Materialists: Counterpoints Between Mirrors and Fractures

Dear listeners, dear curious ones, dear critics… today we’re going to talk about a film that stands apart from the line of movies we’ve been covering this summer.This time, I’m talking about the long-awaited Materialists.

This film doesn’t bring to the screen any composer with historical intros or a name as renowned as the ones we’ve discussed before.This time, the soundtrack was written by Daniel Pemberton — known for works such as Eddington, Ferrari, Enola Holmes 2, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, just to name a few.

So yes, Pemberton here had the task of giving sound to everyday life through one of the most fragile subjects in all human experience: relationships.

And here’s a little confession: I have this bad habit of listening to soundtracks several times before watching the movie.And, well, I partly recommend it and partly don’t — because sometimes our composer friends title the tracks after key actions or turning points in the film and, well… spoiler alert.But in this case, I did it anyway — and honestly, the more I listened, the more I wanted to watch it.

Pemberton has quite the challenge here: giving sound to love.And I don’t mean it in the corny sense (although, yes, I’d consider this a “pink” movie). I mean love as something that we perceive and approach in complex, shifting ways.

This soundtrack holds some very interesting pieces that frame love as a sensation — a human experience that’s slippery, mysterious, and magnetic. The beginning and atmosphere of the music are mysterious, stealthy — through the use of wind instruments and low, sustained registers, following a steady pattern, the sound places this concept in a terrain that demands a certain caution. I feel that here, romantic bonds are used to express the enigma they represent — and at the same time, the beauty they manifest.

To me, the mix of low tones, electronics, and winds creates what I’d call a “bubble sensation.”Here’s a quick reference: during the Impressionist era, artists tried to capture moods and atmospheres exactly as they were perceived — and in this soundtrack, I find that same intention.

The combination of these sonic protagonists, for a moment, places the listener inside bubbles.That’s what relationships attempt to do — and I think the music captures that beautifully.

Now, when I say “bubbles,” I don’t mean isolation from life (though that can happen, for worse). I mean reflection. The bubble as reflection — our relationships as mirrors that don’t orbit us axially but envelop us completely; things we inhabit, things that reflect our emotional intelligence, our wounds, our dreams, our sense of home.

The Depth of Sound

To that, we must add something powerful — the way low sounds represent ideals and the mysteries surrounding them. Those deep roots we often refuse to let go of — and that, many times, aren’t even ours. But when they break, when they crumble in the middle of a scene, we understand that love also means daring to let go.It means choosing from the courage of fracture — and from its recognition, both internal and in our mirrors (our relationships).

This soundtrack also has glorious moments that almost sound like yoga studio music — the kind that makes us connect with our inner world and its evolution.And I think that’s intentional: because the concept of love is exactly that — an encounter with ourselves through the eyes of difference.

The Sound of the Encounter

In short, Materialists tells us that love is a constant hunt — like the New York air:a constant breaking to expand the bubbles we are,a constant choosing of mirrors,a confrontation with ghosts and the corners of our ceilings,a walk through mysteries,the construction of something close to divinity (because yes, this soundtrack does make you think about the illusion of peace).

Love is the worked union of contrasting registers — a habitat forged from zero, born only after the brave encounter with all that… bubbles.

The question is: How brave are we for such encounters?

Go watch Materialists.

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