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Bird's Eye Review: Darius Marder's 'Sound Of Metal' and the Nature of Sound

Updated: Jun 18, 2023

RATING: 4.8 STARS


Movies to watch if you enjoyed this: Beautiful Boy (2018), C'mon C'mon (2021)

Hello again, and welcome to the second installment of 'A Birds Eye Review' by me, Geana. I hope that this series will take us on a journey together to weird and wonderfully forgotten and underrated crevasses of modern cinema, and that you also might come to enjoy, and maybe even love the beauty of film as much as I do. Enjoy!



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First Impressions

'Sound Of Metal' (2019) is a film by Darius Marder, and stars Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke as a nomadic couple - who travel with their touring heavy metal rock band - dealing with the sudden deafness of Ruben, brilliantly portrayed by Ahmed. Ruben's world is shaken when, one night before a show, he is suddenly unable to hear anything. At first hiding it from his girlfriend, Luo, Ruben's life begins to fall apart. When his hearing does not return after days, he has to face the truth and begin a new life as a recovered addict being stripped of his primary form of communication. He and Lou learn of a place where deaf recovered and recovering addicts can live a stable and happy life, but it means leaving her, and his past life, behind. The film is silently deafening, and, although a two-hour long film, it is scripted in only 80 pages. It is beautifully poetic, and it's themes are intrinsic. Seeing representation of the deaf community in such an impactful film is truly heartwarming, and the characters were brilliantly and meticulously cast. I honestly cannot imagine anyone else playing Ruben, Ahmed was made for this role.


Replacing one addiction with another

We are only made aware of Ruben's history of addiction when he arrives at the treatment center. He meets Joe (played by Paul Raki), who explains how the community supports addicts who have different levels of hearing loss. "You're an addict?" he speaks and signs. After replying that he was, but has been sober for a number of years, Ruben learns that the facility is specifically for people like him. It is this feeling of belonging, and of community, that scares him the most, and the values of the center itself are what leads to the climax of the film where he rejects his new life and opts for cochlea implant surgery, which Joe then explains is a rejection of their values, and after Ruben proceeds to ask Joe for money after spending all his on the surgery, subsequently is forced to cast him out in an emotional and heart breaking scene.


Ruben is forced to come to terms with his addictions, and although he is technically a recovered addict, it is clear there are other areas in his life that have not recovered from his toxic lifestyle, habits and emotional instability. He basically replaces his drug addiction with sound addiction, and when that is taken away from him, he becomes obsessed with trying to recover it - to recover what he thinks is his identity. Another movie that deals with addiction in such a profound and raw way is Felix Van Groeningen's 2018 film 'Beautiful Boy'. The scene that comes to mind is at the café when Nic (Timothée Chalamet) says to his father - played by Steve Carrell (yes, that's right, I said Steve Carrell!) - in his desperate, eccentric state, "This is me dad, here, this is who I am!". This is another brilliant portrayal of the self-identity tied to an addiction. Ruben's true journey is his discovery that his hearing, or lack thereof, does not define or constrain him, but is something that gives him the gift of chosen family, love and community, and belonging.


The transformative power of silence

In the resolution of the film, Ruben finds himself reborn, and reformed by a drastic change in lifestyle. Instead of having to adapt and change because of being deaf, it is in being deaf that he is changed. The silence changes him. After being disappointed by his surgery and implants, he is faced with a final decision as he sits on a bench in Paris, trying to enjoy the distorted sounds that his new hearing device have given him. He tries desperately to find a last string of will power to push through the discomfort as we hear what he hears - sounds most people would find truly excruciating to have to endure. Within the space of a few seconds, we can see his expression and body language change (Again, a truly remarkable performance by Ahmed) as he resides to the fact, and accepts, that his life is going to be something different. For the first time, he welcomes the silence instead of trying to cure it. The device - which, after the surgery requires him to magnetically attach a device to his head above his ear - is finally removed, ending his torment. And thus, the silence is welcomed with relief from everyone. It is the most glorious 10 seconds of cinematic normalcy I've seen to date.


A reactivation of the senses

Let's talk about the sound design. It essentially jumps between Ruben's inner subjective hearing and objective outside audio (his surroundings and other characters speaking around and to him). But what is more, every diegetic sound is amplified, perhaps it's dishes being clanked together, a bicycle bell, the crackling of boots in gravel or typing on a computer keyboard. This heightening of the auditory experience causes the viewer to become hyperaware of this sense that Ruben lacks. The sound creates a parallel narrative that mirrors the one being acted. it becomes it's own story.


During the operation scene, the drilling and intense medical soundscape is like fingernails on a chalkboard, and we want it to be over as quickly as it arrived. It is a horrific crime to the ear, and we fear for Rubens future after the surgery. It is foretelling of his struggle and discomfort. It is both this scene, and the scene where he first switches on the implant device, that contribute to the feeling that we somehow know he will have taken it off by the end of the film, but perhaps that was a technique to help us come by the conclusion that it is not so much when, but how he comes to make the decision. The following excruciating minutes are difficult to watch, as a bustling city and doorbell cause trouble for Ruben. This is not what he imagined his hearing would be like.


The audio changes to the subjective when Ruben enters Lou's new life - her new world she has formed without him. He watches on at a party filled with people vastly different from himself and his life. The sense of luxury that surrounds him isolates him, and he wallows in his own mess, and is faced with the consequences of his actions - leaving the community that could have offered him a chance at a happy life.


The best scenes (In my opinion)

There are so many intense, touching moments in this film, these are 3 of my favorites...


The slide scene: Ruben offers to take on of the deaf children in the school out to play because he is too distracted in class. Ruben sits at the bottom of the slide while the boy looks at him from the top. Ruben begins to hit the metal slide in time to a slow drum beat. The boy lays his ear on the slide, feeling the vibrations. It is completely silent. For him, the sound of metal is silent, but rather felt. It encompasses Rubens journey of opening his heart to feeling instead of just relying on his sense of hearing. The makes connections with people on a deeper level.


Ruben gets kicked out: I already spoke about this scene here, but I cannot stress enough how well acted this scene is, especially by Paul Raki. It left me shaken. it's simplicity is raw, and I took in every facial expression and gesture.


The final scene: I already spoke about this, in depth here. But can say watching this scene for the first time is something I wish I could do again. This closing scene was just a perfect resolution.




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