REVIEW: TENET

4/5

∞

150 Mins. Starring: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Martin Donovan, Clemence Poesy, Himesh Patel, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Caine & Kenneth Branagh. Director: Christopher Nolan.

Time. Where has it gone in this tragic 2020? Like a snake coiled around the infinite number 8. Like losing the Black Mamba, Kobe Bryant and his Mambacita Gianna and then the Black Panther and one of Hollywood's greatest biopic Kings in just four short years whilst strongly and silently fighting cancer, from Jackie Robinson to James Brown and every Thurgood Marshall in between, Chadwick Boseman. All whilst we shout in protest, 'Black Lives Matter' through masks protecting us from coronavirus, as we may stay safe, but we won't stay silent. COVID-19 in these roaring 20's has closed everything from cinemas to live sports and performances in concert. Always seemingly ahead of the time he's making his generation, Christopher Nolan's latest starts with a masked siege on an auditorium for an operatic epic with the packed house full of lifeless bodies with yet another grand sense of scale for your IMAX cameras and no CGI explosive effects (you hear that Michael Bay?). Time. That's something Nolan has been playing with for years like Matthew McConaughey hammering away at Jessica Chastain's bookshelf (that is NOT an euphemism, alright, alright?) in 2014's '2001: A Space Odyssey' inspired 'Interstellar' (a personal favourite of the Christopher cinematic canon). Just look what he did with the war documentary like 'Dunkirk' epic, his last movie and one with Hans Zimmer experimenting with ticking signatures on his soundtrack. The directors go to orchestra scoring maestro like a Caine cameo (he's here again for lunch. Don't talk whilst you're bloody eating Michael!) absent this time for his scheduling conflict work on Denis Villeneuve's (possibly the next Nolan. 'Enemy', 'Prisoners', 'Sicario', 'Arrival' and 'Blade Runner 2049' prove us wrong) all-star 'Dune' remake that from its trailer looks terrific (but no Sting? Call the police like LCD Soundsystem). Although Ryan Coogler's go to music man (from 'Fruitvale Station' to the 'Creed' fighting franchise and of course 'Black Panther') and 'The Mandalorian' and 'Venom' composer Ludwig Göransson handles things gamely-especially in the orchestrated beginning-if at times colouring inside Zimmer's lines. But if you want to talk about time folding in on itself like the name of this movie reading the same front and back, interlock your hands and put them together in a gesture for 'Tenet'. Because after a tentative release schedule for a film that spelled backward is called 'Tenet', this dream 'Inception' (that classic movie still needs to cut the Japanese anime 'Paprika' a check, or at least some spice before we cut it some slack. The thimble is still spinning) in reverse 'Memento' hybrid almost folded completely. But 'The Prestige' of this 'Dark Knight' trilogy dynamic director belongs on the big screen, like his camera capturing signature style. Rejoice from a seated distance with your popcorn too, because we are back in theatres before the curtain calls. No more Netflix or watching blockbusters on your phone...at least for tonight. What a delight. And what better way to spend it than with some awesomely engineered action sequences that moonwalk like Michael Jackson. So much so that a Hollywood icon no stranger to ankle breaking and doing the most stunning stunts for real, Mr. Ethan Hunt himself Tom Cruise, snuck into the Waterloo, London premiere in a mask (but not for the born in the U.S.A. 'American Made' man who almost played Captain America in the 90's' identity. But like the rest of us regular folk his safety). With this movie now opening the big screen floodgates (or the latest rise in cases) expect Cruise's even longer than expected, anticipated, 30 years in the making 'Maverick', 'Top Gun' sequel to come roaring in for a landing soon too. "Mission Accomplished." 

Or Bond, James Bond. Because this is 'No Time To Die' in 2020, 007. Because if this really is Daniel Craig's last shaken and stirred shot through the scope (oh hai Idris. Awks), then who would be up for a Christopher Nolan directed Bond? It only rumor has it seems as natural as an Adele theme. Reinventing the franchise for his next progression matching storied scale for scale. Get Nolan regulars like Cillian Murphy, Zimmer back reworking the classic theme of course you're only supposed to get Michael Caine too. Maybe even Bale and another international Bond girl (with all due respect) Marion Cotillard. And then of course there's that Tom Hardy rumor. Or even now Robert Pattinson. Because if the 'Twilight' star can play Batman than surely he could Bond too. And to think we hated the Kurt Cobain rumour (but remember what they said about Heath Ledger's Joker?). R Patz is the truth. This is his month. You only have to witness and watch his puerile, anything but purifying preacher on the Tom Holland lead 'The Devil All The Time' streaming now on Netflix to see just how far the range of this 'Lighthouse' actors North star is. It's all a 'Good Time' for the 'Harry Potter' star whose about to have more franchises than Starbucks. He steals the show here with what slick suited looks like his Bruce Wayne audition or on the job training as the 'Batman Begins' director was delighted to learn the man he was working with was about to be 'The Batman' like Pattinson was that unlike Bale and Ben he was able to piss in the suit. But as much as this Great Brit accents this performance with dramatics all the way to a Western standoff and emotional walk into the sunset for a kid who looks as dedicated to the cinematic craft and hidden Easter homage egg as his director, this is not his movie. The movie doesn't even belong to the reverse bullet time and spinning out of control car chases that like some classic chereographed hand-to-hand, Joseph Gordon-Levitt dancing on the ceiling like Fred Astaire in 'Inception' combat that hasn't happened yet like a Penrose paradox. Or "CRASHING THIS PLANE" like Bane in reverse as gold bars fall out the arse like this blockbusters big budget. It belongs to Washington. And we aren't talking about D.C. or daddy Denzel. But John David like the Bible for this spiritual and soulful blockbuster, mainstream movie that mediates on time and our own posterity. My man. 

'BlackKklansman' game changer John David Washington has now worked with two of the most iconic, epic envelope pushing directors who are the biggest in this industry no matter what the Academy one says Oscar. Spike Lee and now Nolan. Becoming a leading man overnight as quickly as his promising NFL career was taken away by injury. But what a way to rebound, even if that is the wrong sport. What a way for the 'Ballers' star to touchdown. And if you don't think he's a star walking from London's Saville Row (or is that Brooks Brothers) like a 'Kings Man' (coming soon Fiennes), to the international locations this director postcards then you better check a Esquire cover or something. He may be his father's son in emotion, expression and charisma as we are compellingly charmed and evoked as tears are shed in singles, leaving us all with a lump that reminds us of something. But from the moment this former running back who first appeared as a baby in dads 'Malcolm X' with Spike (like something meta out of O'Shea Jackson playing pops Ice Cube in the N.W.A. 'Straight Outta Compton' biopic and holding his newborn self. Talk about time), now quarterbacking his own movie asks for his lunch at a fancy restaurant to be boxed, you know he's his own man. One who is now made. And this time it's already happened yet. Going back in like bodies being pulled back in reverse like they were on Spider-Man strings for movie art as amazing as the portraits that surround it. His Protagonist perfect even under the pressure of having the same Russian Rooney looking mobster who squeezed Bradley Cooper to his edge on 'Limitless' pulling teeth. Washington owns this holding an espresso and that's the tea...sort of. Elizabeth Debicki also takes her biggest dive like the ones she's about too in playing Princess Diana like Pattinson's Kristen Stewart co-star in Season 4 of 'The Crown'. And with reflections of her breakout role in 'The Night Manager' off the Mediterranean, this 'Great Gatsby', 'Widows' and 'Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2.' star already feels like one of the biggest. A "we'll take mine" moment in a speedboat straight out of Nolan's Michael Mann 'Miami Vice' fandom may aswell play as Catwoman in the back of a Batboat. She has more to deal with in 'Dunkirk', 'Murder On The Orient Express' and his Poirot forthcoming 'Death On The Nile' sequel stand and ravishing 'Thor' director Kenneth Branagh's cookie cutter villain that seems to have hit copy and paste from Chris Pine's 'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit'. A little like character actor great Martin Donovan on exposition hand to offer that 'Tenet' gesture. Whilst Hindi films legend Dimple Kapadia offers more depth. Like a couple of Beatles banded together from the 'Yesterday' of Himesh Patel's high note and the 'Nowhere Boy' of a young Lennon in the nice surprise of Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 'Godzilla' jacked after his faster than lightning Quicksilver age in the Avengers 'Ultron'. But in epic entropy this movie that demands a multiple rewatch-just so you know what the f### is going on-is so much more as it bungees between scintillating set-pieces and rope twisting and tightening perplexing plot points that takes everything you know about time and beats the clock like number 8 in the fourth. Forever 24. Can't un-fire this one and it's amazing algorithm as we are back in the turnstile. "Don't try to understand. Feel it", 'In Bruges' star Clemence Poesy tells John David in a Q (*coughs* and it's not corona) like training session. It sounds like a plot cop out. It's not this is complex as the dimensions of 'Interstellar' explained with "here's the science bit" concentrate. But now we live in a twilight world it's been a long time since we've been back here. Time to bask in the big screen and spectacle and really just feel it. Besides you believe in capes, so what's to fear here? Time finally waits for this one. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Inception', 'Interstellar', 'Memento'.