Tenet (2020) ***

Tenet (2020) is another Christopher Nolan feature that's heavy on exceptional filmmaking from a technical standpoint but disappointing from a character standpoint. Nolan made his version of a James Bond film here—infusing the spy action film with lots of complicated science fiction. Its closest cousin in Nolan's oeuvre would be Inception (2010) but even that film had a little more "emotion" to it.

I really was impressed by the logistics of undertaking a film such as this and it definitely demands a second viewing due to quick exposition dumps in between long action scenes (again, impressive). Too often though (here and in his other work) Nolan is too precious in his need to be clever and innovative and his stories/characters suffer for it. I think that's why my two favorite films of his remain The Prestige (2006) (my review here) and Memento (2000)—they both have gimmicks (as so many of Nolan's films do), but they have characters I care about and feel less like purely technical exercises (very much the way that Dunkirk (2017) (my review here) does).

That's not to say that John David Washington isn't charismatic, that the film isn't a technical groundbreaking feat or that I didn't enjoy Tenet. I just think that Nolan could use another writer to assist with his characters sometimes. Incidentally Nolan's brother Jonathan co-wrote my two favorites, mentioned earlier, but he also co-wrote Interstellar (2014) (my review here) which was perhaps a bit too lofty and saccharine. I had very mixed feelings about that film and still need to revisit it.

Anyway, the 4K UHD disc of Tenet will truly wow those with a good home theater setup and that type of playback capability, both from a visual and aural perspective. I'll always admire the scope of Nolan's films and his attempts to blend blockbuster entertainment with complex stories, even if I don't flat out love the outcome.

You can find my Christopher Nolan Feature Films Ranked list here.