Sound of Metal

D: Darius Marder

Amazon/Caviar/Ward Four/Flat 7 (Bill Benz, Kathy Benz, Bert Hamelinck & Sacha Ben Harroche)

US 2019 (released 2020)

120 mins

Drama

W: Darius Marder

DP: Daniel Bouquet

Ed: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen

Mus: Abraham Marder & Nicolas Becker

Riz Ahmed (Ruben Stone), Olivia Cooke (Lou Berger), Paul Raci (Joe), Lauren Ridloff (Diane), Mathieu Amalric (Richard Berger)

Filmed in 2019 and released to streaming services in 2020, Sound Of Metal is a drama about a heavy metal drummer who loses his hearing and attends a shelter for deaf people with a history of drug & alcohol addiction.

Riz Ahmed gives a solid performance in the lead and received excellent support from both Paul Raci & Olivia Cooke, but the real star of the picture is the ingenious sound design.

There is a subplot about the lead character’s history of heroin addiction, but it’s very much in the usual Hollywood vein of drug addiction making people look slightly tousled, rather than presenting how dangerous the drug can really be. It didn’t really do much for a film where a man’s struggles with losing his ability to hear is more than enough to drive the story. 

7/10