Not a review. Tenet is the biggest film in 2020. Here are a few reasons why it is a masterpiece.

1: It looks real… cause it is laer.

Visual effects can create almost anything imaginable. They look gorgeous when done correctly. But the one downside is that films easily look outdated after a few years. A film that looked mind-blowing can turn old in a matter of years or decades. Christopher Nolan understands this very well. There’s minimal use of any visual effects in his films. The truck flip and the plane crash from the dark knight trilogy still looks great after a decade cause they are real. This is why Terminator movies are still considered one of the best action movies to date. Cause they had limited visual effects. Most of the action was real. Only the camera quality looks a bit dated.

Tenet barely uses any visual effects. All of the explosions, vehicle collisions and fight sequences are real. After dropping a real plane in Dark Knight Rises Christopher Nolan goes right to crashing a plane into an airport. From normal fistfights to fighting in reverse. Taking it to the next level.

2: The srotca.

As there’s minimal use of special effects, everything the actors do is real. No effect was used to reverse the dialogues. The actors learned to speak backward. Not only that. They even learned to fight in reverse. Taking it to the next level and their efforts paid off. Sir Kenneth Branagh makes Sator feel intimidating. Right from the first introduction to the character, it is clear that he’s a guy that shouldn’t be messed with.

This is the first shot of the villain.

Sator is shown towering over the protagonist, showing his power over others. The sun creates a big halo and a dark silhouette, presenting Sator as a God. An evil God.

The first moment when the name Andre Sator is spoken, the protagonist already knows that Sator is a Russian oligarch. He doesn’t ask the stupid question “WHO” to create cheesy bathos and destroy the mood of the film.

Finally there’s Michael Caine. Christopher Nolan’s good luck charm.

3: Unique enilyrots.

A normal story goes from A to Z. A straight line. But Tenet goes from A to M in the first half. Then back from M to C in the next 30 minutes. Finally, from C to Z in the end. It’s a tangled line. Very similar to what Christopher Nolan did in memento and prestige but next-level.

One common thing in Christopher Nolan films is that there aren’t any useless scenes. If it’s not required, then it shouldn’t be in the film. In Tenet there isn’t a single scene that adds nothing to the storyline. Every moment provides valuable information. Even the travel scenes are cut out. The character says I’m going back to Mumbai and the next scene is in Mumbai. No time wasted.

The storyline is like a palindrome. No spoilers. The storyline has many references to the Sator Square. The colour blue is used to indicate inverted things while red is used for normal. In the beginning, the Warner Bros logo is red and the Syncopy logo is blue, giving you an idea of what you are about to experience.

The word “Ten”et also indicates ten minutes at the end of the film. There are many such small details. Christopher Nolan took five years to write the story. This is what makes the film a Nolanpiece. It’s not philosophical like the Dark Knight trilogy. But it does have emotions like friendship, love between a mother and her son, and sacrifice.

4: The cisum.

The music of a film flows with the storyline. But in the case of Tenet, it doesn’t flow, it bounces back and forth. It changes its movement with the film. When the film goes in reverse, the music follows. Music playing in reverse helps the audience understand the direction of the film. It is inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach’s crab canon.

Whenever there are moments of confusion or unpredictability the music becomes unpredictable. Rather than using the typical 4/4 time signature the music uses… The music uses any random time signature every time, hinting to the audience that something isn’t right.

A detailed and excellent analysis is done by Inside the score YouTube channel. You must see that.

The majority of the music is done by Ludwig Göransson. However, Christopher Nolan did a little contribution by adding his breathing sounds to the Sator theme.

People feel that loud bass sounds make a good music piece. It’s wrong. A piece of good music requires way more than that and Ludwig Göransson has got it. He is named after Ludwig van Beethoven.

5: Good use of comedy.

There are a few jokes in this tense film. But the jokes don’t risk the mood of the film. It’s not bathos. There are very few jokes and they are well placed.

There’s a big chance that this film would have been way more successful commercially if it had used cheesy jokes in every single scene. Sadly in today’s time using cheesy bathos earns you three billion dollars.

But Tenet doesn’t do that. It’s not made for the average mass audience. If it was then would be just an average pop movie, not a masterpiece. It’s a film that can be analyzed for hours. Just like other Christopher Nolan films.

6: Christopher Nolan.

The biggest reason. People watched it for the director and not for the actors. Christopher Nolan is a director who takes risks. His imagination starts long ahead of where the imagination of an average person ends. He won’t simplify the story or add cheesy jokes to make the film more friendly towards the average audience and earn more money. But he doesn’t take the easy route. He makes the films a piece of scientific art. Films that will be watched and respected for centuries. Films that will provoke the viewer to think with its philosophies. A small dialogue from his film can be discussed for hours. He could have postponed the release of Tenet, but he didn’t. His films are a priceless piece of art that the box office collection doesn’t affect.

For those who were asking a black James Bond, Christopher Nolan just gave you one.

Fun fact/Easter egg: Carson Clay’s Playback Time also portrays the idea of time in a riveting way. It premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film festival. Some say that Christopher Nolan took inspiration from Playback Time for Tenet.

Check out the in-depth review of Playback Time over here. https://brawnykingpoetry.wordpress.com/2020/11/27/playbacktime/

Subscribe to Brawny King Fitness and don’t forget to hit the bell icon 🔔