Riz Ahmed is Ruben, a metal drummer whose hearing is rapidly deteriorating to oblivion in “Sound of Metal.” He happens to be dating Lou (Olivia Cooke), the singer of their metal duo band, Blackgammon. When Ruben’s hearing starts to go and, in horrifyingly authentic ways, disappears, Lou becomes the voice of judgment, but only as his girlfriend.
Darius Marder directed and co-wrote “Sound of Metal” with Abraham Marder, based on a story by Derek Cianfrance (director of “Blue Valentine”). Through tone and sound, they create a world where the viewer is immersed inside Ruben’s head, focusing on the ranges of sounds he hears (and doesn’t).
The film starts off with a thundering bang, the intense amalgam of noise and rattle of a rock band, before slowly deviating into the quiet and tender world of silence that Ruben has to get used to. Sometimes this means that not much happens in “Sound of Metal,” especially when Ruben enters a facility meant as rehab for the deaf — that’s when the owner of the facility, Joe (An Oscar-worthy Paul Raci) comes in. Joe uses English and ASL, but primarily ASL, as he quickly becomes the ultimate guide for Ruben, the voice of judgment who tries to introduce the now ex-drummer into a foreign world, where sound is all but forgotten and reliance on sign language is essential.
Clocking in at 130 minutes, “Sound of Metal” could have used some tightening in its midsection. If anything, it’s Ahmed that makes the film worthy of a look; the work he does here is silent and mainly in ASL. He ranges from quiet moments to high, extreme levels of acting. This is one of two career-defining performances for the 37-year-old U.K.-born actor, the other being his masterfully mysterious work in the HBO limited series, “The Night Of.”
Besides the acting, Maria Carolina and Santana Caraballo-Gramcko’s sound design is the other shining achievement. The whole film is beaded around sound and performance. But the way Santana and Caraballo-Gramckosound edit and mix everything actually puts you in Ruben’s headspace for much of the film. You hear what he hears and feel what he feels. Those moments of realization aid in the experience. Emotion is built with that choice, and it all ends with a stunning final shot filled with the kind of subversion lacking in modern American cinema. [B/B+]
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.