Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is back in theaters — and still a masterpiece

The world wasn’t ready for Tenet when it was originally released in 2020. That’s both literally true — it was the middle of the pandemic — and spiritually true, because people were still so hung up on the idea of Christopher Nolan as a puzzle-box filmmaker who wanted his movies solved. But now that people are starting to head back to theaters, and Oppenheimer has clued audiences in to Nolan’s earnestness, maybe it’s finally time to appreciate Tenet for the vibey friendship-movie masterpiece it is. With the movie heading back into theaters on Feb. 23 for a one-week revival, there’s no better time for the reevaluation to begin.

From the very first moments in the Kyiv Opera, Tenet feels like a kick in the teeth in the best possible way. It’s big, loud, and emphatically kinetic. John David Washington’s intense physicality, running and sliding through the back rooms of the opera house, gives the movie an instant rush of forward momentum. Meanwhile, Nolan gives all this movement energy, with crashing edits that make the movie feel like it’s bouncing off walls, and an agile camera that’s game to keep up with his actors’ intense pace and chase them down when it has to.

All of this comes through on home viewings of the movie, but it’s amplified into a magical, perfectly overwhelming experience when seen in a theater. This is due in no small part to the excellent score by past Black Panther and future Oppenheimer composer Ludwig Göransson. Tenet’s score is a high-water mark for action blockbusters: It lends the movie mood, atmosphere, and tension so the script doesn’t have to. In fact, contrary to the confusion many viewers felt when the film was released, Tenet might actually play best and most simply as a silent movie. It’s an action epic that needs no further explanation than its exceptional score provides. And hearing that score blasted through IMAX speakers is unquestionably more effective than letting it chirp through a TV.

Seen through that lens, it’s much easier to accept that Tenet isn’t something you solve, like an overly complicated puzzle. It’s an experience you have, letting the action, movement, and music wash over you.

None of this is to say that you have to turn off your brain to enjoy Tenet, or that it has no worthwhile themes, or even that its complexities can’t be understood or explained. Tenet is full of worthwhile themes, they just don’t have much to do with the complicated plot. The movie itself outlines this in its final moments when Neil (Robert Pattinson) explains to the Protagonist (Washington) that they haven’t been having the same journey. “For me, I think this is the end of a beautiful friendship,” he says. The Protagonist, suddenly grasping the whole plot, says “But for me, it’s just the beginning?”

That’s it, that’s Tenet!

You can certainly rewatch the movie and find the little nuances of its time-travel mechanics, or see the elegant messages about survival and desperation. But most of what you’ll get on a rewatch is a very heartfelt movie about friendship. The little moments that will stand out most are ones where a friend desperately, carefully tries to care for someone and guide them, without letting the other person know it’s happening. It’s really that simple. Tenet is just a buddy-cop movie masquerading as something much more complicated.

Photo: Melinda Sue Gordon/Warner Bros.

This kind of misunderstanding is common across almost all of Christopher Nolan’s movies. Films like The Prestige and Inception are frequently discussed as complicated acts of deception and misdirection, when in reality, they’re mostly stories about things like obsession. Nolan himself finally decided to make that explicitly clear with Interstellar, a complex movie about science and survival where the ultimate message is Love was the answer the whole time. That’s who Nolan is: a deeply earnest filmmaker who launders his emotions through science, action, and mystery.

But all of this is what makes Tenet so great. Nolan’s film is full of style, complex fight scenes, intricate heists, and gorgeous set-pieces, but it’s also the biggest and most expensive hangout movie of all time. It’s a good-vibes action-blockbuster about saving the world with your best friend, who would travel through time to get the chance to hang out with you just a little more. And now that Tenet is coming back to theaters, people can stop trying to solve it, scrubbing through every frame on Max looking for the right answers, and finally sit down in front of the biggest, loudest screen they can and just enjoy it.

Tenet returns to theaters on Feb. 23 for one week. Where possible, it will be shown in 70mm IMAX, IMAX Digital, or Standard 70mm screening presentations. Warner Bros. reports that these screenings will include “exclusive footage from Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two.”