PAPA NOL∀N'S TENƎꓕ | August 26 internationally. September 2 "in select US cities" | 75% on RT after 228 reviews

[MrPink]

1 minute ago, TMP said:

Out of every movie star, why Dwayne??

 

Dwayne Johnson and John David Washington star in Nolan's next film: 

 

Ballers: The Movie

[Jonwo]

8 minutes ago, reddevil19 said:

I think, as much as time is clearly the most important idea and theme for a lot of his movies, another one of his go-to themes seems to be STORY, or the craft itself of creating a story and/or film-making itself. You see that in The Prestige, in Inception, and now here, but with Tenet, it's done to an absurd level, where you do feel like it should be far more self-aware and open with its knowing winks to the audience. Having "protagonist" and "antagonist" as actual terms in the movie is soooo on-the-nose that you feel like it MUST not be taking itself seriously. Which, unfortunately, it is...

 

I will just say there were a few moments there ("SIR Michael", or the code word as it relates to RPatz's previous most famous role) where I was like...that would work so much better if the whole thing was a Fast & Furious style insane ride, rather than such a "serious" movie. And it's made worse by the fact that you can SEE JDW and Rob having the charisma and chemistry to pull off a more light-hearted adventure that still has clever twists.

 

I do hope Nolan will learn from this.

Oddly, I find that his brother Jonah Nolan is able to pull off concepts that are a bit ridiculous on paper like Person of Interest and to an extent Westworld.

 

 

[redfirebird2008]

1 hour ago, reddevil19 said:

I will add one more thing. Assuming Nolan doesn't want to direct someone else's script - I believe his next should be an adaptation of sorts. Yes, yes, we celebrate him for being the champion of non-franchise cinema. However, I think Tenet signals the potential of him getting lost in the same couple of ideas and themes, with everything sacrificed to that, including character. I think the next one should be smaller and have characters with some substance to them (which I can't see him doing in an original script atm). Give me something in the spirit of The Prestige, please.

 

If not that... gimme a huge ancient period historical epic.

 

The Prestige might be his best movie. I don’t think we will see him go back to that scale until WB stops giving him the bigger budgets. 

[wildphantom]

going to be such a range of opinions for sure. 
 

i thought it had several sequences that were just as wow as the hallway sequence in Inception, and I definitely felt the euphoria I did with that movie. More from the sheer discovery of the construction of it where I felt like I was watching something brand new. 
 

There’ll be as many repeat viewings as there are people who won’t want to invest the time in those. Yet for those that love unpacking these mind-benders Nolan comes up with, its special stuff. 
 

One review I read put it rather aptly....
 

“to point out Tenet has flaws feels ungrateful. It’s like slagging off Santa”

We’re all going to decide where it fits in our overall Nolan rankings in time, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t twice as good as all the other summer movies of 2020 we didn’t get to see. 
 

If anybody else had made this film, it would have been greeted like the second coming. That’s the way expectations go with a Nolan joint I guess! 

[wildphantom]

48 minutes ago, Maggie said:

For those who've seen it.. How much do you think Tenet would have done in normal circumstances (no pandemic)

In the states? $250-280 million. 
about what inception did with a bigger start. 

[Jonwo]

14 minutes ago, redfirebird2008 said:

 

The Prestige might be his best movie. I don’t think we will see him go back to that scale until WB stops giving him the bigger budgets. 

I think if WB were to stop giving him bigger budgets, he'd simply go to another studio as I'm sure Universal, Sony or Paramount would greenlight one of his films, look at how Tarantino managed to get massive interest for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

[Lucas]

55 minutes ago, Maggie said:

Nolan's movies are mostly sci-fi and/or action. I can somehow understand why his characters may seem cold. But his choice in doing Dunkirk with characters so detached was...well...a choice. The movie was an adrenaline rush, but you couldn't get attached to any character. I think he wanted to make something different than all the war movies we got, but i still don't know if i like it

 

Tenet dropped to 8.2 on imdb. 

I think it works very well in Dunkirk and it helps a lot that it's merely 100 minutes long, Tenet is pulling the same level of character work and yet it's trying to get away with 2 and a half hours.

[Eric Atreides]

49 minutes ago, MrPink said:

 

Dwayne Johnson and John David Washington star in Nolan's next film: 

 

Ballers: The Movie

Now that's worth dying for.

[Lucas]

50 minutes ago, reddevil19 said:

I think, as much as time is clearly the most important idea and theme for a lot of his movies, another one of his go-to themes seems to be STORY, or the craft itself of creating a story and/or film-making itself. You see that in The Prestige, in Inception, and now here, but with Tenet, it's done to an absurd level, where you do feel like it should be far more self-aware and open with its knowing winks to the audience. Having "protagonist" and "antagonist" as actual terms in the movie is soooo on-the-nose that you feel like it MUST not be taking itself seriously. Which, unfortunately, it is...

A lot of the time for me it comes across like Nolan is a guy very interested in stories about storytelling, but has nothing to say about it. Inception feeling like it boils down dream logic into mathematics when it should be showing us the power of creating the unthinkable, and his level of creativity comes down to "you must not be afraid to dream a little bigger darlig" - a slightly bigger gun. Tenet though I feel falls apart significantly more on these levels, I agree with you on the weird lack of self-awareness to all these goofy concepts. It's not made any better when ---

Spoiler

all the "clever rug-pulls" the movie has... is the same one pulled over and over again. It's a the same answer for each one. Who was Washington fighting at the airport? Himself. Who did Debicki see jump off the boat? Herself. Who was driving that car Washington saw? Himself. Who does Washington work for? Himself. The mysterious person with a red string that Washington saw? The only other prominent character he's been working with this whole time. By the second rug-pull I just knew all of them would turn out to be a character we knew, and the movie had nothing beyond that.

 

I'm still not sure what the movie is trying to say about Nolan's go-to theme of story, but frustratingly I'm not interested enough to care this time. I wasn't the biggest fan of Interstellar, but I got it on the first (and so far only) viewing and could appreciate what it was going for.

[redfirebird2008]

48 minutes ago, Jonwo said:

I think if WB were to stop giving him bigger budgets, he'd simply go to another studio as I'm sure Universal, Sony or Paramount would greenlight one of his films, look at how Tarantino managed to get massive interest for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

 

Disney has Alan Horn, the guy who greenlit Batman Begins, TDK, Inception. 

[DAJK]

This is selling insanely well tonight, way better than I would have expected given the pandemic. Now, I don't know how much of this demand has to do with it being the first "real" new movie (sorry Unhinged) since March, and how much of this demand would have existed pre-pandemic.

[WittyUsername]

So, is this movie basically the stereotype of what detractors say Christopher Nolan movies are, that being that they’re cold and self-serious, and are all around confusing? 

[Borobudur]

3 hours ago, DAJK said:

This is selling insanely well tonight, way better than I would have expected given the pandemic. Now, I don't know how much of this demand has to do with it being the first "real" new movie (sorry Unhinged) since March, and how much of this demand would have existed pre-pandemic.

How can this translate into long run?

[DeeCee]

Time to watch Tenet for the very second time. 

[DAJK]

1 hour ago, Borobudur said:

How can this translate into long run?

Imma do a post in the tracking thread

[Juby]

Sow it yesterday. For me it's the weakest from all Christopher Nolan's films. Visually great, action and tension are fine, but the characters (excepts amazing Pattinson and good Debicki) are weak, the story is too convoluted, and the sci-fi concept is very confusing. Watching fights and chases scenes was great, but all the rest very tiresome (even dialog scene, like with Michael Caine). I also don't like the music (or whatever this sounds are). 6/10

 

I don't think it would be a huge hit. Even pre-pandemic i can't imagine Inception numbers. Incetpion was larger, more entertaining, more satisfying. I don't think people would wont to see it for the second, third time, as they did with Inception.

[DeeCee]

This is fantastic the second time. It’s not that I didn’t follow it the first time but knowing what happens allows you to appreciate the whole much better. 

[reddevil19]

31 minutes ago, DeeCee said:

This is fantastic the second time. It’s not that I didn’t follow it the first time but knowing what happens allows you to appreciate the whole much better. 

Gonna try and book a second viewing in the next few days. I'm curious how it holds up as well.

[The Gotham Bank]

I saw it last night, my 6pm showing had around 50% of available seats sold, but the next one was fully sold out when I left the theater. I can't wait to see it again, it's not Nolan's best movie ( more like in the middle ) but I'll be damned if it's not the best blockbuster we are getting this year. People who complain too much about it can go watch Project Power or shit like that in the comfort of their homes, I'm watching this at least 3 times in the theater, it's a blast.

[reddevil19]

11 minutes ago, The Gotham Bank said:

the best blockbuster we are getting this year

I mean... Seeing as I think Tenet's potential failure will push everything to 2021, sure?