NB Reviews: Sound of Metal

All the spoilers, by the way.

Welcome back to my ongoing series reviewing and analyzing all eight nominees for the Academy Award for Best Picture in the lead up to Oscar night. I am honestly so happy to talk about a movie I actually like this time around.

The List So Far:

8. Nomadland

7. Sound of Metal

Sound of Metal is the breakout work of director of director Darius Marder. It follows a heavy metal drummer named Ruben in the wake of losing his hearing. First off, the sound design is excellent in the film, audibility dipping in and out as we shift into Ruben's perspective, sometimes in the same shot. The sound design also gets another brilliant factor to it when Ruben gets cochlear implants later in the movie, every sound now taking on a metallic quality. This also gives the film's title a clever double-meaning.

Also worth praise are the performances of Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke playing Ruben and his girlfriend, Lou. Ahmed has to give us a lot of subtle reactions throughout the film. The first time his implants are turned on, there's this initial excitement on his face at being able to hear again followed by a deep disappointment that things will never sound like they used to. Cooke, meanwhile, is given a role that could easily come off as unlikable if she did not perfectly get her motivations across. She has to abandon her newly deaf boyfriend without seeming like a bad person. And I think Cooke, through the vulnerability she brings to the screen, is able to do that. It's clear when you look at her how much Ruben's dissatisfaction with his deafness and his unwillingness to seek help are eating her up.

Both of there performances culminate in the film's climactic scene when they are reunited post-implants and realize that, though they bare each other no ill will, their relationship has run its course. Ruben just has to give Lou the permission to recognize that and not feel bad. It's a very emotionally complex and melancholy moment and both actors play their parts there perfectly.

One part of the film that I was not as enamored with was its messaging. I am going to heavily disclaimer this with the fact that I am not a member of the deaf community. I have a close friend who was in a long-term relationship with a partially-deaf woman, but I have never actually known a person fluent in ASL or deaf themselves. So, I really know zilch about deafness. However, I couldn't help feeling as though the film felt very unfair to people who choose to get cochlear implants.

After Ruben gets his implants in the film, the deaf community he has built up turns on him. This includes the kindly mentor figure that he has picked up along the way, Joe (played by Paul Raci), who compares his wanting to hear to being a drug addict and kicks him out of their shared living space. And then Joe is portrayed as being right at the film's end when Ruben implicitly elects to turn his implants off permanently and embrace the silence. I understand that this is a very real friction in the deaf community for a lot of very complex reasons and I would have felt okay with the film embracing ambiguity on the question...but to so thoroughly condemn people who get implants doesn't feel right to me.

This has lead me to a larger philosophical question, though: Do I have to agree with art to enjoy it? I certainly still enjoyed this movie. I watch Marvel movies and TV shows regularly without a hint of moral confusion despite the fact that I'm not a big fan of military overreach. I love The West Wing even though I'm much farther left than the writers of that show. Hell, my dad loves that show and he's a Republican. So I guess the answer is no, I don't personally need to agree with art's messaging to enjoy it. But why is the messaging in Sound of Metal bugging me when none of that other stuff does?

I think it might be the condemnation. Other works that I like despite not agreeing with their messages are simply pointing to the way of life they promote and saying "This is right." Sound of Metal is looking at what it does not agree with and saying "This is wrong." Obviously both ideas are the implicit flip sides of each other. If one idea is right, the opposite idea has to be wrong. But simply holding up what you think is right is not as aggressive towards those who disagree as pointing to what you think is wrong. Maybe my way of thinking is entirely wrong though and my thoughts deserve to be condemned.

Either way, go see Sound of Metal. It's really good and worth it.