Sound of Metal

Written by Darius Marder and Abraham Marder

Directed by Darius Marder

Rating: 🏆 most excellent

Ruben (Riz Ahmed) is a rock n roll drummer, living his vagabond dream as he tours across the country in an RV with his girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke). But his sobriety, relationship, and sanity are put to the test when he experiences sudden and extreme hearing loss. Fearing for a relapse, Lou reaches out to his sponsor and arranges for Ruben to stay at a home for deaf addicts. But Ruben faces a unique challenge. While everyone else is learning to be sober, Ruben must learn how to be deaf.

✨ Cue academy award nominations because this movie is INCREDIBLE. It’s a technical masterpiece. The way that the sound is layered allows you to not only witness Ruben lose his hearing, but you feel like you’re losing it right along with him. The anxiety, the panic, and the sensory loss are all very palpable. This slow paced film still feels too fast at times because you need time to process this new world that Ruben finds himself living in. The action is internal and universal. While most of us have never experienced hearing loss, it’s a fear that everyone can relate to. How do you survive in a world without a critical sense? But as the movie goes along, we discover much more about the difficult life that Ruben has already overcome and you can see that even a musician is worth so much more than their sense of sound.

Along with incredible sound this movie features career defining performances from its cast, most notably from Riz Ahmed. Ruben is an internal processor, but throughout Ahmed’s understated performance we can see exactly what is on his mind. His mentor, a Vietnam War veteran played by Paul Raci, looks like the kind of man that you could find in any VFW hall across the country. Not the type of character to bare his soul to just anyone, he also conveys that when you’ve lost it all you’re more likely to give freely to those that you want to help along the way. The last performance that must be mentioned is Ruben’s girlfriend Lou played by Olivia Cooke. Cooke was dealt a unique challenge. Her character is not present for a majority of the film, yet her reciprocated love for Ruben can be felt in every frame. She brilliantly plays a broken woman who is Ruben’s pillar of strength. These performances are all award worthy and I think that Sound of Metal is a real contender for this awards season. You can stream Sound of Metal now on Amazon Prime Video.

Written by Zianna Weston