TENET

John David Washington    Robert Pattinson    Elizabeth Debicki     Kenneth Branagh    

 Michael Caine     Diimple Kapadia     Denzil Smith

     Tenet has all the hallmarks of a blockbuster—established filmmakers, actors, and a riveting story with themes of mind-ripping, intriguing, violence.  It certainly does all that.  What it doesn’t do is give the viewer time to reflect on any current, compelling issues that we should be concerned about nowadays, or probe personal relationships that make them seem to matter.  It’s more of an almost formulaic activation of tropes seen many times before.  This version seems to have been intended to tease us with time travel, frustrated love, and heroic battles between the hero and unrecognized/mysterious adversaries.

     The unnamed protagonist (Washington), a CIA agent, is recruited to match wits with a terrorist, Sator (Branagh) intent on destroying the world.  The first task is to actually come in contact with the man, not a direct route.  The Prospect meets Sir Crosby (Caine) for lunch who informs him cryptically about Tenet, a shadow organization attempting to save the whole world from destruction.  The Protagonist will be a part of that effort in his new assignment.  To achieve his task, the Protagonist tries at first to go through the wife of the infamous Russian Oligarch, Andrei Sator, Katherine “Kat)  (Debicki), an art dealer.  But this is with the intrusion of a fellow agent Neil (Pattinson), who appears and re-appears as a helper and, seemingly at times, a foe.  

In due time, the protagonist has a clear picture of what he is up against, in terms of arms dealers, their facilitators, and a world-wide plan.  

     Typical of writer/director Christopher Nolan, he plays around with time; and in this case, time inversion, which the evil Sator is trying to perfect for his own use.  It allows for something dropped to jump back up in one’s hand and cars to travel backwards on busy freeways—lending high-tension moments to the plot, along with well choreographed hand-to-hand combat and mental/physical cruelty.  More thrilling is a reverse bungee jump up the outside of a skyscraper.  (In a filmmaking aside:  The two actors start the jump, then stuntmen take over without a noticeable cut in the frame.

     Adding to the excellence in craft, Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematographic feats maintain breathless action, accompanied by Ludwig Goransson’s always apt score. John David Washington is coming into his own as an actor earning action-figure status.  He mixes the heroic with sincerity and credibility, which adds to his appeal.  The stately Elizabeth Debicki plays Sator’s wounded wife with grace and expressive femininity, using her beautiful eyes to break through her mystique and help make her sympathetic.  Kenneth Branagh succeeds in filling his character with narcissistic loathsomeness making him easy to hate.  Bollywood’s well known star Dimple Kapadia does an admirable job in portraying a complex, woman with power.

     For Fans of Christopher Nolan Tenet will likely be satisfying and fun; others, as I did, may find it somewhat tedious to follow and feel impatience at the prolonged combat scenes.

 

Go on a time-inverted journey in Christopher Nolan’s newest thriller.

Grade:  B-                                    By Donna R. Copeland 

VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS

Dane DeHaan     Cara Delevingne     Clive Owen     Ethan Hawke     Rihanna    
Herbie Hancock     Sam Spruell     Voices of:  John Goodman   Elizabeth Debicki

       Valerian (DeHaan) is obnoxious as he can be, but I enjoyed the rest of the cast in the movie, the story, and the special effects.  I’m curious about why Valerian is made to be heroic and still be so obtuse.  Does this come from the comics on which it is based or from Besson’s screenwriting?  Valerian’s fellow agent Laureline (DeLevigne) is sharp, emotionally attuned, and a real fighter when she needs to be.  The film should have been named “Laureline Saves an Agent and a Planet.”  Or at least “Valerian and Laureline”, as the comics are titled.

     At any rate, this very expensive indie film must have invested large sums for the portrayal of exotic creatures, Olivier Bériot’s costumes, Hugues Tissandier’s production design, and all the efforts and equipment involved in special effects; an investment well worth it in my opinion.  If the viewer just “goes with it” and suspends reality, it is an otherworld experience with exotic creatures, harrowing light-speed flights through space and falls to the depths of unknown places.  My favorite creatures are the willowy, iridescent Pearls, who are gentle, gentile, and smart enough to acquire knowledge of science and mathematics, and anything else they need to know to reconstruct their planet, which has been destroyed by an ignorant military force.  The pearls—ejected by “converters”—are life sustaining for the people of Mül, and they treat them respectfully. 

      Pearls in the film are metaphors for that which is of value, like the earth and nature.  “We give to the earth what the sea grants to us”, the Mül people say about their recycling, as they deposit pearls into the water.  In keeping with the film’s central message, we find out what happened to the Mül planet, and the ignorance on which the attack was based (e.g., “primitive” civilizations are not as important as ours—a la the current day message, “America First”). 

     Valerian and Laureline are charged with finding and recovering the universally coveted converter belonging to the people of Mül, called the Pearls, which went missing when they were attacked. The converter, which looks like an adorable animal, makes copies of anything it ingests and ejects the copies in endless amounts.  The Pearls give it pearls because they’re essential for their survival.  Others covet the converter for their own nefarious purposes.  The assignment to retrieve the converter takes the two agents through numerous venues—other planets, U.S. military space stations, a colorful “Big Market”, and even a fancy brothel.  Their paths cross those of Commander Filitta (Owen) and General Okto-Bar (Spruell), a Jabba the Hutt kind of character (Goodman), the pimp Jolly (Hawke), and an exotic dancer Bubble (Rihanna).  In the process of carrying out their assignment, the two agents survive life-threatening situations, but eventually uncover the mystery of what happened to the planet Mül.

     Director Luc Besson (Nikita, Lucy, The Fifth Element) wrote the screenplay, based on a French comics series, and although he successfully attempted to recreate some of the Star Wars elements, the dialog lacks the sharpness and creativity of the visuals.  Better editing could have omitted a number of scenes that are extraneous and shorten a 2½ hour film.  DeHaan is miscast as a heroic character, and he comes across as braggadocios and self-centered.  The rest of the cast are highly entertaining, particularly Delevingne, Owen, Hawke, Goodman, and Debicki.  Rihanna’s exotic, shape-shifting dance and song act is a highlight. 

Besson’s adventure is a wild tour of other worlds in time and space.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

Henry Cavill   Armie Hammer   Alicia Vikander   Elizabeth DeBicki   Jared Harris   Hugh Grant

           Brisk, exciting, funny—The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is entertaining and intriguing from start to finish.  Solo (Cavill) pops up well dressed in East Germany in a car repair shop, and has a caustic back-and-forth with the mechanic who finally slides up from under the car.  It’s Gaby Teller (Vikander), whom the Americans and Russians need to locate her father, a missing German scientist who has been kidnapped and forced to work for an evil company that wants to rule the world by developing state-of-the-art nuclear warheads.

           Solo’s plan is to whisk her away and take him to her uncle Rudi (Sylvester Groth) who knows where her father is.  The trouble is, they are followed by an amazingly fit, persistent character in a reckless car chase through the streets, and Solo finally has a physical altercation with him.  They do manage to escape, with Gaby none too pleased to be on board.

           When Solo meets with his boss Sanders (Harris) the next morning (in a public restroom no less!), he is astounded to meet up again with the mysterious man who turns out to be a Russian spy, Illya (Hammer).  Woe of woes they are now charged by the CIA and KGB with being partners in protecting Gaby and locating Teller.  Illya will be identified as Gaby’s fiancé while Solo is to go undercover at the evil company and learn what he can from their operation, particularly its current head, Victoria (DeBicki).

         In the process of the operation, we are entertained by Illya’s ill ease in a “romantic” relationship, his deficit in anger management, and Gaby’s delight in taunting and thwarting him every step of the way, such as drinking vodka and dancing sexily in the hotel room when he is trying to concentrate and maintain his composure. 

           Meanwhile, Solo easily seduces Victoria at her lavish Italian villa on the Mediterranean, with no apparent thought about her master plan and the viciousness she is capable of.  She knows who he is when he crashes her elegant party, and is relishing the thought of besting him.

           Casting for the film was spot on, with Cavill showing the right amount of greasy charm, class, and brilliance; Hammer adopting a convincing Russian accent, and achieving the right balance in social anxiety, sheer muscle strength, and competitiveness; and Vikander managing to be sexy, a physical wonder, and always sensible.  The two men’s competitiveness is a hoot, first one then the other being one up.  Vikander fits in easily as a mediator and matching strategist.  I loved the equality among all three characters, with each making essential judgments and suggestions in carrying out their mission.  Sanders, Grant, and Kuznetsov as the CIA, MI6, and KGB agents, respectively, are exactly right as well, although I must say, seeing Grant in that role was surprising, but he did it well.

          Guy Ritchie, the director—as well as co-writer with Lionel Wigram and others—might have an especially clever, charming, and entertaining spy thriller on his record with this film.  The audience in the screening I attended was consistently engaged and responsive.  Cinematographer John Mathieson (Phantom of the Opera, Gladiator, 47 Ronin) deftly wielded the camera, managing to convey all the action in difficult-to-capture scenes, as well as playing up the luxury and elegance of place.

           The film has an exciting end, and a smooth segue into a preview for a follow-up movie.

Clever, well choreographed, and entertaining twists in an old favorite.

Grade:  B+                        By Donna R. Copeland