"Sound Of Metal" -- Movie Review

This week, MoMA Film screened the award-nominated “Sound Of Metal”, starring Riz Ahmed.

Synopsis

When a drummer realizes he’s losing his hearing, can he handle the changes in his life and livelihood?  

Story

As a drummer in a heavy metal band, Ruben Stone (Ahmed) is struggling; with all the exposure to loud music over the years, he’s having difficulty playing because he can’t hear the music as well as he did in the past.  When he goes to the doctor, some tests are run and it is determined that Ruben has in fact suffered some hearing loss – he’s only able to hear around a quarter of what he should be able to hear.  This causes Ruben to panic – not only is he in danger of losing his career as a musician, but he’s also in danger of losing his girlfriend Louise (Olivia Cooke), who also happens to be the lead singer and guitarist in the band. 

During his doctor visit, he learns that there is a possibility that he could get his hearing back, but it’s both risky and expensive:  it’s called a cochlear implant.  As the doctor explains, there’s no 100% guarantee but this is Ruben’s best bet:  basically, there’s a surgical implant that would effectively “trick” his brain into thinking that he’s hearing again.  The problem is the procedure can cost anywhere from $40,000 to $80,000 and it’s not something that’s covered by insurance.  With that being the case, Ruben is forced to confront the truth and admit to Louise that he’s going deaf. 

Reaching out to some friends, Louise learns of a deaf community that is run by Joe (Paul Raci), a Vietnam war veteran who became deaf as a result of his service.  The benefit of the community would be not only a support system of others who have suffered a similar hearing loss but also, that he would be able to learn how to live with his impairment as well as get lessons in American Sign Language.  Ruben isn’t crazy about diving into this but when Louise leaves to live with her father, he understands he no longer has any options.  After living at the community for a while, he sells all of his possessions in order to get the implant – but after the surgery, will Louise take him back?

Review

While a great deal of much-deserved attention has been bestowed upon Riz Ahmed’s excellent performance, what seems more remarkable is how well this story is told.  Director Darius Marder made the interesting choice of having the audience experience the world the way Ruben did – not quite hearing things all that well.  As a result, a considerable amount of captioning occurs all throughout the film so the viewer can still follow along.  Although daring, it does work, given the context of the story.  This technique definitely succeeds in giving you the sense of isolation Ruben is experiencing. 

One thing is that with the audio being distorted so much of the time, it does become a little annoying at times.  Although to some degree this gets offset with the captioning, it can be rather distracting.  Despite this, one of the ways the story succeeds is that it takes us into the world of the hearing impaired – not just how they live and survive, but also the medical advances that have been made over the years.  Yet, there are some that reject this technology that is designed to help because it rejects the special community they have formed.       

Following the screening, an interview of director Darius Marder and Riz Ahmed was streamed.  Ahmed said that during the shooting, he was given an audio blocker to place in his ear in order to create a sense of disorientation when he couldn’t hear.  In researching the story, Marder learned that the deaf community does not see their inability to hear as a disability – in fact, they think that calling it a disability in the first place is something of an insult.  They prefer instead to think of it as a different ability; that is why the concept of the cochlear implant is so controversial – they have their own community and to get the implant is to completely reject that.