in which I finally get my head around ‘Tenet’ (spoiler: it wasn't difficult)
the few things that happened at Flick Filosopher between Monday, February 1st, and Sunday, February 7th, 2021
At long last, Tenet. As big a fan as I’ve been of the filmmaker, I absolutely refused to see Christopher Nolan’s latest would-be brain-buster the way he insisted we should: in multiplexes — see it in IMAX! — during a pandemic of an airborne deadly virus.
I mean. Dude. Come on.
Anyway, when I finally saw the film at home, I was massively underwhelmed. I actually watched it three times while I was pondering what to write, thinking that I surely must have missed something. Not missed anything in the plot, which is supposedly so byzantine that it has demanded multiple explainers (it really isn’t). No, I was certain that I must have missed what has impressed so many of my critical colleagues as well as a huge chunk of the audience. But now, at this point, I’m pretty sure that I didn’t miss anything there, either.
I wish I could erase my memory of the movie so that when I go see the inevitable future IMAX release of Tenet, I can ascertain whether my initial reaction would have been different if my first viewing had been on a huge screen. I kinda doubt it, because apart from one scene in which a commercial freight plane crashes into an airport terminal building — which wasn’t done with FX; Nolan actually crashed a real plane — the movie doesn’t look so spectacular that I am all that eager for an IMAX viewing. Which is probably a good thing, since that’s likely not going to be safe to do till maybe late 2022 at the earliest.
I hate this timeline. If I could invert time to undo it, I absolutely would.
—MaryAnn
new at flick filosopher, Feb 01–07
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, US/Can, Feb 02–05
Ethan Hawke plays visionary inventory Nikola Tesla in an unusual biopic; more… [get the full rundown]
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, UK/Ire, Feb 01–05
A human-scaled Gerard Butler stars in a familiar but nevertheless engaging end-of-the-world drama; more… [get the full rundown]
Tenet movie review: I have no time for it [pictured]
John David Washington and Robert Pattinson have palpable charisma, but this cold puzzle offers no incentive to solve it. Throw in damsel-in-distress crap, and both my geek sensibilities and my feminism are offended. [read the review | streaming US/Can/UK, see review for links]
Tweet of the week…
(You can find my review of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm here, in case you missed it. It’s streaming globally on Amazon Prime.)
coming up at Flick Filosopher…
reviews this week I really pinky promise:
Pixar’s latest, Soul
documentary My Rembrandt
drama Cowboys, starring Steve Zahn
sci-fi Bliss, on Amazon Prime in the US
documentary A Glitch in the Matrix
maybe some more if I can get my ass in gear…