Critical Movie Review: Tenet (2020)

Complex film director Christopher Nolan’s latest film, “Tenet,” brings a whole new mind-altering perspective to time travel in cinema, with intricate scenes that show time and items moving forward as well as backward.

The film follows The Protagonist, played by John David Washington, a CIA agent who is thrown into a new and dangerous world of espionage tasked with one simple mission, to prevent World War III. He embarks on this mission armed with only a single word that will open all the right and wrong doors, ‘tenet’. 

Nolan weaves complex webs. Like many of his other films that came before, such as “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Inception,” this film takes a very non-linear approach to storytelling. The film’s main storyline is told within a time loop, with many others loops throughout. Like these past films, “Tenet” takes a bold step in what is considered possible in cinema, with mind-bending action scenes that leave the audience amazed.

The film’s use of orchestral music throughout its soundtrack helps set the mood and intensity throughout the film. As the music swells, the tension seems to increase leaving the viewer on the edge of their seat until the fading music relieves them. This factor makes the music element in the film equal to that of the visuals. Ludwig Gӧransson, a Grammy- and Academy-Award-winning composer, created these musical feats. Following the theme of the movie, most of the instrumentals and vocals were augmented immensely. In an article by Broadway World TV, Gӧransson talks about his work on the film and how much the cinematic elements influenced the music. “The score is full of inverted sounds and illusions,” Gӧransson said. “I spent a great deal of time taking familiar sounds and manipulating them -- both organically and digitally -- so that it reflected the complex world of ‘Tenet.’” 

Gӧransson and Nolan worked together diligently to perfect the music for the film. Not only creating music and sounds to create a narrative around the film, but around each character within. Making the reader feel the emotions that Nolan intends to portray. 

Cinematically, “Tenet” pushes the boundaries of what can be done, whether it is with the film’s jaw-dropping stunts or complex fight scenes. 

George Cottle and Jackson Spidell, the film stunt and fight coordinators respectively, had to start in advance to the film due to the complexity of many of the fight scenes. With time flowing in opposite directions, for each scene, they had to make two different fight choreographies. This creates mesmerizing fight scenes that captivate the viewers. 

A factor that makes this film incredibly impressive is Nolan’s dedication to not using a green screen or CGI in this movie. With many large and intricate action scenes, this feat seems nearly impossible. They conquered this obstacle by taking bold action like renting out eight miles of highway and crashing a Boeing 747 airplane.

With a captivating storyline that keeps the viewers’ eyes glued to the screen and mesmerizing action scenes, it is no wonder why it has received much praise from numerous critics around the world. “Tenet” may be just the movie the film industry needed to jumpstart itself in the wake of our COVID-19 pandemic.