My Review of "Sound of Metal"

The Sound of Metal is a small budgeted movie that came out in 2019. Not a lot of advertising had come out for this movie. Through word of mouth recently, this movie has been getting some buzz. I think people like the existential exploration of the main character. Through his adventure of finding himself we see a lot of genuine situations and emotions. It's a lot to take in and that's what makes this movie great.

The movie starts off with a concert with our main protagonist Ruben and his romantic partner Lou. The two are a metal band duo. Lou is the main vocalist of the band whereas Ruben plays the drums. They seem to be doing quite well as they're touring across the country.

Right in the beginning the movie sets the pace and shows us the love the two have for one another. It also gives us imagery that the two have both gone through some issues in their past lives that included self harm. Luckily now that they're touring together things seem to be going really well. They are both very productive and living a pretty healthy life.

All this comes to an end when Ruben starts to notice that he is losing his hearing. I'm sure all of us would react the same way if we had started to lose our hearing at such a later stage in our lives. This hits particularly hard for Ruben as the duo are hitting a pinnacle moment in their musical career.

At first he starts to deny the fact that his hearing is an issue and we soon discover that it's getting worse and worse. He finally goes to find medical help and the outlook becomes final. Ruben will lose his hearing. Through a series of events we learn more about his past and learn that he has to get help.

The whole movie is based on the help that he requires and how he adapts to this new way of life and what he's going to do to fix his situation. The emotions of frustrations are very relatable. This will hit the spot for all those that have that moment where you start to notice that you can't live out your dreams. He's so focused on becoming a star drummer that he loses sight on the big picture.

There are talks about addictions and in this movie it talks about addictions to different things. Addictions aren't always about substance abuse. We hurt ourselves in a number of ways. Our goals and ambitions are at times a hindrance to our own well being at times. I found this very fascinating because the common mantra that we hear today is stop at nothing to get to our goals. This movie tells you the circumstances of these sayings.

Ruben's exploration of himself is absolutely fascinating. You see the changes in his behavior and it's incredible. There are moments where you can visually see him having eureka moments all from the facial expressions he gives the audience.

The movie further absorbs us into Ruben's mind with sounds and imagery. To help us understand Ruben's experience the movie distorts the sounds of the music to include the muffled noise and chaos of our everyday lives. It further pushes our empathy for Ruben.

Overall, I fell deep into this movie's story. It was able to keep me entranced from start to finish. The charm of this movie is that it feels very genuine and real. I have a few friends that have gone through similar issues as Ruben and his reactions were spot on. I have to give this movie an 8.5 out of 10. It's at times a tough movie to watch because of the hardships Ruben has to endure but once you're in, you can't look away.