Sound of Metal (Darius Marder, November 20, 2020) Movie • Page 2

About to start this

 

Yeah, this is very good. Their band is sick, would listen to an album from them. Agreed it starts to slow a little towards the end, but not enough to ruin it. (also the scene of them in bed was incredibly heartbreaking enough to justify everything else)

I saw Dakota Johnson was originally supposed to play Lou and I love her but I can not imagine her performing the music parts

 

Thought this was good, not great. The third act loses steam a bit, and the movie kinda loses its way once he goes to Paris, and coasts on surface level a bit.

but the sound design was incredibly interesting, and Riz/Olivia was fantastic. And adored the scenes at the rehab/school

 

Ah, man...this movie really hit me in the gut.

Independent of how it spoke to me on a personal level, this is just an incredibly well-made movie that runs with a relatively simple premise to maximum effect through great performances and super particular and creative sound mixing and visuals. The constant switching between inside and outside Ruben's POV is such a haunting way to put you directly into his shoes as he grapples with his sudden disability.

Next month is going to be 16 years since my Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis, and it's always a trip to think about how the other half of my life—all the years I lived without it—just keeps getting further and further in the rearview. Diabetes and deafness are different things to be sure, but I thought this movie flawlessly showed the disorientation of what happens when your life changes in an instant, especially through something that is so isolating because most people you encounter do not share your experience or do not understand it. I still have to fight the bitterness I harbor for a life I don't have anymore.

In terms of taking the singular struggle of Ruben and making it feel universal, raw, and heartfelt for anyone who lives with a chronic condition, I thought it did an exceptional job.

 

fantastic movie. might have to make some blackgammon shirts.

 

Riz and Paul Raci deserve all the awards.

Also, his IMDB bio is awesome.

Paul Raci is an American actor best known for his role as Joe in the Sound of Metal (2020) directed by Darius Marder, starring opposite Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke. Paul can also be seen in many TV shows including Baskets opposite Zach Galifinakis, Goliath opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Parks and Recreations opposite Amy Poehler.

Paul was born and raised in Chicago by Deaf parents and is fluent in American Sign Language. While in Chicago, he honed his acting chops at the local theaters and was a founding member of The Immediate Theater Company, where he was nominated for a Jefferson Award for their production of Children of a Lesser God. He also trained at Second City and has worked with several improvisation companies.

In Los Angeles, he has performed in over 12 productions with the locally acclaimed, Deaf West Theater including Of Mice and Men, Medea, Equus, A Christmas Carol, and most recently the acclaimed, award winning production of David Mamet's American Buffalo in ASL.

A Vietnam veteran, Paul is also a musician and singer with the band Hands of Doom an ASL rock, Black Sabbath Tribute band where Paul dazzles his audience with his outstanding, raw vocals and outrageously artful ASL. Paul has been married for years to Liz Hanley Raci. They have one daughter, Britta, who is also a singer, songwriter with the Indie Band It's Butter.

 

Hell yeah

 

Paul was the best part of the movie imo

 

I started playing when I was 5. The first thing my teacher did was put a pair of the blue Vic Firth headphones on my head and said 'you have to wear these at all times when playing or else you'll go deaf.' i still have and wear those headphones. its just so god damn important.

 

I have a tattoo from the person who designed the tattoos in this movie lol

 

i quite enjoyed this

riz probably won’t but should win best actor

 

Still have a few films from this year to watch, but this is probably my favorite one so far. The slide scene was incredibly beautiful to me.

 

Found myself relating a lot to that and my diagnosis/Crohn’s Disease as well.

 

Paul Raci was probably the best, most convincing acting/performance I've ever seen.

 

Posted in the streaming thread yesterday, but yeah this wrecked me. I disagree with the criticism of the last act. I think it’s really interesting, and human he chooses not to stay with the group/elect the surgery. The scene with him, and Lou in the bed was so good. Then that last scene really felt perfect.

 

This was excellent.

 

I took ASL for a couple years in undergrad and there were quite a number of things shown that imo made it pretty clear that whoever wrote this story was familiar with various aspects of the deaf community. If they didn’t know from personal experience then at the very least they did their homework

Like I would be shocked if most of the people shown in the community weren’t Deaf, especially the children. Or at the very least, they know it independent of being in the movie because they have Deaf family or are interpreters or something. I get that actors (like Ahmed) could practice their specific dialogue enough to get to a passable level, but idk why they would do that with a bunch of actors who are like just a step above extras. They seemed way too fluent for that. It would be on par (if not more difficult than) taking a bunch of extras and not only having them memorize lines in a verbal language they don’t speak, but also making them do it in a perfect accent, rather than just...getting extras who can do that in the first place lol

There were multiple minor details that I don’t think someone would be familiar with unless they actually had experience interacting with groups of deaf people. Like when they would be in a group and people would be making random noises — like the kids in the classroom — is 100% a thing that happens. Also the one short scene of the kid dancing to music with the bass turned up super loud is also a thing they do. At the deaf school that I visited a number of times, they had a dance group that was super popular among the students. They would dance along to pop hits but distorted to such a level that to a non-Deaf person it would sound kinda like when Ruben was listening to Lou and her father sing the song at the end - slightly comprehensible but certainly not enjoyable

And, as is shown, cochlear implants *are* heavily stigmatized among a lot of deaf people, because they largely don’t view themselves as disabled in the first place (and, even if they did, they are clearly a far cry from being a “cure”). So to the extent that it’s a movie about a guy who resists his condition to the point that he gets them, I guess it’s arguably not a “perfect snapshot” in that sense. Which isn’t a criticism, just that I think if someone wanted to set out to do that, it would probably be more “representative” to have a story from the perspective of someone who was born/grew up deaf, and never really had to change the way they experienced the world in the first place

 

You know a movie is gonna be good when the main actor shaves their head on screen halfway through

 

This was fantastic. I have nothing else to add.

 

This was good. A little bit too formulaic, but the cuts between sound and the various stages of deafness the main character is going through.

 

What elements were formulaic? I thought they at least attempted to avoid that (e.g. not staying at the commune and finding/being with “his people”).

 

There have been a lot of movies about people struggling with learning how to live with their disabilities, as well as finding that they have grown apart from their lover as they learned to adjust their lives. The alternative you proposed would have been worse, so thankfully they did not go that route.

 

finally got around to this the other day and I can't stop thinking about it.

the final few minutes are wonderful.

 

I felt the ending of this was a bit rushed; it's like he put soooo much effort at getting back to his girlfriend, and then he finally gets the procedure done and gets himself to Paris (or wherever in France), and then that very first night pretty much gives up on her? And leaves early the next morning? I'd maybe expect this to happen after a week, but not the very first day he's there

 

I think it’s clear that he didn’t give up on her but that she had already moved on without him and didn’t want him/that life anymore.