When we look back on Christopher Nolan’s career, Tenet is going to be among the easiest movies to forget about altogether. It was released in the middle of the 2020 lockdowns, and as a result, didn’t make a huge impression, even though it led the director to leave his long-time home at Warner Bros. for Universal, where he then immediately won Best Picture for Oppenheimer.
Back in 2020, the word on Tenet when it was released was that, while it had the signature Nolan flair, it was both incredibly complicated and lacked an emotional core. The notion of Nolan as a cold, calculating filmmaker has followed him throughout his career, and it’s at least somewhat earned. He’s arguably a clinical filmmaker, someone who seems to prioritize precision over naked emotion. What’s also true about Nolan’s filmography, though, is that he has long been obsessed with the way time can be played with in the telling of a particular narrative, and Tenet might be the apotheosis of that fascination.
