X
- 2020
- PG-13
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 30 m
- 2020
- PG-13
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 30 m
Summary Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist (John David Washington) journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time. Not time travel. Inversion.
Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Written By: Christopher Nolan
- 2020
- PG-13
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 30 m
- 2020
- PG-13
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 30 m
Tenet
69
7.4
Where to Watch
Summary Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist (John David Washington) journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time. Not time travel. Inversion.
Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Written By: Christopher Nolan
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 50 Critic Reviews
69
66% Positive
33 Reviews
33 Reviews
34% Mixed
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 50 Critic Reviews
69
66% Positive
33 Reviews
33 Reviews
34% Mixed
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
For me, Tenet is preposterous in the tradition of Boorman’s Point Blank, or even Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point, a deadpan jeu d’esprit, a cerebral cadenza, a deadpan flourish of crazy implausibility – but supercharged with steroidal energy and imagination.
It’s breathtaking to watch the director work on such a grand scale, but the humans within his film do sometimes get lost. For all Nolan’s metaphysical mastery, there’s an undeniable coldness to his twilight world.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 1,589 User Ratings
7.4
73% Positive
1160 Ratings
1160 Ratings
13% Mixed
209 Ratings
209 Ratings
14% Negative
220 Ratings
220 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 1,589 User Ratings
7.4
73% Positive
1160 Ratings
1160 Ratings
13% Mixed
209 Ratings
209 Ratings
14% Negative
220 Ratings
220 Ratings
The concept of inversion and it's relationship with cause and effect might be amongst the most complex sci-fi concepts ever depicted on film, but Tenet manages to present the material with a propulsive energy, charm, and a light heart that makes the whole thing a delicious cinematic treat.
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Mind breaking movie. Must see if you love time travel. One of the best Nolan movies
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It’s slam-bang action adventure that pretty much answers the question, “What if Christopher Nolan made a James Bond film?”
It’s basically espionage adventure, but with a science fiction backbone: Nolan ups the ante on “Mission: Impossible” by making the impossibility not just physical but quantum physical. And he goes about it expertly, bullishly and with giddily perverse intent to bewilder.
There’s a chilliness to Tenet that I haven’t felt in his previous work. The stakes, presumably, couldn’t be higher — both onscreen and offscreen — but after watching the movie, I don’t understand why I was meant to care. As an intellectual exercise, Tenet is very interesting, if not entirely successful. As a movie, I’m not so sure.
This is a bad film by a good filmmaker. It has the veneer of substantiality, but it’s unsubstantial. It is the product of sincere conviction and artistic confidence, but both were misguided. Every filmmaker needs to take the occasional chance, as Christopher Nolan did with “Tenet.” Not all chances pay off.
There’s something grating about a film which insists on detailing its pseudo-science while also conceding you probably won’t have followed a thing. We’re clobbered with plot then comforted with tea-towel homilies about how what’s happened has happened.
Trying to understand what is happening in this movie is just playing a game of mental gymnastics but I enjoyed it a lot.
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This movie has a great break-in scene, lots of fights, and some satisfying moments where confusing events become clear.
Unfortunately, the plot is super confusing. So much so that at points I just gave up on figuring it out and kept watching. It's also 2.5 hours long. The soundtrack is incredibly average. I think they recycled the Inception soundtrack, added a few foghorns and called it a day. David Washington's character alternates from having no idea what's going on to being ultra confident and competent, and it's jarring.
I think you'll enjoy this if you want action more than plot.
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I watched this movie to cool off my head while programming. I'm glad Nolan doesn't work in the software industry.
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The dialogue in Tenet is much like the positive reviews for the movie; So desperate to offer insight, and meaning, that they go on for twice as long as they should, only to find they have still said nothing worth hearing.
Unfortunately, Tenet is mostly empty dialogue, from start to finish. There's a small, interesting idea here. 'Your perspective on time is just one, of many, here, let Nolan show you more.'
It's not unlike, 'what if people could enter and alter your dream? Let Nolan show you more.'
The major difference, here, between Tenet and Inception, is that Inception was a finished script, doubtlessly re-written many times, to ensure it's both legible and fun, all the way through. Tenet has not had even a first of second pass. It has not had a good writer come along and say "Hey, Chris, why are you telling instead of showing. This is boring. Let's start again, without all the exposition that goes nowhere and try and craft a more interesting story around your central concept."
The entire movie feels like Nolan is stuck, writing page, after page, after page of exposition, to try and explain the story to an editor or producer, but they just got so bored, they turned around and said **** it, yeah, sounds great, Chris, do that, I trust you."
The result is massively bad.
Beyond bad, in fact, as it's the first unwatchable film Chris Nolan has made, which makes it disappointing, too. We can only blame ourselves. We thought he was incapable of making a bad movie, just as the studio clearly did, when they let him go ahead with such a poor screenplay.
The truth, of course, is never that complicated.
Sometimes people waffle and don't produce anything worth hearing, no matter who they are.
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Production Company
Warner Bros.,
Syncopy
Release Date Sep 3, 2020
Duration 2 h 30 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline Time Runs Out
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
• 1 Win & 9 Nominations
