At the Movies with Joyce And Don

By JOYCE and DON FOWLER
Posted 9/9/20

TENET

**½

(Baffling beyond belief action movie)

We waited all summer for this!

Director Christopher Nolan has given us one of the most baffling, confusing, contrived movies of the …

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At the Movies with Joyce And Don

Posted

TENET  **½

(Baffling beyond belief action movie)

We waited all summer for this!

Director Christopher Nolan has given us one of the most baffling, confusing, contrived movies of the century.

John David Washington plays a CIA spy who barely escaped with his life after taking a magic pill that puts him in a state where time goes forward and backward.

This is not time travel, as we are repeatedly told by a variety of characters, some whom also tell us that we may not “get” everything that is happening.

We didn’t! Even Joyce, the smarter of the two of us.

Washington is referred to the movie audience as the Protagonist. His job is to go forward and backward in time in order to save the world from total destruction.

He is aided by a mysterious character (Robert Patteson) who comes out of nowhere and shows up at the oddest moments.

Kenneth Branagh plays the antagonist, an abusive, scary arms dealer who beats his wife (Elizabeth Debicki) and has developed an intricate (translation: unbelievable) plot to destroy thousands of people who get in his way.

The movie opens with an overwhelming scene at the Kiev Opera House, where the entire audience is put to sleep (for good?) but the Protagonist survives to save the world.

There’s lots of noise as planes crash into buildings, cars chase each other forwards and backwards, soldiers battle in remote places with bullets flying backwards and forwards … and that’s only half of it.

This all goes on for 2½ hours with occasional pauses where characters tell each other and the audience that it all may be beyond human comprehension.

The movie is rated PG-13, presumably to attract the younger action movie crowd who will have to sit through a bunch of gobbledygook to see it.

movies, Tenet

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