Tenet

"Does your head hurt yet?" asks one character of another following a particularly perplexing explanation in Christopher Nolan's mind-bender. It's a question that resonates throughout this slick, globetrotting sci-fi adventure, which is frequently as exciting as cinema gets, yet asks that you pay the strictest of attention throughout. John David Washington plays an undercover operative out to thwart the potentially apocalyptic scheme of fearsome arms dealer Kenneth Branagh, who has links to the future. Characterisation comes second to the unfolding mystery, resulting in a collection of thinly drawn enigmas, but Washington makes for an intense and physically robust lead and Elizabeth Debicki adds integrity as Branagh's terrified wife, while Robert Pattinson delivers foppish charm as a well-informed ally. Nolan directs with his typical showmanship, fusing impactful action with flashy, reality-altering special effects, while an industrial aesthetic keeps things grounded. And as Tenet rattles through hard-to-grasp concepts, any residual confusion is masked by the spectacular set pieces, turbo pacing and bristling tension, all of which is thrillingly enhanced by Ludwig Göransson's score, which thrums and thunders in an event film to savour.