Two Cineasts’s review published on Letterboxd:
Film reviews in 22 sentences (or less)
Today: Tenet
„All I have for you is a word... TENET...“
(Martin Donovan as Victor)
Hi everybody, here our first thoughts about the new Nolan. As everyone can see in our Favorite Films list we are huge fans of Christopher Nolan, six of his movies are represented in this list. For us he is the best modern and active director of the world. Always, when we knew, what the new project of Christopher Nolan is going to look like, we are totally excited. No exception is the movie right here „Tenet“. So now we just got out of the cinema together, for me (Hendrik), it was the second view and for Nico it was the first watch. Well, what can we say, as always it is an audio-visual masterpiece.
„Don’t try to understand it... Feel it.“
(Clémence Poésy as Barbara)
The first minutes are an invitation to dance in the empty cinema, so immersive and so full of tense, fast action that the welcome, could not be better. Nolan understands it finer, than anybody else to create something new, to challenge himself as a director of blockbusters, with a nuanced touch into the extreme (and into) science. But also Nolan's audience doesn't know what to expect, besides a movie that doesn't let you go for days and days to come and a plot hard to encipher after the first time viewing experience, and is everytime again forced to accept a new challenge. The new Nolan is also a completely new film, not more of the same. „Tenet“s first half can be seen as a mixture of „James Bond“ and „Mission Impossible“, only in the second half you get an idea of what contemporary genius like Nolan is capable of. And exactly this second half is the reason why you easily can watch „Tenet“ three times and will always witness something new, that you might have missed the last time. Like always C. Nolan sets new standards in creating absolute modern blockbusters, but he did it, with old school handmade practical knowledge and you see it, everything just looks a tiny bit better as in other movies, because most of the scenes are real. For example, the plane chase scene in „Fast and Furious 6“ a totally CGI overdose and in „Tenet“? A real Jumbo crashed into a building, just awesome. The one and only reason why „Tenet“ doesn't have the 10 out of 10 rating (yet) are the main characters of the film. The protagonists as well as the antagonist. Don't blame the actors, John David Washington, Kenneth B. and our new favorite rising star, after masterpieces like „The Lighthouse“, „The Lost City of Z“ and „Good Time“ Robert Pattinson, as the script doesn't have the capacity and more importantly the NEED to develop highly ingenious and profund characters. Different than in his previous movies especially „Memento“ and „The Prestige“, is the visual context. Nolan focuses on visual storytelling and only through this technique he compensates the missing depth of the script and creates nonetheless an immense impact to/ for the viewer. Like always the topic Time plays a big part in Nolan’s films and if you are aware of what you get, we can give you a first class fan recommendation.
„You are not shooting the bullet... you are catching it.“
(Barbara)
