Tenet
Tenet is the newest movie by acclaimed director, Christopher Nolan (Inception, The Dark Knight, Interstellar) and stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki as they embark on a globe-spanning, time-bending mission to prevent the start of World War III.
As both the first blockbuster film in theatres after a period of shutdown and also Nolan's next movie, expectations for Tenet were impossibly high. With my own expectations a little lowered after initial reviews, I still found Tenet to be a cold, confusing and dense film albeit a technically masterful one at that.
Tenet's central sci-fi premise, of time running backwards or 'inversion', is one that is instantly iconic and demonstrates why Nolan continues to be a master of intelligent blockbuster film-making. No doubt Inversion will enter pop culture vernacular in the same way that 'inception' did. The integration of the concept with action is incredibly fresh and exciting; it's clear that a lot of work went into conceptualising each sequence and executing the stunts as well.
Many people will declare the concept of inversion as being the most confusing part of the film and whilst it is undoubtedly complex, it is actually the basic plot that left me the most bewildered. Characters are introduced suddenly, spouting exposition before we understand who they are. Scenes progress to the next before we understand why. The awful sound mixing, which leaves lots of dialogue drowned under the score and diegetic noises, does not help matters. After watching a few 'explainer' videos, things have become understandable but the clearly edited down scenes and rapid exposition was incredibly frustrating for a first time watch.
Though the plot is messy and the characters are paper thin, the action is where the film truly shines for its sheer originality and spectacle. We see the 'forward' running and inverted timelines, often in the same frame, and Nolan's tendency towards practical rather than visual effects makes this all the more impressive to watch. Bullets flying back into guns, reverse car crashes and two inverted armies are jaw-dropping visuals (boosted by the work of Nolan's current go to cinematographer, Hoyte van Hoytema) in combination with the ever blaring score...
As a film score fan, I am really enjoying listening to Ludwig Goransson's incredible score for Tenet. My favourite tracks in the album so far are: FREEPORT, FOILS, INVERSION, THE ALGORITHM and POSTERITY.
After thinking on the film some more, my admiration for its ambition is growing, however moment-to-moment this is a frustrating movie to watch with barely anything to offer outside of exposition. As a massive fan of Christopher Nolan, I can see that he has dialled up all of his usual tropes, both good and bad, which results in an ambitious, visually stunning vehicle for exposition.
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
I'm Thinking of Ending Things is the latest movie by writer and director Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and stars Jessie Buckley as a young woman who travels with her new boyfriend, played by Jesse Plemons, to his parents' secluded farm. It is available to watch on Netflix.
Before I share any of my thoughts, it is worth saying that this is a film that is best experienced knowing as little as possible.
I'm Thinking of Ending Things left me...thinking... about it for quite some time after I finished it. During the film itself, I felt as though its trajectory was constantly evolving, leaving me feeling unsettled and off-kilter. As you begin to piece together the various hints as to what the story is truly about, the real message of the film starts to become more powerful and, as the title may suggest, more bleak.
Overall, I thought the movie started to tail off dramatically in its pacing as it progressed. Though I loved the unconventional editing and visuals, some scenes stepped too far into the area of being pretentious for me to really connect with it, and this massively dragged down my overall enjoyment. Having said that, the performances, visuals and subtext were all so bizarre and fascinating that I never felt completely bored (apart from during a few monologues, most notably when we have to listen to a really, really long poem.)
Everyone will have their own interpretations of the story (which is what makes this, in some ways, the anti-Tenet) but I have shared my own thoughts in the spoiler section below.
My interpretation of the film - SPOILER WARNING
I'm Thinking of Ending Things is a film full of deliberate continuity errors and dreamlike logic, giving the entire movie a 'stream of consciousness' type style. And that is exactly what I think it is. Though we see everything through the young woman's perspective, the flash-forwards to the old janitor (an older version of Jake) indicates that everything we see is actually about him. Jessie Buckley's ever-changing name (Lucy, Louisa, Amy) and backstory might indicate her being an amalgamation of different women in Jake's life. Alternatively, she might represent an aspect of Jake's own personality.
I believe that her love of art, poetry and film directly reflects Jake's own passions, passions that he was never able to share with his well-meaning but emotionally unavailable parents. This inability to express himself creatively and intellectually is demonstrated several times throughout the film but most notably during his imagined Noble prize acceptance speech where he dreams of finally being seen.
Jake's reality as a lonely janitor, looking on at the youth of the students around him, contrasts with his imagined relationship with his girlfriend, where his unfulfilled artistic and intellectual potential is able to be vocalised and debated. Having said that, his cynicism also manifests its way through Lucy, seen in the conversation where she brutally critiques a movie that he loves. This felt like a really powerful and accurate depiction of depression, where even the things you love can be broken down in a pessimistic way.
Interestingly, this is a movie that plays with time like Tenet, but unlike that film there is no rhyme or reason to the chronology in I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Everything in the story can be seen as fragments of Jake's own life and the idea of time is even discussed amongst the characters themselves whilst in the car.
In my mind, this film depicts Jake's final day on earth before he 'ends things'. His drive to his parents' farm, picking up an ice-cream which melts and then finally ending up in his old high school where he thinks over his life and then dies alone in the cold.
Though both films left me a little unfulfilled in different ways, I really admire both for their sheer originality and ambition. This was my 99th post, so to find out when I post my 100th article, where I compile a list of my 100 favourite movies, follow me on Twitter (@filmdomblog) or Instagram (cinematicwallflower).
I do not own any of the images used in this post.
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