Nolan is the new Kubrick (which he isn't, but Warner Brothers indulge him as if he is) then this may be his Eyes Wide Shut.
Seeing it a second time around I found that my initial review held up disappointingly well. I liked the soundtrack better (mainly because Youtube believe I can't go a day without hearing it) and feel I was a bit harsh on Washington. The second viewing though is maybe when you make an emotional decision on it and I this time I liked it. It annoyed and frustrated me and its reach far exceeded its grasp but I'll take Tenet over just about every other new release seen this year. It's really something; it's cinema.
Extras
A disc with an hour-long making-of feature.
* The punchline was that he'd call his brother. Why? Because his brother had never seen a train crash.
Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Dimple Kapadia, Himesh Patel and Kenneth Branagh. Out now on 4K UltraHD, Blu-ray and DVD. 150 mins.
All I want for Christmas is a set of Tenet subtitles. Oh, and access to a rewind button. Back in August, I was up for the challenge of attempting to throw my head around the back and forth of Christopher Nolan's head spinning palindromic time travel puzzle but, fair's fair, at least let us hear what they're saying. There's a perversity in walking out of a spectacular Imax biggest-screen-in-Europe viewing having just witnessed what could be the last hurrah of big-screen entertainment thinking how you'd really like to see it on your telly.
(I may have been the only reviewer not to mention the sound mix on its release. It's such a relief to know it wasn't my hearing.)
So is it any comprehensible, second time around? Not really, but at least now I'm totally clear on what it is I don't understand. For a start the ending. (That's a very Tenet sentence.) The army man does a briefing right before it happens but I was still entirely lost. I was going to write here that the sequence, with the red team going forward and the blue team going backwards, reminded me of a Jim Davidson joke I dimly remember from childhood where a man being interviewed for a job as train controller was asked what he would do if the Up train was on the Down line and the Down train was coming on the Up line.*
I was going to write that but I realised that there was very little chance I could get across to the reader why that was such a strong connection to me, because it's too obscure, (probably even Jim Davidson doesn't remember the joke) and it would take up too much time to explain and even after that you may well still not get it. Which is very like Tenet. After watching it again, I strongly doubt it is possible to get its concepts across to a general audience in an entertaining way. The pay off between the opportunity to do wild action scenes with people going backwards and forwards in time simultaneously is never going to be worth the effort of trying to get people to grasp the plot mechanism propelling it.
And that may be another key flaw with the film: even when you understand it, you don't get it. You're down with the theory, but not the practice.
As before, the first 20 minutes are thrilling if only because the possibilities they throw up are limitless. The crux of the issue is the notion of temporal pincer movements, groups moving backwards and forwards in time towards the same point to complete the same task. I think the idea of two forces working in opposite directions is inherent in all of his films. Nolan's imagination seems to work like Jacob Rees-Mogg on acid: as wild ideas and images spin around him his instinct is to remain calm, clench buttocks and hum Rule Britannia until everything works its way back to a sensible equilibrium. There are some striking images in Tenet but they are counterbalanced by some remarkably dull ones. The big ships crossing the sea in reverse and the seagulls flying backwards: are these the best examples he could come up with to illustrate his notion of inverted entropy? Even the baddie's luxury yacht is a bit drab.
To fully enjoy it you must, at some point, give in trying to piece it all together and take it on trust: believe that this would all makes sense if you sat down and studied it, but you're not going to worry about that now. But your faith in his grasp of theoretical physics is shaken by his slapdash application of basic dramatics. His failure to find a visual representation of the film's major concepts is forgivable but perhaps should've given him pause. Also having yet another film end in a race against the clock to stop an explosive device going off suggests he's not as original as he's made out to be.
Worse though is the dialogue (even more so now that you can read it) and the characterisations. First time round I thought there would be some twist reveal as to why Washington's protagonist is so devoted to the Debrecki character but I think we are to take it as just an expression of his nobility. Debrecki exudes calm, cool assurance but what comes out of her mouth is often a dumb blonde betrayal of her. Informed that SPOILER if the bad person gets his hands on the bad device to do the bad thing it will mean all life now and in the past will never have existed, she gasps, "Including my son."
Tenet could fairly be described as 2020's most ambitious – frustrating – disappointing – memorable – historically significant film, but really it was its only film. Probably being the lone major film to come out in the summer was a blessing: in a normal year it would've been a legitimate flop, but in 2020 the $350 million it made worldwide in socially distanced screenings and with many cinemas closed in vital US cities feels like a noble sacrifice, a necessary loss leader. All concerned are likely to be grateful for never finding out how big or small the gap would've been between its actual gross and what would've been accrued from an unhampered run. If Nolan is the new Kubrick (which he isn't, but Warner Brothers indulge him as if he is) then this may be his Eyes Wide Shut.
Seeing it a second time around I found that my initial review held up disappointingly well. I liked the soundtrack better (mainly because Youtube believe I can't go a day without hearing it) and feel I was a bit harsh on Washington. The second viewing though is maybe when you make an emotional decision on it and I this time I liked it. It annoyed and frustrated me and its reach far exceeded its grasp but I'll take Tenet over just about every other new release seen this year. It's really something; it's cinema.
Extras
A disc with an hour-long making-of feature.
* The punchline was that he'd call his brother. Why? Because his brother had never seen a train crash.
