mass market appeal, infinite depth. it’s the perfect onion — a movie that you respect for its high concept and action on first glance, but which begs, immediately, even annoyingly, to be rewatched. and then it feels a little bit better after watch number two. and it feels a little bit better after watch number three.
I am still finding things in this movie — if the enjoyment curve levels off, it’s beyond the five rewatches mark. somehow this most recent rep is my favorite
believe in yourself folks — you CAN understand this movie
this universally-agreed rewatchabillity leads to a pretty unique life-cycle. pretty much everyone who’s ever seen it enjoys watching it again if someone in the room hasn’t seen it. and that’s, like, unbelievably deep appeal. I don’t know any other movie with legs like that
this watch was indeed prompted by an “I still haven’t seen tenet” from my brother, and even though the credits were rolling at 230am we spent another hour afterwards discussing. shoutout to stevie for understanding more of this on his first go than probably anyone I’ve ever witnessed
we really scrutinized its core concepts and timeline this time around, and found, surprisingly, that we were both pretty fine with how small the requested suspension of disbelief here is. this sucker really is tight, but it taunts you to disbelieve. it begs you to try to catch it in a lie
how can that alone not make this one of my favorite movies ever?
misc notes
⁃ the full sprints are so satisfying — JDW can fucking COOK in the 40, he flies
- opera scene remains one of the best openers of all time, better than the dark knight bank scene there i said it — instantly gets me so amped
- you gotta appreciate just how annoying the final scenes must have been to shoot
⁃ mixing notoriously bad remains true, this is unwatchable without subs and requires someone to permanently have their hand on the remote to increase and decrease the volume at key moments
⁃ one liners are actually pretty funny
⁃ temporal pincer movement will never not be a dank meme
⁃ “i see this as the end of a beautiful friendship. for you, it’s only the beginning”
⁃ can one drop inverted material? no, surely. I think it’s hilarious that when JDW force-pulls the camera lens in science lab, he keeps it in his hand until the scene ends. the moment is actually kind of awkwardly avoided, which i find hilarious. I was fixated on what he was going to do with that lens this time around, and laughed when the cameras cut and a decision hadn’t been made
- max theory correct i believe that JDW realizes it around the 80% mark
- sator monologue actually surprisingly good wth. sator’s dialogue is hella mid though idk why his speaking flow is so mid most of the time, get this guy off the mic
mass market appeal, infinite depth. it’s the perfect onion — a movie that you respect for its high concept and action on first glance, but which begs, immediately, even annoyingly, to be rewatched. and then it feels a little bit better after watch number two. and it feels a little bit better after watch number three.
I am still finding things in this movie — if the enjoyment curve levels off, it’s beyond the five rewatches mark. somehow this most recent rep is my favorite
believe in yourself folks — you CAN understand this movie
this universally-agreed rewatchabillity leads to a pretty unique life-cycle. pretty much everyone who’s ever seen it enjoys watching it again if someone in the room hasn’t seen it. and that’s, like, unbelievably deep appeal. I don’t know any other movie with legs like that
this watch was indeed prompted by an “I still haven’t seen tenet” from my brother, and even though the credits were rolling at 230am we spent another hour afterwards discussing. shoutout to stevie for understanding more of this on his first go than probably anyone I’ve ever witnessed
we really scrutinized its core concepts and timeline this time around, and found, surprisingly, that we were both pretty fine with how small the requested suspension of disbelief here is. this sucker really is tight, but it taunts you to disbelieve. it begs you to try to catch it in a lie
how can that alone not make this one of my favorite movies ever?
misc notes
⁃ the full sprints are so satisfying — JDW can fucking COOK in the 40, he flies
- opera scene remains one of the best openers of all time, better than the dark knight bank scene there i said it — instantly gets me so amped
- you gotta appreciate just how annoying the final scenes must have been to shoot
⁃ mixing notoriously bad remains true, this is unwatchable without subs and requires someone to permanently have their hand on the remote to increase and decrease the volume at key moments
⁃ one liners are actually pretty funny
⁃ temporal pincer movement will never not be a dank meme
⁃ “i see this as the end of a beautiful friendship. for you, it’s only the beginning”
⁃ can one drop inverted material? no, surely. I think it’s hilarious that when JDW force-pulls the camera lens in science lab, he keeps it in his hand until the scene ends. the moment is actually kind of awkwardly avoided, which i find hilarious. I was fixated on what he was going to do with that lens this time around, and laughed when the cameras cut and a decision hadn’t been made
- max theory correct i believe that JDW realizes it around the 80% mark
- sator monologue actually surprisingly good wth. sator’s dialogue is hella mid though idk why his speaking flow is so mid most of the time, get this guy off the mic
5
