Sound Of Metal - Review

Sound of metal is an American drama movie directed and co-written by Darius Marder. It stars Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Lauren Ridloff and Mathieu Amalric.

The movie is about a guy named Ruben who is a drummer in a metallic band Blackgammon and who lives with his girlfriend/band member Lou. Ruben loses his hearing ability and is thrown in a free fall and now has deal with the disability.

Things I love:

1. Amazing performance by Riz Ahmed and supporting cast.

Riz Ahmed did a great job portraying the character. It becomes very difficult for an actor, when there are fewer dialogs and has to portray the disability of the character. There were scenes where he had to portray the anger, the panic, and the silence, which was done beautifully and subtly. You can feel what the character (Ruben) is feeling, which is a great feat for an actor. Another actor, Paul Raci who played the character Joe, a late-deafened and recovering alcoholic who runs a shelter for deaf recovering addict. His performance was also great, he is so fluent in American Sign Language and his acting was on point, that for a moment I thought he was deaf. These were the most notable performances.

2. Direction of the movie.

Darius Marder who co-wrote and directed the movie did a marvelous job in helming the movie. To get us the audience in the head of the character, the background sound is muted, you can’t hear anything in number of scenes which is a good choice. This gives the movie realist tone; it doesn’t feel like a movie, it feels like you are watching a person in real life. It is a director’s job to make us the audience understand or feel what the character is feeling and part of which is achieved by the sound effect itself. For instance when Ruben is beating the slide like playing a drum, and there’s a kid who puts his ears on the slide to feel the beats, if you listen closely you can hear a very minute beating sound, like a partially deaf person would hear. That is what I call attention to detail. As for the cinematography, it’s subtle as well. You don’t get see the flashy camera techniques.

3. The ending

Unlike most movies, which end with a bang, this movie’s ending is subtle, it’s very nuanced. At the end you see Ruben realize that he has to leave the love of his and can’t go back to the old gypsy lifestyle with his girlfriend. While sitting on a bench he takes off his hearing aid and sits still in silence, which he was not able to do earlier in the movie. As Joe explains earlier in the movie that, reaching the stillness is like reaching the kingdom of heaven for him and he wished the same for Ruben and tasks him with this goal. At the end we finally see Ruben being calm and still, which he was not previously able to achieve. This is the perfect ending for the movie. At least for me.

Conclusion:

Sound of metal is a great movie with amazing performance by the lead Riz Ahmed and the ensemble of the supporting cast. The acting is subtle, realistic and nuanced. The sound effects are amazing are as well, they play an important part in showing what is going inside the characters head. The overall style is not flashy or showy. It’s great movie with a great ending.

As for the issues in the movie there aren’t any major issues, only a few nitpicks, but that doesn’t affect the movie in a major way.

Watch The Full Movie Here: https://amzn.to/3iJeRgz

Score: 9/10

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