is Tenet underrated?

[@timbir]

I was thinking it was a Man Carrying Thing video so I was expecting an abrupt “no” followed by 17 minutes of him staring in silence

[@LuisSierra42]

Classic man

[@ZemplinTemplar]

And then he'd randomly meet childhood era versions of his future partners in crime. :-)))

[@Avulstet]

Tenet felt like a master craftsman at the edge of his abilities trying to show you--with childlike earnestness and wonder--this beautiful thing that even he struggled to understand. Some will put it in the 'cold and technical' subcategory within his filmography, but that feels out of sorts with a film that exudes this sincere passion and excitement that I felt from it. The joy of Tenet seems more about accepting and jamming on the vibe it offers rather than trying to coldly pin up its competent parts to make sure there's no spacetime or structural tomfoolery.

[@SgtWicket]

I have never felt so disconnected from viewer reactions as when I saw this movie. I came out feeling like the first time I had watched the Matrix but the conversation surrounding it was so negative, so it just became a movie I like but never talk about.

[@anthonymartensen3164]

I thought it was stunning seeing it in theaters

[@Colecooper0705]

Love Tenet and because of its confusing nature it's super rewatchable

[@LuisSierra42]

I've had to watch it multiple times and then watch a series of YT videos explaining it

[@TheJadedJames]

It’s super rewatchable because the second time you watch it, you go in understanding the internal logic and it is a load off your brain that lets you just enjoy the spectacle and go “Oh, I now understand that detail the flew over my head last time”

[@backdoorideas]

Should I watch this and then watch the movie or just watch the movie?

[@Colecooper0705]

@@backdoorideas just watch the movie so you can form your own opinion.

[@CO6883-o3c]

I saw Tenet a few years from now. It's great!

[@roboct6]

I love this film. I viewed it multiple times and it always pulls me in. I love complexity in story telling and this film certainly delivers on that front. In weird way, Nolan has given us his take on a James Bond film.

[@hhoi8225]

Love it, will never be sorry, will keep watching it forever.

[@Ryan-the-Rocketeer]

TENET makes perfect sense. You just gotta watch it in reverse and drink everytime they say the word (inverted) or (time) 😅

[@robertmarginean164]

This is a "watch it at least 3 times before having a solid opinion" type of movie. At least that's what I felt walking out of the theater when I first saw it in 2020. I would say overhated is a more appropriate term, because a lot of people didn't understand it properly and felt frustrated with that. I would use the term underrated for movies that not a lot of people have seen or even know about where those movies don't get the amount of love and appreciation they deserve

[@sarajoyelle]

i saw tenet a year ago and absolutely loved it

[@peteralfredhess]

Tenet is in constant tension with itself. On the one hand, it wants to present as a movie that is meant to be felt, not understood. On the other hand, it keeps presenting the audience with explanations of things, and telling the motivations of characters rather than producing any real emotionally resonant character moments (except for maybe the one reveal of Pattinson at the end).

[@hristol7537]

The last line about the bomb that didn't go off is really fitting when his next film is Oppenheimer.

[@johns123]

As a former Tenet hater and current Tenet lover, the self-aware/meta aspect really helped me get into it. This and Dunkirk, moreso than Interstellar, really allowed Nolan to express himself in an interesting way, stripping away the emotional plotlines to focus on the experience

[@aaronadams4657]

Same was conflicted when I saw it in theaters. Then a couple years later watched it back to back weekends. Just bloodpumping fun

[@TheRocksbarney]

Did you have to go back to change that?

[@LuisSierra42]

Is it underrated? YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@kyburton]

This conversation was a great example of why the movie works so well, I think. It's an existential question: is life worth living (i.e. is the movie worth watching) even if nobody is making any choices? The answer is yes, even if the premise makes some people feel uncomfortable. Fascinating movie, great discussion!

[@cheebagardens1759]

I think it’s cool that there is a real artifact called the Sator Square, and the words all mean something in the movie.

[@alexanderandrews1263]

I'm really hoping for Kinds of Kindness or really any other Yorgos film review soon. After your surprisingly negative review of Poor Things I've been curious on how you'd view his other works. Yorgos' surrealist style is so unique I'd be surprised if you didn't find something from his filmography that you don't like.

[@danielbarrero2815]

i love Tenet so much

[@NeedleNose12]

completely agree with Nadia on this one! i did go back and watch it a second time though, and it did not change my opinion.

[@oleksandrbyelyenko435]

Oh, it is so good. I enjoyed it so much

[@MattMcIrvin]

I felt like Nolan's reach exceeded his grasp here--he was making what was otherwise a James Bond-style adventure, adding a science-fiction premise that is *extremely* difficult to handle in a way that makes sense, and trying to push it as far as he could. But the result is that he's got all this lengthy exposition of things that ultimately don't really fit together logically. You're being invited to think hard about them, but the result is that they don't really make sense and the movie would have been better off not giving you that invitation. That was a problem even with Inception but it goes further here. And what makes it worse is that in a movie with so much expository dialogue, the audio mix makes it so hard to hear what people are saying. That's a purely technical defect that really hurts the movie. It's possible that for me it was hurt by an unfair comparison: I had just read a novel, one of the volumes of Greg Egan's Orthogonal trilogy, in which at one point he actually incorporates THIS PREMISE and does it way better than Nolan did.

[@mjjjermaine]

tenet is one of those movies where people who love it realllllllllly love it, and people who hate it realllllllly hate it everyone else - 90% of the population - is just really confused about its existence

[@TagardMC]

There are no men to carry things at Dusk.

[@clairemitch4301]

Really excited for this review!

[@brikkboyz22studiosextra]

The reason the people in the future wanted to go into the past is because the past still had essential resources that the future doesnt have due to climate change and other natural causes. Neil goes back in time because the reason the events in time is the way it is is because certain things need to happen, meaning that it is essentially neil's duty to go back to the past or else the present/future won't be as it is.

[@morpho5539]

The art of the moving picture nothing more nothing less

[@LuisSierra42]

According to Superdeterminism, even though we feel like we make conscious choices, in reality, all that has or will ever happen is already determined by the laws of Quantum mechanics. Tenet leans into that interpretation of physics

[@TheRocksbarney]

Loved this film since opening day - I went to see it twice to understand it and experience it again!!!

[@poposterous236]

It took me awhile to watch Tenet because I thought it was going to be one of those sub-Nolan misfires that happen every now and then. Then I watched it and I have to say... I'm actually quite fascinated by it. I'd still call it a misfire, but its an admirable shot at a very cool concept that, unfortunately, just doesn't work. What's really amazing is how much faith Nolan must have had in the concept only to realize halfway through editing that he just couldn't get it to work. Too many contrivances, plot holes, and it seems to shrink the world that its in while also trying to expand it. A one-on-one fight scene with this concept is rad. An interrogation scene is not. A car chase is cool as hell. The final attack, while full of badass little moments, is logistically impossible. This movie actually stretches what can be done with the medium to the point where it tears. It's wonderful and I treasure it. 3/5

[@langleymneely]

I absolutely love this film! I can understand why and how others don’t like or get the film but the complexity of the film is not nearly as deep or impenetrable as some make it out to be. Like the title the film itself is palindrome crossed with a time looping puzzle. I also love that the main character goes unnamed. A lot of Nolans films get dinged for characters that are not memorable enough for the audience to remember their names so it felt like a weird passive aggressive move to simply refer to him as the Protagonist. Is it a bit pretentious? Yes, but Ive come to expect that from Nolan. His brand of pretentiousness is always used sparingly and in service of other substantive parts of his films.

[@Rizky-Gumilar]

My top 3 Nolan films are The Prestige, Insomnia and TENET

[@Farfaramir]

My problem with the movie is that there are aspect of the movie that I don't mind are complicated. Specially the time going foward or backwards and crossing timelines. That's ok. My problem is with everything that is not time travel related is as convoluted and complicated in a way that feels almost like a shore to watch. Like all the explanation about the painting and all that plan... I have watched this movie and twice and I still have no idea what was the idea behind all of it.

[@lukapetrovic412]

The movie is definitely underrated. It's considered the worst Nolan movie because of the complex plot, but really wouldn't say that it would overwhelm people watching it. It's a great movie

[@EntrEsprit]

the bigger reason is Nolan has a lot of great/better movies, so while this movie is fine it falls somewhere in his bottom 3

[@lukapetrovic412]

@@EntrEsprit I'm fine with that, but people treat it as the worst, not the least good

[@Goatmaster-ek8rq]

I really love it, have watched it 3 to 5 times I think. I don't and I never did find it that convoluted, and honestly I find the mystery and scifi stuff and the plot kinda secondary the the real flesh of the movie: two gorgeous, cool-as-ice hypercompetent guys in suits doing cool stuff in beautiful, lavish places and having a bit of great chemistry. That's Cinema right there. And there's a Call of Duty ass guy who says "cowboy shit". I think it's entirely possible the plot of the movie or the logic of the time travel isn't entirely watertight or coherent: I just don't really interact with this film on that level: for me, the vibes are strong enough to make that stuff kinda incidental.

[@andersongrillo5902]

I love this movie, i love the vibes, i've rewatched it many times. One of the coolest things is, watching this movie the watching the breakdown of the scenes by youtuber Welby CoffeeSpill, then rewatching the movie. To me this movie is a experience.

[@yuuneeq9494]

The film came together for me about halfway through.

[@blr5341]

I've seen Tenet 8+ times. The last time I saw it was with my brothers - two of us know plenty about cinema and love to discuss. We kept pausing the movie to discuss our thoughts and theories and critically engage with it. It was 6 hours before we finished. One of the best movie-watching experiences of my life. If the movie was dumb or made no sense, we wouldn't have been able to do that.

[@thales8153]

I can't believe it's been 4 years already, I watched in the theater

[@ZO6Buccaneer]

Agreed with Man. Love this movie. All the complications show that Nolan trusts the audience. I’ve seen Tenet at least 5 times and still have a great time each viewing, but hard to beat the first time watching some of these insane setpieces trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

[@TimPortantno]

Fun fact: Protagonist(Proto-Agonist) is Greek for First Mover. **Spoilers** He is the first mover of the universe. The universe has a chronological order and a causal order, and his decision at the proving window to save Kat(Schrodinger's Kat) is the first cause of the entire universe, it just happens to be "in the middle" chronologically(since an inverted cause will have effects in the future and past, which will eventually deterministically set the end/start of the universe, and every point in between) instead of the beginning.

[@cine_hazique]

Multiple viewing required to appreciate TENET

[@paulkyle]

Rewatching tenet without subtitles was lots of fun. It's exhilarating. It's viby. It doesn't matter why, when how is fucking awesome.

[@Goatmaster-ek8rq]

You've hit the nail on the head. Yeah, I recall being kinda annoyed by the mixing the first time through, but on repeat watches it just works, even kinda feels like it's that way on purpose.

[@ggadams639]

It's an interesting failed movie. I enjoyed it, but I don't think it was well written.

[@donovanwiebe2495]

One of my favourite movies ever. It takes a few watches to "get it" I guess but really you just have to buy into it and enjoy being in the world. Like Patrick Willems said, it's a vibes movie

[@JamesBorealis]

yes it is underrated

[@Readraid_]

absolutely yes.

[@boat1280]

Tenet is more of a thought experiment than a story and it’s amazing at what it is. The entire film is a temporal pincer movement and once you realize that it comes together, or at least it did for me personally

[@user-kl1ie5ls5f]

Tenet is kinda like a horror movie. Sure, it needs characters and plot, but most of the effort goes toward scaring you. The point of Tenet is to give you the feeling of puzzle solving, just keeping up with the complexity.

[@nemossangeomatrix6841]

For me Tenet is a very "it's cool enough" film. It does lose me in its second half, but i like the ending. On that note, have the two of you seen Primer? Another incomprehensible film that's famous for being a timetravel film that doesn't mess up its own logic. I would be lying if i said i understood it, but it is interesting. It's also only about an hour long.

[@LuisSierra42]

Tenet uses the same time travel principles as Primer but while I couldn't even finish Primer due to my brain being fried, I really liked Tenet because it was more than its concept and the action sequences are really good

[@nestorarranz3179]

Vibes are on point is exactly how i feel about it

[@vivamortua]

The core concept of Tenet is intriguing, and I felt like I understood the overall story well enough. However, as an action movie, I felt like the reversing time concept (while interesting in and of itself) made the action scenes so chaotic that I couldn't follow what was going on a moment to moment basis, which made me feel disengaged with the scene. It's a personal preference, but I like movies with clearer action, like the John Wick series or Jet Li's Fearless. I like Inception much better, because it sets up rules about the dream world that make for interesting, but still comprehensible, action scenes. I also really enjoyed Memento and Interstellar.

[@Syrilian]

I completely agree with the sentiment that this is Nolan's James Bond movie. For me personally, I like it because it doesn't hold your hand whereas I think some of Nolan's mystery box type movies hold your hand too much. I think one thing that makes this movie kind of "confusing" is that people are looking for some deeper meaning that isn't there.

[@hellsapoppin9326]

Has she seen Dark Knight trilogy yet? I remember that was promised in The Batman review years ago

[@JPH1138]

It's interesting that nobody seems to feel the same way I do about Tenet, because I genuinely feel like I get the intent behind it, but that it's all subtext. To me I feel like everything that people think is odd about this film is completely deliberate, and it's an exhaustive deconstruction of action movies as a whole. The Protagonist is nameless because he has no personality, only function. The exposition is actively obscured by the soundtrack because Nolan is telling us that the details of the various heists and schemes are irrelevant, they're just vehicles. The actions of our heroes are circular and run counter to the antagonists who are out to change the timeline and save the world, because ultimately action films are reactionary art that reinforces the importance of cultural norms and the status quo, only here it is taken to a near absurd extreme. It's ultimately the same idea as Inception - in that film Nolan uses all the cinematic tricks to make the emotional climax of that film feel utterly sincere, even though we as the audience know explicitly, in-universe, it is entirely fake. In doing this, he draws attention to the act of cinematic fakery and manipulation, and parallels manufacturing dreams and ideas with filmmaking, immediately before inviting the audience to trick themselves into believing it is real (with the ambiguous last shot of the totem). In Tenet, he uses all of the directors tricks to get us invested in a shallow hero in thrilling action scenes wrapped up in a largely meaningless and self-destructive plot for the same reason. It seems to be less of a success, because overwhelmingly the audience responses seem to focus on untangling the plotlines, but I think it was a great concept.

[@rikiba851]

It is hands down the most egregious example of Nolan's "how annoying is it to struggle to hear?" (that I have seen). And I found it kind of uninteresting. I wouldn't hate it so much if the commentary around it from fans wasn't always people saying that people who dislike it don't understand it. It's really not hard to understand, it's just not actually as exciting as the production quality suggests. Nolan can be truly brilliant, like with Dunkirk, and then other films it's like he needs someone to rein his bullshit in, and that person was on holiday.

[@KenTWOu]

that person is Nolan's brother Jonathan

[@mr.f716]

I think the movie came out at a really cinical time right during the pandemic so that might have given it the mediocre reputation

[@forduhhorde]

Tenet is my favorite movie

[@al_3x912]

I recommend reviewing midsommar

[@RH1812]

Was frustrated by it in the cinema. Have grown to appreciate it on home viewing.

[@vincenthalfprice9930]

Spoiler: This movie is best enjoyed with subtitles. Plot twist: It doesn't really matter what language the subtitles are. The best review I saw for this movie described it as less of a story and more of a vibe.

[@xboneyt485]

Notes for your guys second viewing since I didn't hear it mentioned in the Spoilers section. The villain and Elizabeth Debicki are Neal's parents 🤯

[@EntrEsprit]

Short answer: no Long answer: noooo

[@hugopsousa]

Oh boy... Tenet is like a puzzle missing half its pieces, except the pieces are from different puzzles altogether. It's an exercise in cinematic pretension where time is the plot, and the only thing moving forward is the audience's confusion. The dialogue is as intelligible as a quantum physics lecture underwater, and the story? Well, it must have been lost somewhere in time. Watching it feels like navigating a confusing dream. Thankfully, Nolan woke up from this prototype of a film with a bang afterward.

[@jonasseorum5471]

I think the excessive dialogue and poor acting ability of Washington brings this film a tier down. If Pattison were the lead I think the film would be better, I think we will see him lead a Nolan flick in the future still.

[@rubensjunior8586]

My question with this film is that it has a BANGER concept, but lacks everything else that I like in a film; interesting characters, dialogs, good villains. I think Tenet is very similar to Inception, but Inception is a much better film to me, it develops its concept far better with a better story.

[@KenTWOu]

Inception has much. much. much better MacGuffin too

[@blwkbird5747]

One note that I will make for Nadia is that the movie is not about time travel. Instead it is about changing the entrophy of things aka things going reverse in time. You are not going back to the past, you are just hoping onto the other lane going the other way. I know this does not help much, but i feel it is a big difference after a first watch.Whatever happened already happened.

[@donovanwiebe2495]

I ordered my hot sauce an hour ago!

[@D.S.handle]

lol, the dogos switch places 2:27

[@rodion9238]

Yes it is Thanks for asking, goodbye

[@fireisawesome1466]

Not sure if it is underrated but it is inaudible

[@donovanwiebe2495]

No it's not. People point to the freeport tour scene but that's that's the perfect example of "the dialogue doesn't matter, focus on what's important"

[@user-ly2ll5od1r]

​@@donovanwiebe2495 people seriously thought it was unintentional? Because it was very clearly intentional. It was a fucking montage. Montages usually drown the dialogue and increase the music, that's literally how montages work.

[@hhoi8225]

It's pretty murky audio and it's intentional and it's fine.

[@austinwilwayco]

Such a rewatchable film imo. Doesn’t reach the top tier of movies to me not because of its confusing nature but because of it doesn’t have enough heart and character emotion which Jake alludes to in this video

[@TheJadedJames]

I really liked this movie. But it really shoots itself in the foot with bad exposition. Inception throughly explains its internal logic before the dream heist. But Tenet throws you into the deep end of time travel spy games after only glossing over how the time machines work and how to use them. It’s not really possible to understand the red/blue room scene the first time you see it, because the movie hasn’t really sat you down and told you how a turnstile works. Only AFTER that sequence does the movie demonstrates in a comprehensive way, the methodology of time travel. The final scene is just badly edited. The Protagonist and Kat are in Forward time, but Neil is in backwards time. Editing the sequences simultaneously makes it too confusing. Neil’s perspective should have been shown separately given the nonlinear way he experienced the battle. Neil basically sees the bad guys lay a trap for the Protagonist, so he goes back in time to warn him, is too late, but drives around and rescues the Protagonist from the other end of the tunnel. That simple action is made WAY too difficult to understand through confusing editing

[@Cormac-Hennessy]

I've seen this movie 3 times and my feelings have remained pretty stagnant. I loved Dunkirk and I agree the cold emotionless Nolan is him working in his element but people don't talk nearly as much in Dunkirk. The concepts of time travel and the idea of a war being fought through time is genuinely so intriguing but anytime anyone opens their mouth in Tenet I check out. It is so bogged down with lackluster or entirely absent characterization and some of Nolan's worst dialogue.

[@D.S.handle]

Is Tenet underrated? .si ti ,seY.

[@MyFaveMoviePage]

TENETs biggest issue is it assumes ALL viewers are cinephiles. One DOES need a bit of a "bachelors in movies" to fully grasp the film. There's a ton of film history built into the movie and many people don't see the meta layer that Nolan lays as a foundation for the film. ...It's Heady...

[@smoothbrain4384]

i love to hate to love to hate to love it.

[@eronj5824]

James’ taste and my taste👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

[@Ceaselessprayer]

Isn't the time war plot snatched straight from "Enterprise" Star trek (TV show) w/ -Scott Backala (i may have spelled his name wrong)

[@LeandroCapstick]

Yes.

[@bathsaltshero]

where do u put nolan batman - heart or brain?

[@bharatnair15]

Truly loved the concept, just could not connect with anything else

[@Lifesizemortal]

No Tenet is not "underrated". The movie completely lacks a central focus, concerning itself more with looking valuable (fancy cars, suits, restaurants, vacation spots) in service of endless, inaudible exposition than ever serving its central "backwards time" gimmick in any concise or satisfying way. I have never been so lost watching a movie that confidently found itself up its own rear end.

[@user-friendly-b6q]

Tenet doesn't have to be totally understood, it has to be experienced. Why do people always expect to understand all plots in all movies ?

[@greyeyed123]

I got half way through and couldn't finish. The time logic made no sense, and the movie continually explaining things that clearly don't make sense is annoying. I don't mind if they explain a cool idea. But explaining nonsense just so it can be in the movie is weird.

[@JesseTate]

I hated Tenet. I thought it was legitimately one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Pity because that final farewell with Robert Pattinson was actually reaching for something moving and creative

[@DanLyndon]

It's a bad James Bond plot with gimmicks. The time travel idea is interesting, but it isn't used well.

[@broicy9993]

To answer the titles question yes it is

[@rafaela00002]

Watched this movie for the vibes and had a good time with it

[@LoyaltotheNightsky]

Not great, not terrible. It's aight.

[@maxilater00]

Some of Nolan’s weakest characters in my opinion. Visually very interesting but not as interesting as his other stuff. And the plot and the villain were very similar to what he’s been doing with Batman. Not a fan.It’s crazy to me that this came out right before Oppenheimer. Which I think is his best movie. My opinion.

[@Michalemonkey]

Tenet is bad in almost every way. Watch primer instead.

[@sij809]

No

[@jacobd1984]

?si teneT detarrednU

[@Wing4455]

I think a major point about the timeline is that objects can be stolen and taken from places in the past. So, that would be the purpose of traveling back in time.

[@Wing4455]

atleast I think...the algorithm pieces seem to switch hands multiple times

[@deannickname]

Tenet is a terrible movie and a fantastic movie inserted into opposite ends of a transdimensional nuclear supercollider

[@closeben]

.esrever ni weiver siht dehctaw sdahc laeR

[@douglashesney6134]

No, its not. If anything it's overrated. Maybe the worst performances in any Nolan movie.