Ruben Stone (Riz Ahmed) is challenged by his rehab sponsor: Sit in a room completely silent. If you’re unable to do that, write about what’s going through your mind. As a recovering addict and blossoming rockstar, this is difficult to do by itself. But with Ruben’s rapidly deteriorating hearing, he fears the silence like no other. The Darius Marder-directed Sound of Metal explores a musician’s struggle with identity due to his new disability. An experiment of sound design paired with a stellar lead performance makes for a captivating film.
Along with his girlfriend, Lou (Olivia Cooke), Ruben co-leads the metal band Blackgammon. They travel to gigs in their Winnebago and bond over the open road. Ruben loses his hearing in a sudden way, causing concern. Afraid, he goes to an audiologist to discover his hearing loss is pretty advanced. Concerned about his sobriety being in jeopardy from the shocking news, Lou convinces Ruben to go to a community retreat for the deaf. While there, he balances the warring feelings of living to learn and love himself as a deaf person while wishing for his old life.
Befitting the movie’s subject matter, Sound of Metal relies on its sound design to further dramatize Ruben’s struggle. When Ruben first loses his hearing, sound becomes muffled. This continues throughout the film, with the occasional change from muffled to un-muffled. This makes for a captivating aural experience for the audience, immersing them in Ruben’s journey in a way visuals alone could not achieve. When we move into the second half of the film, the sound pivots again, this time becoming more distorted. The decision to convey limited hearing by messing with the viewer’s own ability to understand and hear what’s going on is a risky one, but it pays off.