SPOILERS DOWN THE PATH; THE DISCUSSION BELOW WILL NOT BE COMPREHENSIVE WITHOUT IT.
TREAD CAREFULLY. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.
THIS MOTION PICTURE IS OFFICIALLY AN AFFILIATE OF THE FILMMAKING PARAGONS.
Sound of Metal tells the experience of a metal drummer who suffers a sudden hearing loss. Initially, everything was fine. He has a girlfriend and they both live in their RV. They produce music and are waiting for their big break album. One day, our protagonist named Ruben Stone (Riz Ahmed) loses his ability to hear. And from here on out, his entire life changes… for the worse.
Writer-director Darius Marder has made one of the scariest films of all time here! In order for us to truly understand what Ruben's going through, the audio design has to mimic his hearing. The muted and muffled sound craft plants us right into the main character's mindscape with utmost effectiveness, and it's genuinely terrifying to hear what he hears, in other words, how is it like to be deaf. Coupled with Riz Ahmed's ground-breaking performance, Sound of Metal becomes a uniquely palpable motion picture experience that you'll never ever forget!
A clueless Ruben takes the next logical and necessary step to fix his problem. He sees a doctor who breaks the news to him that his hearing is never coming back. There's an option of audio implant, but it's expensive and isn't guaranteed to work. The refusal of accepting his fate becomes Ruben's Lie, and the tug of war between his need to learn how to live as a deaf person and him wanting his hearing back drives his arc forward. Naturally, he could no longer play the drums aka his sole breadwinning option. Since he is also a recovering drug addict, his best shot arrives in the form of living permanently in a deaf community, with Lou (Olivia Cooke) leaving Ruben for his best being one of the saddest cries we've ever heard.
We've mentioned how great Riz Ahmed is in this drama, but equally fantastic is Paul Raci as the deaf community leader Joe! If you didn't know him as an actor before, you would have thought the filmmakers hired an actual deaf community leader for acting. Paul Raci plays an extremely kind, understanding and accepting mentor who inducts Ruben into the facility. He no longer has access to his phone and keys. He doesn't know sign language and has no idea how to communicate or fathom what his peers are saying… yes, it's immensely depressing on so many levels! It's lowkey insulting when he's sent to a classroom full of elementary kids to learn sign language. Eventually, Ruben assimilates. He settles in. Just when you thought he's overcome his Lie, Ruben decides to go for a ear canal bypass surgery by using the money he gets from selling his one and only dwelling - the RV.
The next devastating news knocks the door - the surgery is a failure. Even after many adjustments, just like the first doctor warned him before, he couldn't hear anything properly. It's all high static distortion which gets worse in large crowds, and the sound design excels once again to let us hear how it is like! The one-to-one conversation Ruben has with Paul Raci is one of the most beautiful and crushing sequences ever constructed, ever. The trust has been violated, and now Ruben can no longer stay there no more. The painful exchange he has with Lou at the end followed by eventually choosing to experience and live in stillness is probably the most satisfying resolution for our unfortunate protagonist!
Usually when a plot has a defining, almost climactic moment like Ruben losing his hearing this happening at Plot Point I, the good part is that you'll not know where the rest of the runtime could lead us to. It has a higher risk of deflating into a series of uneventful mash unable to top what has had happened in Plot Point I. Thankfully, Sound of Metal didn't go through too much of the latter primarily due to how honest, genuine and live-in the portrayal of the life in the home. The choice of handheld cinematography perfectly lends to that realism this story needs. Beyond the fact that sound engineering being crucial to the content, the work done by this department deserves all the recognition! The silence soundscape of this world is serene!
Sound of Metal is an extremely heartbreaking, depressing, fear-inducing, pitiful yet inspiring tragedy. Films like this come along to make you appreciate the very basics you have. Films like this urge you to pray for the less fortunate. Films like this make you wish more films like this was made.