Sound of Metal
Sound of Metal
Starring Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff
Directed by Darius Marder
Ruben Stone (Riz Ahmed) and his girlfriend of four years Lou (Olivia Cooke) are the only members of a heavy metal band - she sings and plays guitar while he plays drums - and they've been playing small gigs all over the country. One day Ruben starts feeling his hearing going, but he keeps pressing on thinking it's something that'll go away, until he practically looses all sense of hearing. A doctor tells him that he's lost 80-90% of his hearing, and if he isn't careful he'll lose the remaining as well, which sends Ruben into a depression. Fearing a relapse into heroin use, Lou enrolls Ruben in a deaf recovering addicts program led by Joe (Paul Raci), and at first Ruben is against it since he'll be cut off from everything - and everyone - from the outside world, but Lou eventually convinces him to go.
At first he is resistant to the treatment and doesn't understand the exercises Joe has for him, but as the days progress he begins to learn sign language, help out at a local deaf kid's school with teacher Diane (Lauren Ridloff), and begins to bond with the other patients. He sets out to earn enough money to get cochlear implant surgery so he can be reunited with Lou, and regain some sense of his previous life.
Many films like this like to exploit the viewer by introducing purposefully-driven heart-string moments. Be it an impassioned, volatile explosion by the main character, a swelling orchestral accompaniment during the stunning denouement, or a flurry of rushed activity to entice the senses, you're bound to find at least one of these things in films such as "Sound of Metal" - but not in "Sound of Metal." Instead, the film gives a more humanistic, realistic, and guttural performance that is based more in reality and relies on the sound of silence to help get its ultimate message across.
The message is only as powerful as the messenger, and Riz Ahmed is an inspired choice for the messenger. As Ruben, Ahmed starts the film having everything going for him - a loving girlfriend, four years sober, and following his passion. Then he looses his sense of hearing, and his entire world crumbles around him. You'd expect him to delve back to his dangerous vices, but instead he seeks help from a community that's often overlooked as he settles into a rehabilitation program for addicts who are also deaf. This doesn't equate deafness with a disability, but much more the opposite - the film hails the deaf community for their individuality and collective contribution to society, and doesn't look down on them. Ahmed plays the role with a quiet elegance that's also chaotic, but not in an exploitative way. He's forced to forego his life of loud noises and constant stimulation and instead find inner peace, stillness, and silence. This is easily Riz Ahmed's crowning achievement to date, and one of the best performances by any actor this year.
The other messenger is Paul Raci's Joe, the owner and operator of the deaf drug rehabilitation program. In real life, Paul's parents are deaf, but he is not (he's known as a CODA - Child Of Deaf Adults) and he's a member of a rock band called Hands of Doom that performs using ASL (American Sign Language). Raci uses his real life experiences to portray Joe as a strong, compassionate man who knows that deafness isn't a disease or disability, and sets out to change Ruben's mind about it - as he says in the film, "we're looking for a solution to this (the mind) not this (the ears)." Along with Ahmed's performance, Raci's is soft, natural, and passionate.
First-time director Darius Marder (who also co-wrote the script) relies heavily on the use of sound for the film, which also allows the viewer to experience Ruben's growing deafness with him. When he full on looses his sense of hearing, the film goes totally silent. No music, no ambient noise, nothing. We then hear the moments of life (wind rushing through grass, insects, birds chirping) before going back to Ruben's silence and distortion of hearing. We don't understand what people are saying around him like he doesn't, and adds to the emotional connection we feel with Ruben. When he enters the rehabilitation program, at first everyone else is using ASL and we don't have subtitles to it, so we - along with Ruben - have no idea what they're saying, and it adds to the frustration that Ruben feels because we feel it too, almost like we're experiencing a sense of deafness ourselves.
Combining passionate, nuanced performances and an all-encompassing feel, "Sound of Metal" sheds light on the deaf community and allows the viewer to experience what it feels like, and shows that deafness isn't a disease, but a different way of looking (and hearing) the world.
The Score: A+
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