Tenet: A Mosaic Made With Time

In the words of Andrei Tarkovsky, "No other art form is able to fix time as cinema does. Therefore, what is film? Film is a mosaic made with time." Think about this quote when watching this movie. While flawed, confusing, and complicated, no other form of art could portray this concept like this film does, and it should be appreciated in that aspect.

Tenet is the first big blockbuster film to be released in theaters during quarantine times, and it's been to somewhat mixed reviews depending on who you ask. It's the most recent film from the internet's god of cinema, Christopher Nolan, who directed Inception, Dunkirk, Interstellar, and The Dark Knight trilogy. With a resume like that, you owe it to yourself to see this movie in theaters.

Before I get into my thoughts, I'll give a quick summary to the best of my ability:

A man (John David Washington) is recruited by a shadow agency called Tenet to participate in a global assignment that brings him in confrontation with a Russian oligarch who has been attempting to start World War III using a concept known as "time inversion."

Your opinion of Tenet will depend on what you want out of it

Tenet is not the kind of movie that you go to see if you want to unwind after a hard day and relax your mind. The concept of time that this movie deals with is Nolan's most ambitious and most confusing. In the past, we've seen Nolan deal with time in many ways. In Inception, Dunkirk, and Interstellar, we see Nolan play with time but in a way that still lets the viewer experience the plot linearly.

However, Tenet deals with time in a way that will truly strain the brain. We are dealing with time that flows BACKWARDS. This movie will challenge you to throw linear time out the window and prepare yourself to think in terms of reaction causing the action, instead of vice versa. Some aspects will require close attention and brainpower, but others are simply fun to watch. For example, watching John David Washington and Robert Pattinson fight two bad guys who are fighting in reverse time is really something to experience. You will not understand a lot of the movie on the first try, but the second try will prove the movie is an intricately woven masterpiece in terms of plot that sadly falls victim so some glaring flaws.

The Two Big Flaws

The Pacing is the first problem the movie encounters, and it's something that plagues the movie early on. For a plot as convoluted as this, you would think Nolan would have spent some time to step back and fully explain what exactly is happening and how everything works. Instead, we experience a sequence of 30-second or 1-minute scenes that lay extremely thick exposition on you very fast before quickly changing the scenery and begin laying the next level of exposition. Unless you are paying close attention or you're on adderall, you'll be playing catch up to the plot within the first 45 minutes.

The Sound Mixing is the other problem the movie has. Wow, was the sound mixing glaringly bad. Not only will you be struggling to keep up with the fast-paced exposition dialogue, but you'll be struggling to hear it as well. I'm not sure if the sound editors and mixers were on strike or if they rushed production, but this movie needed subtitles because they'd swell the score in the background while having characters in masks and heavy accents deliver extremely important plot points to each other and almost nobody in the theater could hear them.

Why I Still Loved It

Yes, you may call me a Nolan fanboy, and you'd be correct. I worship Nolan as a filmmaker because he's one of the few remaining auteurs left in Hollywood. He takes chances, which most movie studios wouldn't dare put money behind. Though this movie is flawed in its ability to let the audience keep up, it makes up for upon a second viewing. This is not to say you won't enjoy a lot of things about the film upon first viewing, such as the final act. Oh my god, the last battle scene of this movie is one of the craziest, most mind-boggling achievements in storytelling I've ever witnessed.

Film is the only form of art that can be tinkered with using time, and with that being the case, not many films attempt to push those limits. This film will stand out as one of those ambitious attempts to challenge what we see movies for. Like all other forms of art, its impression on the audience will vary depending on what they're looking for. You WILL be confused, that's a given. But try to savor it and if you have the funds, give it a second try because it will become 10x more enjoyable upon your second viewing.