TENET (2020)
While Christopher Nolan's films have always faced a certain level of criticism for being too stoic, too emotionally stunted and too clinical, I've never found this to be true. Until now that is. The heart of stories like Interstellar and Inception might have been melodrama but they generally worked despite some obvious missteps. Even the mechanical nature of Dunkirk was effectively utilised in a way that meant a lack of real character was supplanted by a lot of pure suspense. Unfortunately in this case the wrong lessons have been learned and the resulting follow up is a story that puts clockwork and spectacle first and forgets to include anything that generates any pathos at all.
The first question to ask here is, what's going on? The second and more important one is, why should I care? To be frank I've got plenty of time for strange obfuscated stories that avoid a traditional narrative. Because if they're engaging or even just interesting I can go back to them and bathe in all the weirdness. Even a few memorable moments can call me back for a later viewing. But in this tale of spies and doomsday weapons there's not really any sort of hook beyond the central gimmick revealed in the first act. Objects and people have had their entropy reversed so they can move backwards in time. It turns out that the flow of time itself is being meddled with, and the cause must be stopped to avert a global crisis.
Sator (Kenneth Branagh) is a Russian arms dealer trying to bring about the apocalypse, while for some reason obsessing over control of his estranged wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki). He's strangely brutal and petty for someone that wants to change all life as we know it. Our hero (John David Washington) is a nameless CIA operative recruited by a mysterious organisation called Tenet. He must work with an agent called Neil (Robert Pattinson) to save Kat, and eventually the world. But along the way things get tricky as they discover Sator's plans involve people and equipment moving back and forwards through different time streams. This should be incredible but sitting through the film is like pulling teeth, and it's not just during the initial torture the protagonist is put through.
Shouldn't it all be an easy win for this crew of film-makers? Bumping up the complexity of a story like Inception by adding Primer style time twists? Ticking clocks and shifting perspectives should be their speciality by now. Perhaps the script, allegedly taking two decades to crystallise, was just sat waiting too long. There's far too much focus on how and why the fictional technology does what it does, instead of making this a solid blockbuster thrill ride. There's a lot of spectacle and a lot of production value to see, but the film as a whole is just exhausting instead of exciting. The individual components are crafted to a very high standard (except the score) but when they're all put together this just isn't any fun.
The cast are all good, and the chemistry between Washington and his Pattinson is enjoyable for the most part. They have a lot of screen presence but their efforts come to nothing when they're never given any sort of relatable history. They just talk shop all the time instead of getting to know one another. Likewise Debicki does a great job with what she's given, but the results are just a trite domestic abuse story. With more nuance it could be a tense drama, but it just feels like a perfunctory box ticking exercise. Branagh is often pretty disturbing as the villain, and yet he's just another archetype. It's an odd mixture when these elements are all so unoriginal but none of them stand out as being well executed.
At least the pyrotechnics are great though, right? Well yes and no. There are some neat moments when characters and weapons moving back and forward meet one another. But it's hard to make out the motives for certain actions being taken and things often feel muddled. There's never a eureka moment when events seen earlier come back around, outside those which are very predictable. Beyond hand to hand fights and car crashes the larger scale military scenes in the third act are... fine? But the bigger these sequences become the less interesting they are. After all explosions and gun battles are pretty similar with or without all the added visual effects trickery.
There is a great core idea here and I wish it worked. It should be another Inception combined with slowly unravelling story beats of Memento. But it's all just too disconnected and there aren't enough juicy character beats or stand-out espionage moments. Some will enjoy examining all this and seeing how the pieces fall and why it was all fated to begin and end a certain way, but I can't get behind it. With more engaging moments I could forgive things like terrible sound mixing and emotionally distant heroes. But it's all just so strangely bland and ultimately I just feel apathy towards the whole thing.
2/5
BONUS REVIEW
SOUL (2020)
On the other end of the spectrum this Pixar effort delivers exactly what it's supposed to. Peter Docter the director of Up and Inside Out returns to deliver more existential drama, and I'm all for it. Perhaps these kind of stories can be criticised for taking broad ideas about what makes people tick and treating them literally. But on the other hand if you're making a cute adventure why not have some food for thought along the way? In the wake of Frozen this is a lot better than yet another mediocre story about fantasy archetypes and magic wielding teenagers (yes I'm looking at you Onward). It's creative and there's a lot of jazz along with music by Trent Reznor, what's not to like?
Joe (Jamie Foxx) is a music teacher that longs for a full time position in a real band, despite this being the less secure vocational path. But things go awry just before reaches his dream and he finds himself trapped in the afterlife. After various shenanigans he winds up in the before-life and meets Twenty-Two (Tina Fey) a new soul who has yet to find a reason to be born. Things get weird pretty quickly to say the least, but it's all done with a deft artistic touch. It also helps that this is all rendered with so much style. The real world is full of autumn colours and caricatures, while the spirit world is painted with minimalist brush strokes.
Despite all these odd ingredients the film comes together effectively and feels cohesive, even when slapstick scenes involving talking cats and meditation gurus show up. Unlike some recent Pixar releases it doesn't feel like a bunch of short film ideas stapled together (sorry I'm still looking at you Onward). The ideas about finding a reason to exist and living with yourself are simultaneously heady and easy to digest. Plus the central duo bounce off one another nicely. Just as some will enjoy Tenet not everyone will get a kick out of this, but it's one that strikes a chord with me. Maybe it's the way they've combined allusions to Ikiru with so much great music and animation. It's not exactly subtle but it has heart to spare.
4/5
