10 Worst Defences Directors Had For Bad Movie Moments

10. "The Inaudible Dialogue Is An Artistic Choice" - Tenet

Christopher Nolan has been regularly dinged for the "unconventional" sound mixing choices in his movies, namely not granting priority to dialogue over environmental sound effects.

This reached an infuriating fever pitch in Tenet, where many viewers complained that much of the sci-fi epic's dialogue was close to inaudible, which in a film so complex and exposition-heavy proved especially maddening.

But back in 2014, when similar accusations were levelled against certain scenes in Interstellar, Nolan had a defense which still holds true for Tenet. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he said:

"I don't agree with the idea that you can only achieve clarity through dialogue... Clarity of story, clarity of emotions - I try to achieve that in a very layered way using all the different things at my disposal - picture and sound. I've always loved films that approach sound in an impressionistic way and that is an unusual approach for a mainstream blockbuster, but I feel it’s the right approach for this experiential film."

Basically, Nolan's saying saying that incoherence is an artistic choice... on a $250 million movie where clear dialogue recording should be one of the easier jobs. Needless to say, most viewers didn't have much time for Nolan downplaying the importance of audible dialogue.

In the very least, early reactions to his latest film, Oppenheimer, don't cite any sound mixing issues, so that's nice.