Movie Advent Calendar #08 – Tenet

Don’t try to understand it.

In 2012 I did a cinematic advent calendar of twenty four films. These were films that I really liked and have enjoyed at the cinema. This year on a similar theme I will be posting a movie advent calendar of twenty four movies.

I heard a lot about this film being unwatchable, or needed repeated viewings, so I didn’t make the effort to go and see it at the cinema.

The film follows a former CIA agent who learns how to manipulate the flow of time to prevent an attack from the future that threatens to annihilate the present world.

This is both a film about traveling through time and a film that isn’t about time travel.

I actually really enjoyed the film and did think it was relatively easy to follow. I did have to focus on the film, this is not a film you can multi-task with. The scenes which are “repeated” are clever and sometimes I did struggle to understand who was who and what was going on, but I think that was intentional by the writer and director. The film certainly also benefited from a repeat viewing.

Christopher Nolan does an excellent job in directing the film and the look and feel, and direction of Tenet, did remind me of another film Nolan directed, Inception in some ways.

I thought John David Washington was excellent in the lead role. How his character develops across the film is really engaging, you find out more about what is happening, just as his character does.

Overall I enjoyed this film, much more so than I thought I would. At one point I was going to not watch it after reading some of the reviews, but I am glad I did.

Get Tenet at Amazon.

Movie Advent Calendar #01 – Inception

“So… how did we end up at this restaurant?”

In 2011 I did a musical advent calendar that I posted to Google+ (remember that) and a final summary on this blog.

In 2012 I did a cinematic advent calendar of twenty four films. These were films that I really liked and have enjoyed at the cinema.

In 2019 I did a televisual advent calendar of twenty four television programmes. These were television programmes that I really liked and have enjoyed watching.

This year on a similar theme I will be posting a movie advent calendar of twenty four movies. It is in no particular order and I make no apologies for the movies that I am blogging about. These movies have either made me think, I have enjoyed or have had some impact on me. I should point out that these do not replace those in the cinematic advent calendar, these are additions to that list.

Inception came out in 2010 and is a science fiction film directed by Christopher Nolan. I didn’t go and see Inception at the cinema, it was a film I got on Blu-Ray. It was a film that I had read about, and received the disk as a present. I think though upon reflection this would have been an impressive cinematic experience to see the film on the big screen.

This was a multi-layered film both figuratively and literally. I loved the concept of shared dreaming and infiltrating those dreams, and adding layers of dreams.

I liked the visual effects, which were visually stunning, but also very clever. I also liked how much of the film was set in Paris, and that dream sequence in Paris was highly effective.

The effects across the film are excellent and are done really well.

From an acting perspective I think it is one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s best films and Tom Hardy plays his part well too. The ensemble cast is excellent as well.

It is one of those films I have watched a few times and have enjoyed each viewing. I actually think you need to watch it a second time just to work out exactly what is going on (a bit like Tenet in that respect).

Will we ever have the shared dreaming technology we see in the film? Who knows!

Get Inception at Amazon.