Out of Sync

We are in our days, in Barcelona. We meet a sound designer, specialized in adding sounds for movies, series, spots... We soon find out that she is so dedicated to her work that many nights she sleeps in the studio. We will also soon learn that she has recently broken up with her partner, who orders her to leave her house, as it is the property of her ex-boyfriend, and he has rebuilt her life with another woman. We also learn about his not-too-fluid relationship with her mother, and, in particular, that the protagonist (whose name is never pronounced) is beginning to suffer a strange distortion, in such a way that she hears the sounds a few seconds later. When they actually occur. This gap gets worse: she goes to her doctor, but it seems that there is no physiological problem. However, following a test to establish possible genetic problems, she learns something that shakes her life and, in turn, further accentuates the asynchrony between sounds and the moment in which she perceives them. But is her brain starting to slip out of sync?

A weird and very strange film in which a sound designer finds refuge from broken relationships with her ex, her colleagues and her mother in the studio, where she can spend hours recording rare sounds, wild tracks, editing and mixing. The fim, shot in A Coruña, Galicia, and Barcelona, Spain, is quite outlandish, full of enigmas and unanswered questions. Due to all of this it turns out to be slow moving, boring and very cryptic. Despite having some good reviews, I have not been able to understand it and I have been disappointed by it, becoming heavy and extremely long. We are reminded of this Tres (2021) film by Brian de Palma, Blow out (1981), with John Travolta as a long-suffering sound engineer involved in a murder. But we must consider that Marta Nieto's performance is frankly excellent, along with Miki Esparbé, although it is necessary to highlight the fact that they are the only two known actors of the show.

The motion picture was slowly and mediocrely directed by Juanjo Giménez Peña. The film got several nominations and prizes in various Festivales, such as: Goya Awards (best sound), Miami Film Festival, Venice, Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film , Gaudi Awards, Jose María Forqué Awards, International Cinephile Society Awards, Feroz Awards, Maestre Mateo Awards, Lithuanian Film Awards . Gimenez Peña previously made notorious shorts, such as: Timecode (2016), the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Festival in the short film format. Timecode was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film, and was also awarded at the Goyas, the European Cinema Awards, and the Gaudí Awards, the Catalan Goyas. Giménez is a filmmaker who until now had specialized almost monothematically in filming short films, of which over 25 years he has filmed a total of nine. Also, it is true, at the beginning of this 21st century he filmed the feature film We Are Missing (Tilt) (2001), which passed largely unnoticed, and the episodic film Kürzpasse (2006), whose direction he shared with nine other filmmakers. Rating: 4.5/10.

A unique director? Without a doubt. A unique work? Oh yes! An experimental work too, but at the same time not difficult for the audience, in which the physical and the neurological merge.

A fantastic melodrama that is exciting and precise, provided that one is able to watch a work that goes slowly but that if one makes the effort to get into it, one will not forget.

Intelligent and sagacious, "En décalé" moves with the same clarity that it surprises.

In addition, at the same time as a speech on cinema as an echo chamber, the film offers a beautiful study of the main character superbly interpreted by "Marta Nieto".

Of course, for the film to work, very effective work on sound and synchronization was needed... That's good, since that's the case: Goya for Best Sound. Gaudí Award for Best Sound.