Pillbox

Tenet movie review: It is bad, like really bad

By Sujay Utkarsh  |  Sep 13, 2020
Tenet is about a secret agent attempting to stop World War Three, but with a Christopher Nolan movie, we always have to ask, "Is it really about anything?" (credit: Julie Lee/Art Editor) Tenet is about a secret agent attempting to stop World War Three, but with a Christopher Nolan movie, we always have to ask, "Is it really about anything?" (credit: Julie Lee/Art Editor)

Despite the odds stacked against it, I would like to congratulate Tenet for becoming the savior of entertainment in 2020. Having made $152 million worldwide so far on a budget of $225 million, it’s certainly the best case scenario for the 2020 movie experience. Christopher Nolan has expressed how much he would like to give up his life to saving film and preserving the theater experience, and it’s clear he would like us to give up our lives, too.

They say art is a reflection of the time it’s made in. In our confusing and unprecedented times, Tenet strives to give you an experience reflective of just that. Nolan’s brilliant writing also offers another feature of our 2020 pandemic time: not caring at all about anyone or anything because of how confused and overwhelmed we are by what’s going on.

The more I’m thinking about this, the more I’m starting to realize that Nolan must have invented time travel. There is simply no way that a movie’s plot can be so confusing yet feel so prescient for our times other than if he inverted time back to make this movie. After all, he was very insistent on releasing the movie during this pandemic despite all odds.

Wait, I get it.

Maybe World War III is finally going to happen later this year and Nolan gave us the key to stopping it with this movie. That’s what the puzzle box in this movie is about. Guys, he’s given us the key to stopping the next war, and it’s up to us to crack the film’s plot and physics so that we can understand what to do.

I’ve looked through dozens of articles online now trying to make sense of it all, but it seems like we’re all at our wit’s end. Nolan believes in us to understand him, and we can’t let him down. The man is too smart for us all, and despite impossible expectations, we must live up to them. If he has to live up to those expectations, why don’t we?

Mr. Nolan, I don’t know if you’re reading this or if you already have read this, but know that I will do all I can to understand your art. It keeps me up at night, knowing that a man so powerful like you is, was, or will be out there. Your art is the key to our lives. We are not worthy of you, and if we succeed, you will become a god for all of time.