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Five years after its release, this Christopher Nolan Tenet retrospective weighs the time-bending thriller’s ambitions against its puzzles. As a self-described Nolan devotee, I probe what works, what trips over its own inertia, and whether Tenet deserves to sit near Nolan’s best or near the bottom of his filmography.
A fan’s tempered take on Tenet
I’ll own my fandom and admit the film’s hold over me comes with a critical caveat. My journey with Nolan started long before Tenet, with a childhood full of watching Memento on DVD and following the ascent of the Caped Crusader to blockbuster status as a teen. I’ve even felt affection for Insomnia, to the point where I welcomed the idea of Nolan reimagining Batman with a wary optimism.
Among Nolan’s twelve features so far, Interstellar stands out as the one I find the hardest to sit through—the epic’s patient pacing and solemn tone often drift into tedium. I won’t pretend I’m blind to its flaws, even as I still respect the scale and ambition on display.
Tenet, for me, embodies Nolan’s habit of courting grand ideas with a no-nonsense, often austere mood. The film’s serious demeanor clashes with a premise that invites some level of disbelief—secret agents, masks, and a backward-flowing world—as a reminder that not every audacious choice lands perfectly, even for a fan who wants to love every frame.
Five years on, I’d argue Tenet isn’t Nolan’s worst movie. It’s tougher to sit with than some other titles, yet I find more memorable moments and genuine invention here than in Interstellar or Following, though it sits comfortably below the filmmaker’s undisputed peaks. It’s a film with spectacular moments that still sparks debate about whether the experience eclipses coherence.
What Tenet delivers on screen: spectacle and clever mechanics
Tenet delivers punchy, high-energy sequences that press the audience to stay engaged through sheer physicality and imagination. Robert Pattinson’s performance adds a buoyant counterweight to the film’s gravity of ideas, giving a welcome spark amid the labyrinthine plotting and dense sound design.
One of the movie’s most talked-about images is the inverted fight scene, which earns its thrill from the tactile sense of danger rather than pure gimmick. The production also nails a jaw-dropping moment when a real passenger jet is integrated into a building-set sequence, underscoring Nolan’s willingness to chase scale with practical effects.
Another standout is the reverse-time car chase, where forward-moving cars collide with those moving backward, and some characters exist in both directions. The effect is disorienting in the best sense, a demonstration of how clever choreography and editing can redefine a chase scene.
The flip side: where Tenet stumbles and strains credulity
Despite the spectacle, the premise can feel heavy-handed when parsed literally, and the tone sometimes never fully reconciles with the plot’s paradoxes. The central performance by John David Washington lands with capable presence, but it lacks the magnetic pull that some of Nolan’s other leads have carried in the past, a contrast you might notice when you compare his work here with his broader television and film roles, including HBO’s Ballers and the acclaimed BlacKkKlansman.
The narrative glue that’s supposed to bind the twists together never quite tightens, leaving a climactic sequence that leaves many viewers scratching their heads. The result is a film that delivers unforgettable visuals and ideas, yet asks the audience to accept a logic that can feel loose or elusive in service of a larger experience.
Another recurring tension is the way the film treats its female characters—handled with moments of strength but sometimes overshadowed by the film’s masculine, mechanical energy. It’s a reminder that even a meticulously crafted blockbuster can stumble in portraying relationships with nuance amid its high-concept engine.
Is Tenet Nolan’s worst movie? A nuanced verdict
This isn’t a blanket verdict that Tenet is Nolan’s worst; it sits closer to his early experiments in audacious storytelling than to the most conventional blockbusters. It’s arguably more watchable than some of his late-era outings that overextend themselves in different ways, and it offers a steadier line of sight than the sprawling, emotionally scarred tones of Interstellar.
In terms of ambition, Tenet sits near Following in spirit—a debut that embraces risk and a willingness to defy easy categorization—yet the execution here is more polished. The film’s willingness to push a blockbuster toward an almost experimental edge is both its engine and its fault line, producing moments that glow with ingenuity while others stumble over the weight of their own premise.
Why Tenet still matters and what might come next
The film’s oft-cited claim that it’s about feeling rather than fully understanding is precisely where its strength and fault line reside. Ten years from now, it may be remembered as a bold, sometimes thrilling refusal to shrink a big idea to a tidy solution, even if doing so left some gaps in logic.
Five years on, the film reads as a daring experiment that reshaped expectations for a contemporary blockbuster—proof that a major studio can gamble on concept as a selling point. For Christopher Nolan, Tenet stands as a reminder that ambition must be balanced with clarity, and it sets up questions about how future projects might fuse scale with intelligibility while preserving the signature tension that has defined his best work.
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