Sound of Metal (5/5 Stars)

 

It may seem like an odd comparison but watching “Sound of Metal” reminded me of watching the science fiction movie “The Martian” starring Matt Damon. When I reviewed that movie, I remarked that narrative stories usually derive conflict from characters: antagonists, love triangles, class warfare or crime, kiss kiss bang bang, but that movie had no conflict between characters. The problem was scientific (Matt Damon marooned on Mars) and all the characters were aligned in helping him solve this scientific problem (how to survive for a particular amount of time before rescue). The “Sound of Metal” is like that. It stars Riz Ahmed as Ruben and Olivia Cooke as Lou. Ruben and Lou are members of a heavy metal band. She plays guitar and sings. Ruben plays the drums. They are doing well, touring the country by day and playing at night, until one day, just like that, while perusing a record store, Ruben loses his hearing. It is stunning scene, made brilliantly real by the tour de force sound design of Nicolas Becker (give him all the Oscars) which (and I looked this up) mimics what losing your hearing actually sounds like (in Ruben’s case he loses the higher frequencies first, resulting in the ominous low thrumming sounds of the lower frequencies. But after this, and throughout the rest of the movie, there is not a single character that is not united in helping Ruben with his problem. Music was his life and the basis of his most important relationships. He has lost it and with that a host of other mental and emotional problems automatically crop up, not the least of which is his history as an addict.

Of course, “The Martian” was about engineers solving engineering problems. One of Ruben’s first steps, an incredibly wise one, is to call up his AA sponsor for advice. His sponsor finds him a deaf support group. This deaf support group is run by Joe, played by Paul Raci. As an introduction, he explains that what they do there is seek a solution to this (he points to his head) and not this (he points to his ears. “The Sound of Metal” does have doctors, and those helpful and competent doctors that Ruben sees do solve medical problems. But even more than this, the “Sound of Metal” has humans solving human problems, things that go beyond mere hearing loss and enter the realm of what can be pretentiously called the problems of living, or even more pretentiously, enlightenment. The “Sound of Metal” is a great movie and it has been so long since I’ve seen a great movie as a new release. I’ve missed the feeling.

            Movies are a collaborative effort and “Sound of Metal” is such a beautiful demonstration of that reality. Riz Ahmed’s performance is brilliant, but it is made more brilliant by the sound design which so perceptibly puts the audience into the experience of his hearing, which made even more brilliant by the choices of the writer/director Darius Marder as to when to tell the story through Ruben’s experience (in which we hear what he hears) and when to tell the story from a third-person vantage point (in which we hear what he should hear). These choices are flawless as far as I can tell. Some of them, and I am thinking of a particular party in which we hear a duet on piano transform from perfect clarity to the static discordance perceived by cochlear implants, have great emotional weight to them in the context of the story and of course the performances of the actors.

 

            Previously to “Sound of Metal”, the most prominent movie to deal with deafness would have been 1986’s “Children of a Lesser God” which was heralded as important to the deaf community and resulted in the first Oscar win for a deaf actor (Marleee Matlin). It is interesting to note the differences between the movies as a measure of society’s understanding of disability. “Children of a Lesser God” was about a teacher of deaf teenagers whose main goal was to persuade his reticent pupils to speak verbally, an important part of communicating with the outside world. He has a romantic affair with a colleague (Marlee Matlin) who refuses to speak. The movie’s climax occurs when she is finally bullied into speaking and we hear her decidedly ugly voice in a loud outburs. Roger Ebert had a particularly good criticism when he noted that in a scene which was supposed to give the audience the feeling of deafness (a swim in water) the sound of silence was completely overwhelmed by the musical score. The “Sound of Metal” has a completely different mission. The deaf support group would have Ruben learn how to be deaf, as this is what is most likely to bring him emotional peace and help him avoid a relapse into addiction. The deaf community is shown as its own culture, perfectly happy people who are fine with not being completely included in the outside world (although it should be noted, that the unsung hero of this group is the church whose donations make it possible). The climax of this movie is not an audible explosion, but a moment of silence.

            Riz Ahmed has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. It feels like the Oscar this year will be granted to Chadwick Boseman, a beloved actor who should have been nominated before (I’m thinking “Get on Up”) but was not until this year and only after he shockingly died of cancer way before his time. I know it would be hard arguing against it, and a little classless too, but I would rather Riz Ahmed won. He put in the better performance and the Oscars, if they have any value, are as a guide for future cinephiles looking for recommendations for great movies to watch. “Sound of Metal” is a great movie. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is not (see “Get on Up” instead). The more awards that go to the former, the more people who will see it, and so much the better.