Tenet: Robust, well-plotted, intelligent thriller spy movie

Movie Review: Tenet (2020) on HBO

Ready to have your mind warped? Time warped. Watch the movie Tenet.

A secret agent called simply Protagonist must unravel the mystery of the secret global program called Tenet and stop a Russian oligarch from destroying the world with it. He must work without the help of his government, with no cool toys or tools and only with his wits and what he can learn through stealth and very great care.

Protagonist runs into a number of curious characters with whom he must work to learn the nature of Tenet. One of the closest is an agent named Neil (played by Robert Pattison), who is at his side most of the way. Another is the oligarch's wife, Kat (played by Elizabeth Debicki), whom Protagonist tries to use against him. And there is the oligarch Sator (played by Kenneth Branagh), who is evil personified and intense in his pursuit of the technology behind Tenet. Protagonist is played by John David Washington as this savvy, dedicated, relentless agent. 

This film also features some amazing settings and some unbelievable stunt work through some very complex chase scenes. What makes this so amazing is the mind-bending distortions of time they put the audience (and the characters) through to make this story work. 

Basically, the concept is that Tenet is a device that can reverse entropy, causing cause and effect to reverse by running time backwards. And for this movie to work, you have to be able to accept that and effect can happen before its cause, making it hard for characters to predict what another character might do and how it might affect actions around them. It really is brilliantly handled through the heart of this story. 

If you like robust, well-plotted suspense and an intelligent thriller spy movie, Tenet likely is your movie. I rate it A^ for Above Average. 

Simone LaFray and the Chocolatier's Ball

Book Review: Simone LaFray and the Chocolatier's Ball by S.P. O'Farrell
Version: Amazon Prime Kindle-free ebook

Don’t be late to the ball -- to reading Simone LaFray and the Chocolatier’s Ball by fine storyteller S.P. O’Farrell. It’s an enthralling YA suspense tale for young and older readers alike.

Simone is a twelve-year-old sleuth in training, following in her mother’s footsteps to becoming a master spy. While mother is away “on business” outside of Paris, Simone helps her father run the family’s famous chocolate patisserie and watch over her sister Mia, a dancer who loves being the center of attention, really the opposite of Simone. Mentoring Simone is Elaine, head of the French spy ministry, and ready to spring a trap on everyone is "The Red Fox", a notorious art thief, who has an eye on a major piece of art in a Paris museum, Simone, and her father’s busy shoppe. Simone spends 150 clever pages trying to catch "La Volope Rossa" who is here, there, and everywhere, while trying to help her father escape the scowls of his penniwise accountant-cousin always going on about the miserable financial shape of the otherwise most desirable patisserie of Paris, while also helping him avoid the clutches of a ruthless chocolate magnate intent on securing his book of secret family recipes. Then they are stolen in the dark of night, plunging the patisserie into disarray -- and the only answer is crafting a winning entry in the infamous Chocolatier's Ball of Paris.

How all this plays out is the well imagined story in Simone LaFray and the Chocolatier’s Ball. For as with all tales of suspense, nothing is as it seems which plays out until the final suspenseful page.

As much as this is a great story, it is also a well crafted tale. You will find it easy to read but hard to put down, with it's breezy chase scenes and lost umbrellas and suspenseful reveals. O'Farrell engages your senses in each stroll or run or stationary view of the streets and districts of Paris, and there is the busyness of the patisserie with its many delectable smells and chaotic sounds. You've got to be there, surrounded by chocolate.

Now I'm looking forward to O'Farrell's next novel.