Sound of Metal

Ruben and Lou are the heavy metal duo Blackgammon. Ruben (Riz Ahmed) is the drummer and Lou (Olivia Cooke) is the vocalist. They've had plenty of experience with the Sound of Metal, which is also the title of this Amazon Prime exclusive.

One day, Ruben suddenly goes deaf. He finds himself with around 26% capacity hearing. He wants to get through his latest tour but that's becoming impossible. Lou fears he'll relapse into drugs and helps him meet Joe (Paul Raci). Joe, deaf since Vietnam, runs a community for deaf recovering addicts. Joe tries to help Ruben and others like him adjust to a soundless world. But Ruben is looking forward to afford some Cochlear Implants. They're not what he expects.

This marks the feature directorial debut of Darius Marder, a co-writer of 2013's indie thriller The Place Beyond the Pines. He co-wrote the script with his brother Abraham and Pines director Derek Cianfrance. It's an intense story even without gunfights or car chases. Ruben's hearing loss is initially nightmarish. Anyone with some sudden disability can empathize. But we see him learn to accept it in due time. There are some slow spots but it's natural considering Ruben's arc

Ahmed's performance is great. One can tell that Ruben lives life fast - mostly - and hard. He's still a nice guy with a great relationship with Lou. His sudden deafness tells him to slow down. He finds some new friends and a purpose as a teacher's aide. He sells his RV and bargains to buy it back like a desperate addict (something Joe notices). We see the desperation and pity in his eyes. His story is a great case study for the Five Stages of Grief.

The most obvious technical stars are the sound people. They distort and undistort Ruben's sound world for the audience to hear. We sometimes hear the sound perfectly normal. It then sounds like being underwater. It's simply muffled in other times. The cochlear implants make it sound like an old video game. So it's a relief when he finally removes them for sweet silence. I just spoiled the ending, didn't I? Anyway, the sound mixing is a great model for anyone looking to join that field. There's also no underscore save for an end credits song.

I should have seen Sound of Metal sooner. It's a story that means a lot of things. But it especially means that having a disability is not the end of the world. It's not as depressing as I thought it be. Ahmed and the sound designers deserve whatever praise they get - or have gotten. It's still on Amazon Prime ready for you to press play. Prepare to hear a lot without hearing it.