I am warning you there are spoilers in this article. The recent Christopher Nolan film Tenet was released on September 3, 2020. Christopher Nolan films are very methodically thought out and provide new visionary productions. I personally would define this film as Art more than Entertainment. The reason I would define it as Art is because of the progression and degree of creativity put into it. The angst that you feel lasts throughout the whole two hours and 30 minutes of the movie. Many of the characters in this story intertwine in a way that helps correlate in the Art of the film. This film is based around the characters The Protagonist (John David Washington), Neil (Robert Pattinson), Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), Sator (Kenneth Branagh), and special appearance Michael Caine playing Crosby.  

The Protagonist is the main character in this film who later gains new friends and a vile enemy. Neil is The Protagonist’s new partner in the field of discovering what “inverted” is and how to possibly stop it. On the road to understanding what “inverted” is, characters Kat and Sator are introduced. Kat is a woman who was stuck in a marriage to the controlling Sator. Sator is the conniving vile bad guy character in the film. The destruction that has occurred in the chase to find Sator and his weapon leads to the understanding of “inverted”. Being “inverted” is the process of traveling back in time but you are going backwards in it. Many of the scenes in the movie show objects, bullets, cars, or even people moving backwards which means they were “inverted”. One of the coolest scenes is when you see The Protagonist fighting a person in a mask and almost killing them. That is the first scene you see slowly how “inverted” works. He’s fighting a man but the man is going backwards. Later on, you find out it’s his future self trying to save others but runs into his “younger self”. I will say when I was watching it, I called it saying he was fighting himself. At the time I didn’t understand how that would work but I knew it had to be himself but from the future. The brilliant mind of Christopher Nolan showed both sides of living in an “inverted” world or even a moment. Revealing scenes forwards and backwards in time of fight scenes, car chases, and missions. 

A more educational way of defining this movie as art is to qualify in a few categories such as; makes us think, self-examination, and another point of view. 

1. Makes us think: 

Tenet definitely makes you think. The whole movie I was on alert the whole time. Trying to watch every scene to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Later on when you see the same scenes but as “inverted” you understand why certain things happen. The whole week after watching it with my dad and brother we were still talking about it. Trying to describe the actions that occurred versus what happened while they were “inverted”. Christopher Nolan does a phenomenal job of creating a space for the audience to wonder and try to understand the films. 

1. Self-Examination:

I really think this movie helps show the progression a person has in their life and how actions we take now affect ones later. If The Protagonist never was a part of the CIA he would have never been able to “pass the test”. The Protagonist’s actions of showing loyalty to the CIA lead him to be later a part of an organization called Tenet. Later in the film you find out The Protagonist created the organization but in the future. Being a part of this new organization he meets Neil and discovers the mystery of “inverted”. Being a part of this new organization, The Protagonist understands his actions have a cost and can understand his own motives to help others. You also see the growth in other characters that become part of the Tenet “team” to help stop Sator from destroying the world. 

1. Another point of view:

This movie definitely shows another viewpoint in many ways. The whole story is based around going back in time or forwards even to change things. The perspective of moments and events throughout the movie are seen in two different ways as well as other’s viewpoints. I mentioned before this film was methodically thought out- and very well. 

This movie by far has been the most incredible movie put together. Brilliantly put together to defy the normality of movie production. I am very eager to see the next Christopher Nolan movie – one of his older films Inception is almost similar to Tenet.  I like to describe Nolan’s films as “The Bending of the Mind Movies”. His work seems very futuristic and unexplainable.