Sound of Metal (2019)

[Synchg]

i play drums and also started developing the ringing noises as described in beginning of movie, and booooy was i booooored with this movie, cannot relate beyond the beginning.
I thought i was gonna get some documentation and background on what its like to be in a band, but it friggin "Regarding Henry"d me with the feelz i care not about. booooo

[JayTL]

I mean I cannot relate to any character at all in the movie, but I still thought it was engaging and emotional. All around great movie. But to each their own

[Purplenoon]

Originally Posted by Synchg

i play drums and also started developing the ringing noises as described in beginning of movie, and booooy was i booooored with this movie, cannot relate beyond the beginning.
I thought i was gonna get some documentation and background on what its like to be in a band, but it friggin "Regarding Henry"d me with the feelz i care not about. booooo

It was a movie about dealing with an unexpected disability that comes out of nowhere, namely hearing impairment, not about being in a band. The acting was great (& Oscar worthy), the sound design was Oscar worthy as well. I worked in the disability community for 40 years. I occasionally encountered people who had lived normal lives for years and overnight were faced with similar dilemmas as the one encountered by Riz in this flick. I never thought I’d ever see a movie that dealt with such a unique and sensitive subject this well. Kudos to everyone involved. It is a film for the ages. I’m sorry if it dealt you such a bad hand. Maybe try WHIPLASH?

[Synchg]

Originally Posted by Purplenoon

It was a movie about dealing with an unexpected disability that comes out of nowhere, namely hearing impairment, not about being in a band. The acting was great (& Oscar worthy), the sound design was Oscar worthy as well. I worked in the disability community for 40 years. I occasionally encountered people who had lived normal lives for years and overnight were faced with similar dilemmas as the one encountered by Riz in this flick. I never thought I’d ever see a movie that dealt with such a unique and sensitive subject this well. Kudos to everyone involved. It is a film for the ages. I’m sorry if it dealt you such a bad hand. Maybe try WHIPLASH?

the feels in this movie

[BluCollector13]

Originally Posted by Yaziel Esquivel

Will this eventually get a blu ray release?

Given Amazon distributed it, the only way I see "Sound of Metal" (and "One Night in Miami...") getting a Blu release is if Criterion distributes it like they did "Cold War".

[BluCollector13]

Originally Posted by BluCollector13

Given Amazon distributed it, the only way I see "Sound of Metal" (and "One Night in Miami...") getting a Blu release is if Criterion distributes it like they did "Cold War".

S * * t, I was right.

[MasterChief3624]

This was a truly phenomenal film. I wasn't sure at first, because the music at the beginning was definitely not something I enjoyed. But god, this movie hit me hard. Long review incoming. Also spoilers for both this film and Room with Brie Larson.

[Show spoiler]I had a scare a year or so ago where I thought I was losing my hearing. It was scaring the hell out of me, putting me through panic attack after panic attack, thinking of things like, "I'll never be able to hear the music in Phantom of the Opera again, I won't hear my kitties meow ever again, I won't be able to live my life anymore." It was so scary. I went to the doctor and they didn't see any blockage, so that scared me even more.

Thankfully, we eventually figured out it was a Eustachian tube dysfunction, and everything was okay. But that fear that I was becoming vulnerable and aging, losing something that was so important... God, it was awful. So naturally, I connected so much to this movie and the protagonist's struggle to maintain normalcy while this happened. Riz Ahmed's performance was stellar. When he was doing his hearing test, you could see the pain and fear in his face. It was subtle, like he was trying to process what will be happening if he becomes deaf, and it really struck me.

That scene was expertly directed, too. We hear the words and think that he's actually saying the right ones, but then we go to the audiologist's perspective and realize just how badly he's doing with recalling the words. It was a great reveal.

Speaking of direction (if this is part of it), the subtitles added a layer to the film, too. When he first gets to the deaf community, there are no subtitles for the American Sign Language. Whenever people are using it around him, there are no subtitles. At first I was thinking, "Shoot, I wish I knew what they were saying." And then it hit me: that's the point. We're supposed to be just as lost as the main character. Later on, the subtitles do kick in, when we see how he has adjusted to his new life. Such a small detail that a lot of people might miss, but brilliant.

The guy that played his mentor at the deaf community was outstanding, too. Really there were no bad actors. Everyone was top-notch.

How the movie portrayed the main character's incredulousness of the situation and apprehension to go into the deaf community was so realistic.

I also appreciated this movie's realism in its resolution. When he was eyeing that implant, he thought, "Okay, that's all I need, then I'll be able to get back to life as normal. It won't change a thing, I just need to get the money for it." He finally got it, and just like that audiologist scene, Riz's performance is subtle but you can tell the anxiety is kicking in when he's unsure of the newfound sound. You can see his will falling apart as he realizes, even with this safety net, life will never be the same. He still has to adjust and adapt, uproot everything for this new paradigm.

All the scenes with it afterwards only further demonstrated his amazing acting, teetering between "I can deal with this sound" and "I hate this, and I can't use this anymore" until finally the cacophony got to him and all we hear is true silence, circling back to his mentor's comment about "Have you ever just sat in silence?" Or whatever. Such a great bookend.

Sorry, to expand on the realism of the resolutions, it reminded me a lot of Brie Larson in Room. Most of the time a movie like that might have a really happy ending, like "Yay! They got out, and now life is great." But it didn't portray that, instead opting to show a more realistic view that just because she was out of that situation doesn't mean she is okay. That trauma ran deep. It wasn't a happy ending for her, it was something she needed to adjust to and had a hard time doing. This movie is the same, in that under different direction or writing it might be much more hopeful and positive. But instead, it was akin to what I consider much more realistic, not happy and not sad. Just real.

I can't tell you how much I loved this film. It was heartbreaking but so so so well-done. I was introduced to Riz Ahmed in Venom and thought he was just awful. But this movie shows that you can not judge an actor on one performance, because they can surprise the hell out of you. I hear having a good director is also key to great performances, so there's another brownie point to the director of this film.

Just amazing.

[imsounoriginal]

The Ringer: Make the Case: Riz Ahmed for Best Actor

The ‘Sound of Metal’ star pours himself into his role as a drummer rapidly losing his hearing and turns a pretty good movie into something close to great with a punishing performance

Ahmed elevates that inherent cliché, though, by somehow making you feel his hopeless struggle to hear the way he used to hear, eyes bugging just so, jaw clenching just so, shoulders slumped just so. Sound of Metal’s pace is somehow too slow and too fast simultaneously: Post-doughnut, Ahmed’s adaptation to the commune, and to sign language, is almost frictionless, but it takes him far too long to realize the pricey cochlear implants he covets won’t bring him anything resembling peace. So the movie mostly just … sits with him. It is a great mercy that Ahmed is such a compelling person to sit with. He forces you into stillness, but a rich and infinitely varied stillness that Joe later describes as “the kingdom of God.”

[xbs2034]

Ahmed’s great in this, but not in a year with Boseman and Hopkins (who I both think gave all time great level performances). Even with the weird movie year in general, I think the Best Actor category was stacked.

[imsounoriginal]

yeah I don't expect Ahmed to win, and I haven't seen the Boseman and Hopkins performances yet to compare. But I like Ahmed a lot as an actor, and would love for him to pull off the upset. (I also tend to agree with the piece's assessment of the movie: solid, but elevated by its performances more than anything else.)

[Foggy]

I posted a pretty good write up last night onto my Letterboxd about how this really surprised me, like I expected to like it but I wasn’t expecting some of the things it began conjuring up from my childhood in regards to hearing problems.

I might actually have Ahmed as my favourite out of the best actor lot, Hopkins is great but he always is, and I think the tricksy staginess of The Father hankers him. Boseman was phenomenal and was truly giving it his all in Ma Rainey and will most likely be the winner, but Ahmed achieved so much physically, you can really feel he has just physically altered the way he reacts to stuff within the film.

Definitely the film out of the best pic bunch that feels like it broke through thanks to the year we just had, but certainly deserving of it’s place.

[thenexus6]

Good film; watched it the other night.

As some one that has tinnitus watching this at night, where a lot of the film is silent was interesting. The soundtrack to the film was the loud ringing in my own ears!

[Scottie]

Just finished watching it. Absolutely astonishing.

[Blu Lemmy]

Originally Posted by Scottie

Just finished watching it. Absolutely astonishing.

I watched it last week myself, simply superb

[roborunner94]