"When this crappy, mundane world suddenly becomes radiant and magnificent...all the fear is gone."
This film is an achievement on pretty much all levels. A simple yet complex story, Sound of Metal brings a lot to the table. Riz Ahmed plays Ruben, a drummer whose hearing is rapidly deteriorating. He does an amazing job. Similar to Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water, some of the acting is silent and mainly in ASL. When not using ASL, he ranges from quiet moments to high, extreme levels of acting. Beforehand, I wasn't quiet sure how he would do. The buzz around his performance kept building, even though some hadn't even seen the film. I don't think they could've found a better actor in the scenario. This is a career defining performance and I can't wait to see what happens with it come awards season. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention Olivia Cooke and Paul Raci. Raci has the second most screentime-at least I think-and he has some really impactful scenes. Mainly, his dialogue is strong. Like Ahmed, he uses both English and ASL but primarily ASL. I wanted a little more with his character because he is there as guidance for Ruben. I could compare him to Sam Elliott in A Star is Born. Raci is the voice of judgment and has some meaty scenes. The difference is we don't delve quite as much into his character, at least as much as I wanted to. And Cooke is also a voice of judgement, but as the girlfriend. Not too much for character development or defining scenes, but the genuine performance makes up for it. I'm glad the film takes a different approach and not the typical girlfriend we might see in this type of film. She's there to help and not there to cause any drama. The casting from the lead to the small roles are all great.
This is a screenplay heavy film. Not in the sense of dialogue, but rather the description and what is happening. I haven't seen the screenplay or anything like that, but you can just tell. Darius Marder directed this extremely well. He co-wrote with Abraham Marder and the story is by Derek Cianfrance, so he has a great sense of what he wants to convey. Through tone, sound, and what is shown on screen, he hit everything right. The only thing I would like to fix with the writing and directing is some of the pacing. As I mentioned before, the film is focused on the quiet, tender moments. Sometimes this means there's not much happening. It's clever to have this but the film can feel slow at times. The runtime is 130 minutes and about 10 could've been cut down. I don't know where it could have used the most cuts but a little bit could've been helpful.
Besides the acting, writing, and directing, the sound design is one of the shining achievements. The whole film is beaded around sound. But the way they edited and mixed everything actually puts you in Ruben's headspace. You are becoming hearing with him. Then there's moments where we hear what is actually happening as a non deaf/hearing-impaired individual. Those moments of realization aid in the experience. Emotion is built with that choice. Now there's a decision made by Ruben and it's part of what we can hear with him. I'm so glad we could be part of that. The only time something like that has been done was in the TV series Undone. The sound design there is so spectacular that it could win a majority of the sound awards. If there's one thing that you can take from this film, it's that sound is a virtue.
