OnScreen Review: "Sound of Metal"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
One of my favorite aspects of going to the movie theater to watch movies is the immersion that is possible. The room is dark, people are supposed to be quiet, and there is a giant screen in front of you taking up most of your field of vision. With some of the best movies, you forget the outside world and get sucked into them for ninety minutes or two hours. It’s easily the thing I have missed most during COVID and why I hope that the movie theater experience is not irrevocably changed post-pandemic. It’s possible to experience that outside of the theater, but it’s harder. Often, that immersive experience for me is because of the visual experience of a movie. Sometimes, though, the aural experience is just as important as the visual one, as is the case with Sound of Metal, an engrossing personal drama about a drummer who loses his hearing.
Riz Ahmed, an actor who seems to be achieving more and more critical acclaim with each passing role, is the captivating star at the center of this film, though he is far from the only stellar performance here. Ruben (Ahmed) is the drummer of a heavy metal duo named Blackgammon, touring the country with his girlfriend/singer/guitarist Lou (Rachel Cooke). They live out of their RV doing gig after gig in town after town while touring the country. The road life they have made for themselves is upended when Ruben’s hearing suddenly goes and gets progressively worse. Concerned for his sobriety as a recovering addict, they managed to find a place for him at a small, rural community for the deaf run by Joe (Paul Raci), a former addict who lost his hearing in Vietnam.
The film is about a personal journey on finding some kind of inner peace and the difficulty of forced transition in life. Ruben is an intense individual, and while most people would struggle to adjust to the rapid hearing loss he is experiencing, it is particularly difficult for him. He goes through several phases of denial and lashing out at others before reluctantly accepting that he can’t wish this away or ignore it.
Ahmed gives what is an award-worthy performance; he has a strong screen presence. He and Cooke work well together and have great chemistry. The co-dependency of their characters is laid out for the viewer without it ever being obvious or made to be an overly dramatic plot point. It comes into play with the ending of the film, but in a touching way.
Also worthy of award consideration is Raci as Joe, someone who encourages, looks out for, and challenges Ruben. Joe suggests to Ruben that he spend his early morning in solitude, in a room by himself, with just a pen and paper and to write whatever comes into his mind as a way of finding some calm in a disruptive time. While Joe’s past is mentioned, it is clear that he is a changed man who has constructed a delicately crafted shelter for people like him, and as much as he seems to care for Ruben, he also has other considerations beyond Ruben to keep in mind, which is highlighted in a heartbreaking scene between the two after Ruben leaves for a bit and then comes back.
As impressive as the acting performances are, the audible mastery on display in this movie is something to be experienced. Director Darius Marder and the people involved in the sound department for this film have crafted something special. The way they move the viewer through Ruben’s experience of hearing loss is nothing short of expert. Sound, the absence of sound, and, later on in the film, the distortion of sound is essential to this movie working as well as it does. It puts the viewer in the head of Ruben by how he takes in the world around him, whether that is when his hearing goes and we suddenly hear muffled audio or when he is at Joe’s dinner table with everyone else talking in sign language and he is not capable of being part of the conversation because he hasn’t yet learned ASL. It is another award-worthy aspect of this film and something I wish I had been able to experience in the theater rather than from my own living room.
Sound of Metal offers a unique look into a deaf community and it features several commendable performances, none more so than Riz Ahmed in the lead. It’s a technically impressive and immersive experience in the sound department too.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
(Sound of Metal is streaming on Amazon Prime)