How must it feel when a pro cyclist loses a leg? Or a violinist gets his hand smashed in a car door? Can’t imagine. fortunately, Abe Marder can and he has spun an absorbing, unsentimental tale—“The Sound of Metal”— in which Ruben (Riz Ahmed)a drummer in a metal band loses his hearing while on national tour.
This presents a number of problems..First of all, the lead singer in the bsnd (Lou, played by Olivia Cooke) is also his main squeeze. Second, Ruben he thinks deafness is a condition that can be “fixed” with surgery despite the $80,000 that’s required (and which he doesn’t have.).
As a stopgap measure, Ruben agrees to enter a home for deaf children and learn ASL, something he is initially loath to do. Some of the film’s most positive scenes show how well he adapts to this new life, as well as the joy he takes in goofing around with the kids. (FFS, he’s practically a kid himself.)
But Ruben, despite being offered a teaching job at the home by its director, never gives up his dream of resuming his gig as a metal drummer. I shan’t reveal the extraordinary means he takes to accomplish this. But let me just say that the movie illustrates the value of having a Plan B in your back pocket. Great Oscar-nominated flick (from 2019), and props to Riz Ahmed and Marder.