“You need to rewatch it to get it” can be either a promise or a threat. It’s satisfying to let a movie pull one over on you, then study how all the pieces were put into place; there’s a good reason Knives Out was constantly credited with “revitalizing” the whodunnit. But when setting up the board gets in the way of character and story, all the rewatches and explainers in the world won’t pump blood through a stone heart.
That brings us to Tenet, Christopher Nolan’s most Christopher Nolanest movie. Nolan’s reputation for putting technical spectacle ahead of human emotion is often unfair, but Tenet split audiences, then set them to arguing online. Some viewers remain baffled by it, while “Oh, did people not get Tenet? Are they just not as smart as me?” is now a humblebrag microgenre. But five years after its release, it’s easier to examine Tenet on merits rather than comprehensibility, and unfortunately, it’s found wanting.
