Getting off on the confusion

We're all so hung up on following the plot when we go to the movies, but there is something to be said for getting completely lost, even when you're watching the most basic shit, and just going with it anyway.

Nobody is saying that the James Bond film Octopussy is a great intellectual work - it's arguably Roger Moore's worst Bond film - but I can still remember how confusing it was when I first saw it as a kid. I knew who the good guys and bad guys were, but I honestly couldn't follow the twists and turns in the plot.

And it just didn't matter. Any faults with the film weren't going to be fixed by plot coherence, it was all just meaningless details that whizzed by. Just hang out for the inevitable murders, quips and balls-out stunts.

I haven't got much better at following the plot as I get older, and still frequently get completely fucking lost the first time I'm watching something. And not just in the home, with all the distractions in the world, but at the cinema, where the film is getting the full attention.

Most recently, my cluelessness was taken to a ridiculous dergee with Tenat. All the back and forth time travel bullshit is great, and by the time we get to the climax and there is a lot of talk about temporal pincer movements, and a bunch of people running around, blowing shit up and un-blowing it up at the same time, and I'm totally lost.

And even though I have absolutely no idea what is going on, it's all great. It's almost more immersive this way, because anybody actually in that situation would be just as confused as to why that wall just sucked someone into it.

I've seen Tenet a couple of times since then, and have slowly picked up some more of the plot, but it's still a glorious mess of a climax and I don't mind at all.