Sound of Metal Movie Review

Sound of Metal (2019)

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Written by: Darius Marder (screenplay by), Derek Cianfrance (story by), Darius Marder & Abraham Marder (written by)
Directed by: Darius Marder
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff
Rated: R
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Plot
A heavy-metal drummer's life is thrown into free fall when he begins to lose his hearing.

Verdict
This is an indie movie with a small focus, but it it crafts this character and does a great job of putting us in his unfamiliar world. The sound editing recreates what the main character does and doesn't hear. This is a character study, and Riz Ahmed does an absolutely great job.
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Review
The first scene is a music performance with no context. We see Ruben (Riz Ahmed) get ready to perform heavy metal music. He plays drums while his girlfriend sings. They live out of an RV as they cross the country touring. The movie has a very raw and indie feel to it. This is about Ruben.

We jump into his hearing loss very soon. As a drummer, a loss of hearing is detrimental. This does a great job of capturing his disorientation. Ahmed gets a chance to really act, and we can see his emotions. Ruben finds a place to stay. He acclimates to his life, learning sign language, and teaching children to drum. This has a twist, that I won't spoil. It's small, but it upends Ruben's life. I completely get it. Ruben longs for his old life, but things can never be normal again.

This ends almost too cute, but the way the camera holds the scene, prolonging it, that creates a very nice ending. This is a slower paced movie, but that provides time to create neat moments and allows us to put ourselves in Ruben's place. We get to imagine the struggle he's having. He's losing his ability to hear and with that his ability to play the drums. His dreams of becoming a famous musician are waning.

His girlfriend keeps touring and finds limited success. You have to think Ruben wonders if he was holding her back, and whether him trying to return to the life they had before is detrimental to her success. This is the kind of movie where we can imagine there's a lot happening between the lines and in Ruben's head that isn't explicitly stated.