Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Notice something about that – it’s a palindrome. Christopher Nolan’s first official trailer for ‘TENET’ dropped today, and has captivated the internet and audiences around the globe.
‘TENET’ is Nolan’s eleventh feature film in his career, returning to the genre that made him, with ‘TENET’ looking more akin to ‘Inception’, arguably the film that made him.
However ‘TENET’, at least from the trailer, appears to be something which is completely unique if we look at his filmography. Sure, there are clear references to ‘Inception’ one can pin together, but this is without a doubt the most ambitious and risky film to date from the acclaimed director.
Nolan has always played with time, but I feel like the modern conscriptions of cinema haven’t enabled him to go the full monty. We saw what he could do in ‘Inception’ and ‘Interstellar’, but with ‘TENET’, it finally seems like he has built up enough political capital to go full Terrence Malick and blow our minds and test our faith.
Warner Brothers have heavily invested into Nolan in the past, ever since he brought Batman back into the light of day, giving him effectively a carte-blanche to pretty much whatever he wants, and over the past decade, it has worked well for them.
‘Inception’ remains one of the highest-concept films ever to have been conceived, making $820M and winning four Oscars. ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, though many think its average, made $1.1BN worldwide. ‘Interstellar’, Nolan’s most polarised film between critics still was nominated for six Oscars and made $700M, whilst ‘Dunkirk’ quintupled its budget and was a Oscar juggernaut, finally claiming Nolan’s first nomination in the BD category.
But ‘TENET’ is something else altogether. With a budget of $225M, it is the second highest budgeted original film of all time, only behind the $237M budget of ‘Avatar’, and in a sense, these two films have a lot in common.
‘Avatar’, whether you like it or not, was revolutionary when it came to the blockbuster, changing, like ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘Inception’, what a director could do with the genre.
With ‘TENET’, though we are still seven months out, it is looking like Nolan is doing what he does best: turning a genre we are so sure around thanks to the executives at Disney blending our brains, and attempting to reinvent cinema.
But with a budget of $225M, and the film being released as effectively the last big crowd-pleasing blockbuster (sorry ‘Jungle Cruise’), you have to think whether or not this can rival films such as ‘Top Gun 2’ and MCU films at the box office.
Film wise, I am in big time. Despite knowing snippets about the film months ago, this is beyond my wildest dreams of what it could be. Whether you like Nolan or not, for what he has done over the past fifteen to twenty years in cinema, I think it is fair to say that he has earned our trust to at least see the film.
John David Washington looks like he will be a great lead, and despite Robert Pattinson circulating in the trailer, it really does look like a one-man show like ‘Inception’. A very brief Michael Caine cameo made me smile, and I love how that whilst everyone was caught up on that trippy car chase they snuck in that Kenneth Branagh is the villain in this film – absolutely perfect.
Hoyte Van Hoytema continues his quest for that elusive Oscar, whilst Ludwig Goransson’s music seems like he is doing a better job than what Hans Zimmer could have done. Yep, I said that, Zimmer is a god, but Goransson is bringing something new to the table. Hats off to Nathan Crowley as well, with the production designer showcasing some glimpses of his work in this trailer.
And there are a lot of new faces below-the-line, from sound engineers to editors, and this continues the trend from the trailer that this is a new dawn of Nolan films for Nolanites. In 2000, he brought us ‘Memento’, in 2010, he brought us ‘Inception’, and for 2020, he brings us ‘TENET’. All of these films challenged to modern conception of what a film could do, and I cannot wait, despite all the risk, how this turns out. T-7 months and counting. I’ll be seeing the prologue next week, and I’ll get a better read on it after that. Until then.
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