OVP: Sound of Metal (2020)

Film: Sound of Metal (2020)

Stars: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff, Mathieu Amalric

Director: Darius Marder

Oscar History: 6 nominations/2 wins (Best Picture, Actor-Riz Ahmed, Supporting Actor-Paul Raci, Original Screenplay, Sound*, Film Editing*)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

I didn't forget that I've got a few 2020 films still left to be reviewed, and with the Oscars roughly five weeks away, I've got a handful of 2021 releases that I need to get through as well.  I have taken sort of a sabbatical from all new movies right now, as I'm working on two "only in quarantine" arts projects (I'm re-watching from start-to-finish all six of the Middle Earth films by Peter Jackson on 4K, and then am reading for the first time Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, which by the time you're reading this I will officially be done with).  However, once these two projects finish this week, my plan is to dive into not only the remainder of my outstanding 2020 reviews, but also into the remaining films that are scattered throughout 2021 & getting Oscar buzz, so that we're as ready as we can be come nominations morning.  The most formidable film in my "drafts folder" right now is Sound of Metal, a movie that won acting honors at both the Globes & the SAG Awards last week, and it's where we'll start today.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is centered around Ruben (Ahmed) a drummer in a heavy metal duo, along with his girlfriend Lou (Cooke).  They are happy, love their music, but the loud noise has damaged Ruben's ears, to the point where he can only recognize 20% of the words spoken in a test, and it's clear that he will soon go deaf.  Ruben is told to eliminate all noise, but doesn't listen, and of course the situation continues to get worse.  Lou eventually convinces him to call his N/A sponsor, and he hooks up with a shelter for recovering deaf addicts.  While Ruben has his heart set on cochlear implants (that he can't afford as they aren't covered under his insurance), Joe (Raci), the manager at the shelter, doesn't want deafness viewed as something that needs to be cured, so Ruben needs to find his way with being deaf.  Ruben begins to find his way & accept his hearing loss, but won't give up on his dream of hearing again.  Once he eventually sells his his beloved RV to pay for the implants, Ruben realizes that he won't ever be back to what he was, as the implants sound tinny & metallic, rather than the traditional noises he heard before.  The film ends with Lou & Ruben separating (because they are now in different places in their lives), and with Ruben taking out the implants, likely accepting this new chapter of his life with a kind of grace he hadn't had before.

Sound of Metal has received a lot of praise for its acting, and there are moments of great clarity & precision in the performances.  Paul Raci's mentor is, for me, the best-in-show here as he fleshes out a very subdued mentor part, and I get why critics latched onto this work, even if my lack-of-connection to the film itself (we'll get there in a second) kept me from loving this, rather than just appreciating it.  The best scene of the film, for my money, has nothing to do with Ruben's hearing, but instead with the shifting of his relationship with Lou.  The two have grown apart romantically, but were so immersed in each other's lives for so long (and went through hell together due to Ruben's addiction), that only through Ruben finally accepting his new lot are they ready to admit that they need to move on.  Breakup scenes in movies rarely feel like they do in real life; oftentimes breakups in movies involve surprise or hurt or cheating, but in real life it's oftentimes two people who care about each other admitting they don't want to date anymore.  I thought this was well-done, and had to acknowledge it even if it's only a slight part of the film.

Where my problems lie with the movie is both in its politics and (to a degree) in Ahmed's performance. The film's politics feel, to my mind, rather one-sided.  I understand the perspective, and due to my ability to hear I'm aware I'm coming at this from a position of privilege, but I do feel like the conversation about Ruben's hearing, and how it's portrayed that he is feeling greedy or offensive by wanting his hearing back is disingenuous.  Particularly for a musician, someone whose entire life is about audible sound, it felt like there wasn't enough sympathy there for what he was giving up, even if he gained a different sort of perspective/clarity from his time with Joe.  I'm willing to admit that I might be wrong here, but that lack of discussion felt lacking, and it also resulted in Ahmed's performance (which surface-level is terrific) missing an element of dimension.  We don't get enough sense of who Ruben is, and who he saw himself as before he lost his hearing, and that doesn't come alive as the movie progresses.  The film is good (and the sound work is superb-it would be a damn shame if this didn't get nominated at the Oscars), but it's not great because of this, and as a result I can't go above 3-stars, even if it's a "high" 3-star movie.