The year is 2001. Fantasy movies are strictly C-level. Harry Potter comes out in theaters, yet eleven year old me knows the book is much faster and wittier than what we get on screen.
Alright, let’s go watch The Lord of the Rings. There’s a guy dressed up like a medieval fantasy man outside the theater. Cool - so people are excited.
The prologue alone is worth rewatching. Right now. Pull it up. Have you ever seen a story declare…
Hot blooded Malick coming through!
In his first feature, Malick’s trademark lyricism and reverence towards nature is grounded in a fugitive story centered around two teenagers trying to escape their lives, their actions, and the world at large. There’s something distinctly American about searching for transcendence through mundane acts of self-serving violence. The transcendence doesn’t come. But Cissy Spacek’s voiceover seems to locate something close to it as she recalls all the little details along the way.
Nolan gets playful.
If Inception is a Renaissance portrait painted with a fussy attention to detail and an aspiration for serious greatness, Tenet is that same artist channeling that ambition into fast and furious abstract splashes of color.
World class cinematography, music, and production design: what we expect from the Nolan crew.
Your level of enjoyment depends on how tickled you get by visual trickery, guessing games, and 007 meets science fiction pastiche.
