Directing: A
Acting: A
Writing: A
Cinematography: B+
Editing: A

I can’t say enough good things about Sound of Metal—literally have no bad things to say about it. I’ll be open to whatever criticism there might be by others, to be fair, particularly those who are part of key groups represented. Namely, the deaf community and addicts, or to be sure, deaf people in twelve-step programs. I belong to none of these groups, but from my perspective, this film absolutely kills it when it comes to representative intersectionality.

The cast is diverse in just about every way imaginable, and Darius Marder, offering a stunning directorial debut, directs a cast of supporting characters actually hired from the deaf community. Much of the story takes place at a home for addicts, and the people there are diverse even aside from being deaf. And a key part of the plot involves all these deaf characters having the fervent belief that being deaf is not a disability, “not something to be fixed,” while the main character is eager to get implants to regain his hearing.

Riz Ahmed is phenomenal in the lead role, his learning both the drums and ASL in preparation clearly paying off. From very early on in this film, I kept thinking of the excellent 2014 film Whiplash—what I felt at the time was the best film of the year—and not because both films are about a drummer; that’s really just a coincidence. Whiplash was about musicians and being the best at honing talent at all costs; Sound of Metal is about adapting to a sudden and permanent change to your world and reality. But in both cases, from the very start, you cannot look away. The film hooks you, and you are deep in it through the end.

In a way, it’s even more effective in the case of Sound of Metal, given that films usually use music to tell their stories, often in manipulative ways. By contrast, in this movie, you hear a score, and a subtle one at that, maybe three percent of the time. What Marder does is use sound to tell his story, and if this film does not get an Oscar nomination for Sound Editing it will be a travesty.

As the film begins, we are seeing Ruben (Ahmed) playing the drums in a band gig, his girlfriend Lou being the singer. Lou is played by Olivia Cooke, who had previously impressed me a great deal in the 2018 film Thoroughbreds. It’s only one or two scenes later that we see Ruben experiencing sudden hearing loss, so the film gets right to that point: the story isn’t so much about his hearing loss, but about how he deals with it. And at first, because Ruben has difficulty dealing with curve balls in life, he attempts to ignore it. But, the problem gets bad enough quickly enough that he sees a doctor, who tells him his hearing is at about a quarter of what it should be.

Sound of Metal is in a class all its own, always taking its own path, a story that commands attention. It also provides much food for thought, such as that notion of getting surgery for hearing loss being wrong-headed. I can’t decide if I agree with it, or at least, maybe it depends on the person. After all, the experience of someone born deaf is far different from that of someone who grew up hearing and then suddenly loses it. And Ruben’s entire livelihood is tied to his hearing, so it’s understandable for him to feel desperate to get it back.

Now, I’m going to get into quasi-spoiler territory, so be warned. Ruben gets this surgery, and how the film presents the way he hears things after his implants are “activated” is fascinating. I wonder, first of all, how accurately represented that sound could possibly be? The movie is made by hearing people, after all; and even if those who have actually had this surgery can explain it, that can only go so far—no one could possibly truly know how the brain processes sound with the implants unless they actually have them, I would imagine. Ruben’s experience is that the sound is very tinny, and often distorted, especially when there’s a lot of noise around. I found it interesting that sound of his “corrected” hearing would be tinny, on top of his being in a metal band, hence the film’s title. That’s how I took it, anyway; to be fair, no one in the film ever refers to his band’s music as “metal.”

All that said, one of the messages of this film does seem to be that this kind of surgery is not all it’s cracked up to be, or at least it won’t be the solution some think or hope it will be. That’s far from its primary purpose, however, which is one of the many things that make it exceptional. Its purpose is to tell a great story, which it does with flying colors. All these other things, the finesse of its representative intersectionality (I particularly enjoyed Ruben’s friendship with a lesbian addict staying at the group home with him), the sensitivity of its character portrayals, the smart casting, are all bonuses. And they combine to make what is easily one of the best films of the year.

*Riz Ahmed learns a new way of navigating his world.*

Overall: A