SOUND OF METAL Review
Drummer Ruben’s (Riz Ahmed) deafness comes fast and vicious in the beginning moments of Darius Marder’s emotionally wringing SOUND OF METAL. After a sonically shattering performance with his girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke), Ruben soon begins to notice a persistent ringing in his ears but as a member of a particularly loud band such as his, he plays it off. After all, the ringing of the ears just means a hell of a show was put on. But then the ringing continues and soon the ringing stops and Ruben can’t hear anything. Not his skilled drumming, not the roars of the crowds, not the desperate concerns of Lou, nothing.
And thus begins the painful journey of self-discovery that Ruben must undertake to survive his new, unimaginable situation. As he desperately tries to hold onto hearing that is no longer there (and never coming back), the drummer finds potential salvation in an isolated deaf community that houses the deaf and the addicted headed by a pleasantly stern owner (Paul Raci, absolutely a show-stealer). At first resistant to such change, Ruben eventually settles himself into the serene rituals of the community, working on both the owner’s property as well as at a nearby school. But progress is never easy and Ruben, a man once addicted to heroin before he met Lou, finds a new addiction to latch onto: the promise of his old, sound enabled life.
Indeed, despite its inches towards the cliché in its account of one man on the road to a new kind of recovery, Marder (working from a story by Derek Cianfrance and Abraham Marder) tilts the story into new, organic directions that stay true to the difficulties of embracing a new life. With Riz Ahmed at the wheel of their film, doing this becomes much easier as the always reliable performer makes Ruben feel just as complicated and frustrating as the film’s story turns. With punk white hair and big eyes that always seem frantic, even in the peaceful moments of the film, Mr. Ahmed effortlessly veers from the frantic stages of fear and anger showcased during his initial diagnosis to the more heartbreaking moments of defeated acceptance. While the actor occasionally gets caught up in some over the top bouts of shouting and cursing (which is fair, considering the circumstances), SOUND OF METAL ultimately succeeds thanks to a central performer willing to embrace the flaws of his character, much like the various supporting people of Ruben’s life. Such as Ms. Cooke, who plays the part of a put upon girlfriend of a man going through momentous change well enough, despite her character acting as more of a stepping stone for the character growth of Ruben as she is literally shipped off in the first third of the film only to reappear in the final third to show Ruben (and the audience) just how far he has come in his journey. However, the most enjoyable find of SOUND OF METAL’s mostly authentic cast of ASL interpreters and deaf people is in Mr. Raci’s communal Joe. With a solid pony tail and a voice as coarse as rocks, Raci makes for a jagged if comforting guiding light for the film’s wayward musician, a man who finds something powerful in the idea of people finding their own strength and community despite occupying a world of silence. In the film’s standout moment involving Raci and Ahmed ebbing and flowing in a heartbreaking “breakup” scene, one can’t help but feel some kind of real life inspiration working under Raci’s captivating performance which only makes the scene that much more agonizing.
That air of authenticity flows throughout the film in other aspects as well. With an understated yet beautifully natural visual palette, Daniel Bouquet’s ambling camera captures the serene and otherworldy-ness of a new silent life in eye-catching landscapes and personal close ups that strikingly detail every taut emotion of Ruben’s journey. Even so, with such a focus on the world and power of music and sound, it only makes sense that SOUND OF METAL also delivers some impressive sound design, which juts from Ruben’s own soundscape filled with constrictive silence, ringing, and buzzing to a world full of all the busy sights and sounds that those who can hear take for granted. It’s an intentionally frustrating experience at times, but it always adds to the film’s goals of creating an immersive experience layered on top of an emotionally invigorating story, even if it does take a bit for the story itself to fully mold into a tale less about a man losing his hearing and more about him letting go of toxic tendencies that have followed him his whole life.
This thematic switch up, while surprising, only adds to the rough beauty of SOUND OF METAL. By the time the film comes to its first near moment of actual peaceful silence for its main character, SOUND OF METAL rattles off an emotionally rewarding conclusion that rivals that of any show stopping drum solo.
4/5
