Movie Breakdown: Sound Of Metal

Pre-Screening Stance:

Sound Of Metal looks intense, and also sort of scary for anyone (like myself) who engages in a lot of live music. On another note, this film is serving as the feature length debut for writer/director Darius Marder (he previously penned The Place Beyond The Pines), and I’m excited to see what be brings to the table.

Post-Screening Ramble:

Sound Of Metal kicks off with a performance from Blackgammon, a fictitious punk/metal act that features Lou (Olivia Cooke) on vocals/guitar and Ruben (Riz Ahmed) on drums. They’re gloriously noisy, and their short-but-visceral set totally gave me the urge to get my ears blown out by some band at some club somewhere. This feeling, however, went right out the window just a few quick scenes later when Ruben suddenly finds himself unable to hear much of anything at all before the band’s next gig. Straight up, this stretch of the movie filled me with a lot of anxiety. All sounds shift to being presented from Ruben’s perspective, which means everything is very muffled and closed off, and his slow build to an all-out panic is a ride I desperately wanted off of.

From there, the movie largely goes where you expect it to – Ruben learns how to live with being deaf. You see his struggle with not being able to communicate, and then the joy that comes from learning sign language and such. The film does stretch itself though to also include a good bit about Ruben’s mental health. He’s an addict, and music has always been his tool to drown out those urges. Now, the only noise he has left is his own thoughts, and he has to figure out how to just sit and be with himself. I’d guess that most don’t consider the mental health aspect of hearing loss, so I thought it was really smart to include this angle. Well done, Darius Marder.

This one is not an easy ride, but it has some great performances and a fantastically layered story. Recommended! The film will hit Prime Video on December 4.

One Last Thought:

If I were to find myself in the same situation as Ruben, I’d prefer to remain deaf and not get implants. I think I’d have easier time learning to live with no hearing than I would with trying to adjust to nothing sounding like it did before.