after diverting from his worst tendencies on dunkirk, chris nolan comes back to familiar yet refreshing territory for tenet. he’s back with an easily criticisable female role and exposition heavy plot and it rocks up with some of his best work.

tenet feels like the james bond movie that nolan kinda sorta played into with inception taken to another level. men working for unknown agencies travel the world in suits discussing government secrets in open streets, the stoic protagonist with occasional smart wit, the iconic theme (from travis scott?), it’s all there but with nolan’s nack for sci-if and larger than life concepts, well one concept which is time.

even through some of the more confusing parts of the movie (which does work for its advantage), this movie has so much awe and spectacle (much improved action scenes from his earlier films) to carry it through those moments with help from its charismatic cast. jdw is demanded more here physically than emotionally and he does extremely well, elisabeth debicki plays one of the more complex roles here and works through the nuance nicely but the highlight was robert pattinson, he gives so much life and personality to something which could be boring. he really knows how to take it there as a movie star and not just a character actor.

i’m probably going to have to watch this several times to really understand the nooks and crannies of this plot but tenet excels as pure entertainment, light and sound aiding expert visual storytelling. maybe it is the protagonist to save cinemas from bankruptcy.