Movie Review - Sound of Metal

If you have to name a deaf actor, most people of a certain age, probably only those over the age of 40, would be able to name Marlee Matlin, currently the only deaf actor to have won an Academy Award for her role in Children of a Lesser God (1986), a film about a school for the deaf. Since then, typically any film that has featured an actual deaf person in a major or significant role has had Matlin in that film. In that nearly 40 years, Hollywood hasn't really cultivated deaf actors, so they could be in more leading or supporting roles. There hasn't been more of a normalizing of American Sign Language or ASL on film or mainstream cinema. There have been films here and there with deaf characters but those characters are more often or always played by hearing actors. This film is no different, but like with the 1986 Matlin film it does have a chunk take place at a school for the deaf and director Darius Marder does utilize actual deaf people or people who were fluent in ASL for those scenes.

There is a weird pattern that has emerged with regard to films dealing with deaf people or being deaf. It's a pattern that perhaps started with Mr. Holland's Opus (1995), which is a film about a music teacher and composer who has to accept the fact that he has a deaf son. That 1995 film pitted the idea of music versus deafness. It specifically pitted that particular art versus that particular disability, which makes sense as a conflict to have when a narrative is dealing with deafness. However, it's a conflict that has become recurrent and thus cliché. It's All Gone Pete Tong (2005) was a film about a musician that goes deaf, thus becoming another film that pits that audio art versus that audio disability. Creed (2015) featured a character who has his love interest be a musician that goes deaf or was hearing-impaired. Now, this film is doing the same thing.

Riz Ahmed (Venom and Nightcrawler) stars as Ruben Stone, a drummer in a heavy metal band that only consists of two people. The band is called Blackgammon, which I didn't get while watching the film. The other person in the band is Ruben's girlfriend. He's currently on tour with her. They drive around the country in a silver or aluminum-colored RV. They'll perform at a venue. Then they'll set the RV in a parking lot and sleep in it. It's revealed that Ruben is an addict. It's not exactly clear if he's an alcoholic or an addict of some other drug. It's assumed to be the latter. His mother was a nurse in the military and he never knew his dad. It's not clear if he had any other family. We never see his mother or any of his friends, which is odd because immediately Ruben starts to lose his hearing until he eventually goes totally deaf.

Olivia Cooke (Ready Player One and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) co-stars as Louisa Berger or Lou, the girlfriend to Ruben and the other half to his band. She's the lead singer and guitarist. It's revealed subtly that she has suffered from mental illness, manifesting in self harm. There is a shot of her with scars on her arm, indicative of someone who is a wrist-cutter. Later, we learn that Lou's mother committed suicide and maybe Lou has been suicidal herself. She likes music, much as her mother probably did, but doing heavy metal has been an outlet for her to deal with her depression or depressing feelings. It's presumed that Ruben was probably the one who introduced her to it and was her savior in that regard.

The film states that as much as Ruben saved Lou, Lou also saved Ruben. We assume that she saved him in regard to his addiction problems. However, Marder's script doesn't tell us how that went down. We don't even know what Ruben's drug of choice was. Lou's father lives in Paris, France. Yet, Lou is American, so it's not even clear how she and Ruben met. Nevertheless, when Ruben goes deaf, Lou is the one who pushes him to go to a rehab facility that's essentially a man's home tucked away in the woods. This man is named Joe, played by Paul Raci. Joe is deaf and is fluent in ASL. He's also a former addict who runs a support group for deaf addicts.

Ruben's time at this support group is probably the most interesting because he goes into it, not knowing any ASL. He's then thrown into a group of people who are fluent in ASL and communicate exclusively in ASL. The film doesn't provide subtitles as translation, at least not at first, so for a long time, Ruben has no clue what anyone is saying. He does go to a school for deaf children where he has to learn ASL and it's funny seeing this grown man around children who are more advanced than him in this ASL he's learning. It makes the audience feel more immersed in Ruben's experience. Eventually, the film starts to provide subtitles and translation. It's not like The Tribe (Plemya) (2015), which is a Ukraine film that is exclusively in sign language with absolutely no subtitles or translation.

Now, the film comes down to Ruben having to accept his deafness. With any film about a person dealing with a disability, it's about the person having to accept that disability. A lot of times that disability is about a person having to use a wheelchair. Examples include Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July (1989) or Jake Gyllenhaal in Stronger (2017). However, those films usually have other things happening, other themes that are reinforced, whether it's the Vietnam War or it's the Boston bombing. This film doesn't really have anything else. It's really just about Ruben accepting his disability, which is fine, if the film really dug into him and his life, and as mentioned, the film ignores Ruben's family. We never even get a scene of Ruben's mom learning her son is deaf.

An obvious question arises that what is Ruben going to do in the future. His whole life was music and now that that's gone, Joe asks Ruben what he's going to do and even offers him a job, but, by the end, the film doesn't give us a clue of what he might do going forward. Instead of not answering what Ruben will do or focusing on the cliché of a disabled person accepting a disability or conflicting it with the most obvious conflict, I would have preferred the film use itself as a platform for introducing actual deaf actors. Shaheem Sanchez is an actual deaf actor in this film. He's also a deaf dancer in real-life. Chelsea Lee is another actual deaf actor in this film. She's even a queer deaf actress. I would have preferred the film focusing on getting to know them.

Chelsea Lee is a graduate of Gallaudet University. This year, a documentary series on Netflix called Deaf U (2020) was released that was more engaging about the deaf community than this. This feels mostly as a vehicle for Riz Ahmed to campaign for an Oscar because that's the typical tactic for able-body actors to get awards by playing disabled people, just as cisgender or heterosexual actors playing queer characters. One deaf actor who could have been cast here is Tyrone Giordano (The Family Stone) who also pushes for proper deaf representation in media.

People also push for this film to get Oscars for its sound design. For some reason, people make a big deal with the fact that this film simply turns the sound down to absolute zero. For some reason, people want to reward silence. It's similar to people's reactions to A Quiet Place (2018) or Hush (2016). I'm not sure how award-worthy quiet should be awarded.

Rated R for language and brief nude images.
Running Time: 2 hrs.

Available on Amazon Prime.