Tenet (2020)

How many reviews of Tenet have you read that quote the phrase "Don't try to understand it. Feel it" directly from the film? Well, add this one to your list. Christopher Nolan's Tenet, dubbed by many to be the 'saviour of cinema' as the first major cinema release post-lockdown (part I) understandably did no business at all in comparison to a blockbuster release in times of normality, but the question really is how well would it have done against previous Nolan releases? Many have suggested that you need to see Tenet at least twice to understand it, and that this was always Nolan's intention. I'm not sure I agree with that. This was my third viewing of Tenet, and I enjoyed it the first time (it was the first time I'd been to the cinema in a long, long time), I unpicked more from it on a re-watch, and on this viewing I didn't really get much more from it. Tenet isn't all that complicated really; it follows a singular concept wrapped around a good vs. bad plot, and moves at such a breakneck pace that it probably feels more complicated than it is because you're grasping to keep up with the speed but misplacing that struggle as a convoluted plot. Tenet is presented at this pace because it without doubt keeps you gripped and enthralled, but it does also allow you to swiftly forget any questions you had about questionable plot holes. I've heard people argue that Tenet isn't palindromic, but I actually believe the opposite, Nolan works it full circle fairly well and both halves of the film mirror each other to a certain extent. Whether I'm right in that reading is up for debate, but that appears to be one of Tenet's strengths in that it seems to have people disagreeing over it and offering differing opinions. The problem is that I'm not sure it should be; I don't think it's a complicated concept, when things are moving backwards and forwards at the same time it's shot superbly so it's easy enough to keep up (the set pieces are outstanding), and, well, it is what it is. And the next question is, is that enough? Nolan's back catalogue forces you to ask this question, and his previous films throw up as many posers as they do answers, and they also give you time to breathe during their runtime because there are things to think about. Tenet doesn't really give you those brainteasers, it just might fool you into thinking they're there, and that's both a compliment to its gripping spectacle, and a criticism of its frustrating hollowness. 7.3/10