Anton Volkov’s review published on Letterboxd:
this is Christopher Nolan's twilight world, and we're just living in it.
Now I’ve seen this properly (and first, serious serious hats off to @TheDriveInLDN for *nailing* the sound, dialogue and music as clear as it can be over radio - even fixing some of original cinema mix’s much reported issues. Just quality of everything, *this* is the place to go if you aren’t, like me, ready for indoor cinema at this time)... this isn’t Nolan’s masterpiece. But it certainly is the *most* Nolan. It’s a hell of an unwieldy beast. Less Bond but more...Mission Impossible Fallout - it’s relentless. As mentioned first time there’s something in the way it doesn’t unleash the timey wimey madness right away but it gradually builds, the inversion is almost a character in itself, before it goes all out nuts.
He lulls us into an old school almost by the numbers but slick and very Nolan still spy thriller before pulling the rug under us almost. The world building in this also, we’ve seen elements of this with Inception and Interstellar and odds of sequels/prequels/inverquels are nil but the world of Tenet is one I really hope Nolan allows further canonised exploration of - maybe comics? So much more to explore here. There’s a certain self awareness to it all, people say Nolan’s made the film people stereotype him for and he did! On purpose, knowingly.
The cast is absolutely impeccable here, JDW and Pattinson are just dynamite and carry this entire thing, Washington especially. Of course there’s a certain element of wish they were in it more with Caine, Taylor Johnson, Poésy etc but they were great as they are. Ultimately and I don’t think that’s a bad thing, they’re all chess pieces in this massive game that Nolan’s laying out, the fate of the world. Can we talk about Dimple Kapadia as the absolute MVP though, what a fresh-feeling and charismatic twist on an M-type figure. In fact there’s something in the way Nolan plays with all those Bond/spy tropes with the right balance of freshness, self awareness and straightheadedness.
The one IMO weakness is how much the themes for the first time end up taking a backseat. There’s always been something thematic driving the high concept - eg returning to family in Inception - but here that aspect felt like a box tick mention. But appropriate for the spy genre? After all, this is a save the world story, with the biggest stakes for a Nolan film yet. The scale of this is just jaw dropping, especially knowing how much was shot and executed for real. And Ludwig’s score, my god. Relentless, it’s very evocative of Nolan’s new more experimental and visceral blockbuster stage of filmmaking he’s come into with Dunkirk and now this. The detail and the intricacies of it, while carrying an incredible energy throughout and feeling fresh. And I really appreciated the Bondian touches - the guitar, the synergy with Travis Scott’s song...
Looking forward to diving even more with the screenplay, home release and..one day...when this is closer to over...IMAX 70mm...