Tenet (2020)

Christopher Nolan doesn't seem to have directed any unpopular features, and this was one of the more profitable of the (infamously off) year. But I haven't encountered people discussing it much, and its IMDb rating is relatively low for him, so I hesitated to watch. The 150-minute runtime didn't tempt me either. Only a Netflix notice that it would stop streaming at the end of the year prioritized it for me.

Like in Looper, the time machine hasn't been invented "yet," but its effects can already be seen. Unlike in Looper, it doesn't just send things back; it can send things backwards. Even inanimate objects behave differently that way, as by falling upward to be caught by a "dropper." The curiously unnamed protagonist (John David Washington), a CIA agent, comes across such effects on a mission and is then made privy to a still more secretive agency, Tenet (clearly named just for the palindrome), that tries to use time travel for the greater good. He and recruiter Neil (Robert Pattinson) are among a globe-hopping team out to neutralize the forces of the world's most dangerous time traveler, Russian oligarch Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh).

I might give Nolan credit for not killing any wives or girlfriends this time, but he comes close. The main woman is Kat Barton (Elizabeth Debicki), Sator's abused British wife, who will gladly work with the heroes. Truly, Sator rivals Heath Ledger's Joker in villainy, without being nearly as much fun.

Yes, I'm skimping on details, partly to avoid spoilers and partly because it's one of the harder Nolan stories to follow, and that's saying something. I don't think I've quite put all the pieces together. But you don't have to finish a jigsaw puzzle to get the gist. I even predicted a couple twists. That's not a complaint; it's a sign of artistic integrity bordering on inevitability.

Speaking of which, naturally, the question of fate comes up. I never got the impression that characters had lost their self-control or common sense like at the end of 12 Monkeys; decisions make enough sense when I think about them. Questions of time travel-based ethics, however, remain up in the air.

If the mental exercise involved in the dialogue isn't your jam, you may still enjoy the PG-13 action. Many warped sequences aren't made as simply as by filming in reverse; just picture a melee with an inverted opponent. Physics geeks would have a field day either commending or dissing every aspect.

Perhaps most impressive of all is how the 150 minutes flew by. By the climax, I thought, "Wait, we're near the end already?" Perhaps I really craved the stimulation.

I won't say I love Tenet, but it does a lot of things well. Give it a go when you have the time.