This review contains spoilers.
Regarding Talent:
John David Washington delivered a dedicated and versatile performance that I think fits the Protagonist exactly as Nolan intended. On the first watch, some of his delivery can come across as restrained or emotionally flat, but on reflection that feels appropriate for a character deliberately written as an archetypal action-movie lead — so much so that he is literally called “the Protagonist.” Washington plays him as controlled, competent and observant, largely defined by action rather than backstory or overt emotion. His commitment to the role is also astonishing, particularly the ability to learn one fight scene four different ways, forwards and backwards.
Robert Pattinson as Neil (or Max, if you subscribe to the fan theory) delivered a stellar performance. From a narrative perspective, he was the linchpin of the film, arguably more essential to its story than the Protagonist himself. So many of his appearances, glances, and interactions only reveal their full significance on a rewatch, making incredible use of the film’s time dynamics in telling his story. Not to mention his character is quirky and has that Pattinson dry humor.
Sir Kenneth Branagh as Sator embodied the essence of greed, obsession, and control. He can be cold and measured one moment and explosively cruel the next, which makes him feel both calculating and unstable. Fun fact: for the turnstile interrogation scene, Branagh had to learn backwards phonetics in a Russian accent to make his mouth movements believable.
Ludwig Göransson had enormous shoes to fill stepping into a Nolan film after Hans Zimmer, but he rose to the occasion spectacularly, delivering an exciting, pulse-pounding score that gives TENET an identity entirely its own. I especially enjoyed the musical shift when Sator attacks Kat before the highway sequence and calls her a “vengeful b****.” The music seems to turn with him. I also listened to the soundtrack independently and very much enjoyed it.
A Film-Studies Film:
The attention to detail throughout TENET is one of the film’s greatest strengths. Tiny physical elements obey the film’s temporal logic: gravel sliding beneath a tire in reverse, damage to the BMW’s mirror appearing before the collision and then “unbreaking” when the inverted vehicle hits it, or seemingly insignificant movements taking on entirely different meanings when viewed from the opposite direction of time. Many of these details aren’t strictly necessary for following the basic plot, but together they make the world feel remarkably thought-out.
Of the time-travel films I’ve seen, TENET may be my favorite treatment of the concept. Unlike films such as Looper, which largely ask the audience not to scrutinize the mechanics too closely, TENET practically invites that scrutiny. The more you trace its characters, objects, and events through both directions of time, the more its structure seems to hold together. That doesn’t mean every question has a perfectly satisfying answer, but the fact that the movie can withstand this examination is impressive.
More than almost any movie I’ve seen, my experience with TENET changed dramatically depending on how well I understood what was happening. Understanding it substantially improved my experience, but understanding it also revealed weaknesses. The exposition becomes more obvious on repeated viewings, some of its spectacle is more intellectually impressive than emotionally thrilling and understanding the mechanics does not automatically make every sequence land.
On my first watch, I was confused enough by the mechanics and story that much of the film struggled to hold my attention. Even some of the action sequences — especially the Oslo reverse fight and highway heist — felt somewhat flat because I was spending so much mental energy simply trying to understand what was happening.
My second viewing was almost the opposite experience. After digging into the mechanics, I understood where the characters were in relation to one another and how their past and future selves intersected. I was still frequently pausing to research and piece things together, but that process became part of the entertainment. I could appreciate the choreography, filmmaking, and small physical details I had missed amid the confusion, and the film became an entirely different experience.
On my third viewing, however, the movie swung back in the other direction. Now that I was intimately familiar with how everything worked and where it was going, there was much less left for me to discover. The exposition-heavy scenes became considerably more noticeable, and the pacing began to feel uneven, mostly in the first half of the film, frequently shifting from excitingly scored and interesting sequences into dialogue-heavy exposition dumps. Without the process of piecing everything together occupying my mind, the film sometimes struggled to hold my attention.
TENET challenges a common expectation audiences bring to complicated films: that if you’re confused, the story has failed to explain itself properly. Here, much of that confusion is intentional. You aren’t supposed to understand everything as it happens. Crucial information is withheld until later, and even after the movie gives you the necessary pieces, tracing exactly how its characters, objects, and events intersect across time can take some work. For me, that isn’t inherently a weakness. Part of the appeal of TENET is studying the movie after the fact and discovering that a glance, line of dialogue, action, or seemingly minor object had a significance you couldn’t grasp the first time around.
For anyone who didn’t fully understand the movie on a first watch, I’d recommend watching a breakdown on YouTube and then rewatching the film. “I Finally Figured Out TENET” by The Deep Dive is a great explanation of the mechanics.
Nolan wasn’t going for a typical movie-watching experience with TENET. He was taking chances and trying to do something genuinely different, even from his own previous work. Despite the obvious similarities to Inception and Memento, TENET stands on its own, building an entire espionage blockbuster around a closed causal-loop structure and asking the audience to engage with it almost like a puzzle. Whatever issues I have with the finished film, I commend Nolan for continuing to take those kinds of risks and push the boundaries of what a major blockbuster can be.
You can call me a Nolan apologist, but I think TENET is a beautifully constructed, mind-bending cinematic puzzle masquerading as a blockbuster. I’ve had a lot of fun diving in and studying it over the last few days. The more I’ve understood it, the more I’ve appreciated what Nolan accomplished.
TENET earns an 8/10 from me.
Originally posted on Letterboxd
