‘Tenet’: Everything Matters
Tenet, Christopher Nolan’s new feature film, is out in cinemas across some parts of the world. Needless to say, this is a pretty big deal.
Multiple reasons why. One, it’s (presumably) a high quality thriller worth seeing. Two, it’s the first new cinema release in months, which is absolutely crazy. And three, it’s a Nolan film. And that’s always a big deal.
(There are no spoilers in this article unless you consider our opinion of the film a spoiler; in which case, there are spoilers in this article.)
We saw it. It’s pretty good. Not as good as we had hoped, but still worth watching. This is not a review of Tenet. But just for now, our short thoughts are: Tenet is a perfect example of style-over-substance, lacks depth, but explores some of the most interesting ideas ever in the history of cinema. It’s problematic, but the conversation that follows is worth it.
But again: this is not a review. This is a short critique. A rant, even, maybe.
Everything matters.
Where are we going with this? Of course everything matters.
Filmmaking is a beautifully complicated form of art. It’s highly collaborative, allowing thousands of different creators to contribute to one and the same goal. Some are more obvious, like the actors, writers, directors, producers. Others are given less credit, but contribute a crazy amount as well, like costume designers, make-up artists, line producers, sounds mixers, sound —
Wait. Yes. Sound. A huge problem in Tenet.
The general soundscape of this film is exquisite: the score, the little details following the concept, the effects; it’s actually thoroughly impressive. Everything is. Besides one small thing: Tenet has terrible sound mixing.
The dialogue.
The sound mixing in Tenet is bad because often (if not all the time) speech is lost. We just can’t keep track of what the characters are saying. And mostly everything (if not absolutely everything) that the characters are saying in this film is exposition and meant to lead the viewer to better understanding of the concepts that Nolan is exploring.
When that sound is mixed badly, as it is, the exposition is lost. And when the exposition is lost, the viewer gets confused. And when the viewer is confused, they leave the cinema with a bitter taste in their mouths. Their whole perception of Tenet has been altered because they simply couldn’t hear what anyone was saying.
We wanted to go rewatch Tenet, but decided to wait until it’s out on demand.
Why? Because then it would have subtitles available. Nolan just lost a couple of tickets because of bad sound mixing.
The sound mixing doesn’t ruin the film, but it does take away quite a bit. And we didn’t think that would be possible in a 200+ million dollar feature film.
Everything matters. Filmmaking is a wonderful collaboration. Everyone has a duty and responsibility not only to their colleagues, but to the viewers as well. Filmmaking is not only about good actors or good direction, but good collaboration and good decision throughout. And it seems Nolan made one bad one.
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— Pouty Boy