For a drummer, the literal heartbeat of any band, the only thing more precious than your hands are your ears, crucial not only for maintaining timing and rhythm but also the dynamics and community of your fellow musicians around you.
The thought of losing that vital sense lends a visceral, pounding fear worthy of a horror movie in “Sound of Metal,” a devastating musical drama that has haunted yours truly since I saw it back in 2019.
Led by Oscar nominee Riz Ahmed (“The Phoenician Scheme,” “The Night Of”) and directed and co-written by Darius Marder (“Loot,” “The Place Beyond the Pines”), the heart-crushing title poses an impossible question to any musician: Would you risk your own hearing to continue making the music you love?
Such is the fate of Ahmed’s Ruben Stone after one too many gigs of hard-hitting, ear-splitting metal music, a choice made even more complicated by the fact of Ruben’s sobriety efforts.
One of the best movies on Prime Video, the impact of “Sound of Metal” thumps on long after the credits roll. Here’s why you should check out the drama on Amazon’s streaming service and add it to your watchlist.
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In “Sound of Metal,” Riz Ahmed stars as Ruben Stone, a punk-rock drummer and recovering addict whose world is upturned when he starts experiencing intermittent hearing loss. When a specialist warns him that his condition will worsen should he not give up his base-thumping lifestyle, Ruben begins to spiral, mourning the loss of his music career and life’s passion.
His girlfriend-slash-bandmate Lou Berger (Olivia Cooke) checks Ruben into a secluded sober house for the deaf in the hopes that it will prevent him from relapse. There, he learns not only how to be a member of the deaf community but also how to face the realities of his new normal.
Along with being one of the most acclaimed movies of 2019, “Sound of Metal” is one of the finest examples that cinema is as much an aural experience as it is a visual medium.
The musical drama scored Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor for Ahmed and Best Supporting Actor for Paul Raci, as well as deserved wins for Best Sound and Best Film Editing.
The masterful sound design shifts between high volume, distorted noise and sudden silence, not only mimicking the experience of hearing loss but immersively and viscerally putting the audience inside the perspective of Ahmed’s Ruben throughout the entire feature, never letting up that this is a life-altering situation that the character cannot escape.
For the strength of that sound experience as well as its affecting acting performances, the drama received near-universal praise from critics. It garnered an excellent 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 281 reviews, with the site’s critical consensus reading: “An evocative look at the experiences of the deaf community, ‘Sound of Metal’ is brought to life by Riz Ahmed’s passionate performance.”
Watch “Sound of Metal” on Prime Video now
