Post by Dracula on Dec 26, 2020 10:29:19 GMT -5
Sound of Metal(12/24/2020)
Riz Ahmed is an actor who’s been slowly climbing the ranks of esteem but he’s never quite had the optimal feature film starring vehicle to show off his talents and that made his latest film Sound of Metal rather exciting. Directed by Darius Marder, who co-wrote The Place Beyond the Pines with Derek Cianfrance and another collaborator, the film looks at a man who played the drums in a heavy metal band fronted by his girlfriend who suddenly finds himself losing his hearing and by extension his livelihood as a musician and possibly his relationship to his girlfriend who he can no longer communicate with. Eventually he goes to a community for the deaf to learn some skills to cope with his situation, which is where the bulk of the film is set. Ahmed’s character was plainly a flawed person long before he started to lose his hearing; he’s a heavily tattooed and seemingly rather wild person as well as a recovering addict and some of the rigors needed for life in this deafness boot camp are rather difficult for him. Marder shot the film on 35mm and give it a certain gritty down to earthiness and employs some pretty effective sound design to convey the nature of his partial hearing loss and its peak into the deaf community certainly looks authentic. Ahmed and his co-star Paul Raci are not actually deaf but most of the rest of the deaf characters in the film are and there are also some solid turns by Olivia Cooke and Mathieu Amalric in hearing roles. I’m not sure how well the film will do with award bodies, it lacks a certain kind of polish that tends to be a requirement in that world, but as a character study and as a meditation on disability it accomplishes quite a bit.
**** out of Five
Riz Ahmed is an actor who’s been slowly climbing the ranks of esteem but he’s never quite had the optimal feature film starring vehicle to show off his talents and that made his latest film Sound of Metal rather exciting. Directed by Darius Marder, who co-wrote The Place Beyond the Pines with Derek Cianfrance and another collaborator, the film looks at a man who played the drums in a heavy metal band fronted by his girlfriend who suddenly finds himself losing his hearing and by extension his livelihood as a musician and possibly his relationship to his girlfriend who he can no longer communicate with. Eventually he goes to a community for the deaf to learn some skills to cope with his situation, which is where the bulk of the film is set. Ahmed’s character was plainly a flawed person long before he started to lose his hearing; he’s a heavily tattooed and seemingly rather wild person as well as a recovering addict and some of the rigors needed for life in this deafness boot camp are rather difficult for him. Marder shot the film on 35mm and give it a certain gritty down to earthiness and employs some pretty effective sound design to convey the nature of his partial hearing loss and its peak into the deaf community certainly looks authentic. Ahmed and his co-star Paul Raci are not actually deaf but most of the rest of the deaf characters in the film are and there are also some solid turns by Olivia Cooke and Mathieu Amalric in hearing roles. I’m not sure how well the film will do with award bodies, it lacks a certain kind of polish that tends to be a requirement in that world, but as a character study and as a meditation on disability it accomplishes quite a bit.
**** out of Five
