Esteemed director Christopher Nolan is likely basking in the success of his recent hit Oppenheimer, but it's worth bearing in mind that not all his movies are as popular as this recent biopic. However Netflix fans appreciate everything equally, and that's the case right now.
Christopher Nolan's Tenet is certainly not his most popular movie — on Rotten Tomatoes it's his lowest-rated directorial feature at 67%, under the 73% of next-lowest Interstellar and far under The Dark Knight, which at 94% is his highest rated.
However, Tenet is proving a hit on Netflix UK, after being added to the streamer on Friday, August 25. At the time of writing, it's the second-most streamed movie on the platform, under the new Netflix Original You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, and above Copshop which certainly had its time in the sun on the streamer.
Tenet follows a secret organization that uses time-reversal tech to offset the start of a global war, and it stars John David Washington as the main character, Robert Pattinson as his handler, Kenneth Branagh as the baddie and Elizabeth Debicki as Branagh's estranged wife who ends up being an asset to the organization.
The movie opened during the Covid-19 pandemic, and analysts aren't quite sure whether it made its budget back due to marketing costs rarely being shared. However it's sometimes credited with helping get movie audiences back to cinemas after Covid made them a lot less tempting (for better or worse, given that the pandemic was far from over at the time).
It was a divisive movie, with some loving the time-traveling concept and action setpieces that rely on this gimmick, but others finding it all too confusing, overwrought or silly. Plus, it suffered from one of the common complaints of Nolan movies: the dialogue is indecipherable in the audio mix.
The movie's resurgence on Netflix could be because the streaming platform lets you fix many of its issues: you can use subtitles to actually understand what actors are saying, and can pause or rewind if you feel you don't understand a plot point fully.
It's worth pointing out though, that standing at 69% on Rotten Tomatoes, it's still not considered a 'rotten' movie, so it's generally fairly well respected. And while it's the lowest score Nolan has for one of his directed features, he was also a producer or executive producer on plenty of DC movies that got far worse Rotten Tomatoes scores, so even on his movie list on the website it's still far from the bottom of his ranking.
Netflix UK is a great way to catch modern or older blockbusters, with the relative lack of competing services (compared to in the US) meaning loads of non-Netflix movies get added alongside its originals. So maybe we'll even be able to see Nolan's newest Oppenheimer on there soon too.
