Review: Sound of Metal (2020)

Sound of Metal (2020)

TLDR: Easily one of the best films I have seen in a long while. Grounded by an absolutely stellar performance by Riz Ahmed (and co-star, Olivia Cooke), Darius Marder's Sound of Metal is a moving and deeply-empathetic look into the journey and struggle to find peace with one's self through the lens of a musician who loses his hearing. 

Have no doubt, if you are not yet familiar with the names Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke you are about to be. Both actors - Ahmed in particular who leads the film - are transcendent in Darius Marder's Sound of Metal. Ahmed plays Ruben, a heavy metal drummer, in a duo group led by guitar/singer, Lou, played by Cooke. The two are as much a pair off-stage as they are on it. It is clear from early on that they are all that the other really has in life and they are content to travel across the country in their RV together playing shows and making ends meet as best they can. However, all goes awry when Ruben - who batters his eardrums every night with the sound of his thunderous drums - wakes up to a ringing in his ears and, soon after, learns he is in the process of going deaf. 

There is no mystery or surprise in the cataclysmic effect nor the cruel irony that sudden deafness would have on a professional musician. Not only that, but Ruben is a recovering addict and, upon his diagnosis, one of Lou's first worries is that the trauma of losing his hearing may lead him to relapse. In that, Sound of Metal is a story of about empathy. It is grounded in a delicate and incredible performance by Ahmed who's pain and struggle we witness and experience first-hand with him in the moments, the days, and the weeks after the life-altering event occurs. Thankfully, the film is not melodramatic. Instead, Ruben's reactions, the conversations that follow, and his decisions are all too real and approachable. We are left with scenes with only muffled audio as people that Ruben can no longer hear speak around him and about him. We watch, as Ruben does as he sits motionless in a chair, as other members of the deaf community speak fervently with one another through sign language. He is lost in a new world that he has new bearing within. It is a visceral experience and one that Marder leads us along with a deft and compassionate hand and one that is heightened by an effective and remarkable sound design.

Should there be an awards season this year, Sound of Metal surely deserves multiple nominations and hopefully will garner its share of wins too. This film is the reason why we go to the cinema (or, more aptly, now go to our living tv...). It is a story that creates empathy for those in the world around us - all of those many people we pass by everyday who we don't blink an eye at, not recognizing the struggle and hardships and also the earned victories that our neighbours and strangers alike deal with. In particular, Sound of Metal creates great empathy for the deaf community - something that the medium of film rarely shines a light on. In these trying times it is often difficult to pull one's self out of individual worries and stresses, however, Sound of Metal - on top of being an incredible film - might just be that little wake-up call for us to remember that we are not the only ones out there.