Sound of Metal 4K 2019 Ultra HD 2160p

Reuben is the drummer in the punk band Blackgammon, which he formed with his girlfriend, and is also a former drug addict who had a hard time getting rid of his addiction. Now he leads a healthy lifestyle, but this does not save him from an unexpected illness: at one of his performances Reuben realizes that he is beginning to lose his hearing.

Sound of Metal 4K Review
In early December, director Darius Marder's debut film, The Sound of Metal, was released on Amazon Prime. In it, drummer Ruben (Ahmed) and his girlfriend, guitarist Lou (Olivia Cooke), wheel a punk duo around the country, not sparing their ears and living in a trailer. One morning, the guy starts hearing everything through a seashell - irretrievably losing his hearing, which causes him to give up his music career and head to a remote assistance center for the hearing impaired. Even upon arrival, however, the addiction to self-destruction and agonizing denial will still stay in touch with Reuben--he will want his hearing back through surgery and the installation of special machines, and will refuse to acknowledge the difficulty until almost the very finale.

Marder co-wrote the script with his brother Abe and Derek Cienfrance, author of the unrelenting "Valentine," the replicated "Places Under the Pines" and the May HBO series "I Know It's True" - the epitome of 2020 in hyperbole too serious to assert its truthfulness. After ceding the chair to a debutant, Cienfrance laid down circumstances in "The Sound" but filled them with Marder: a seasoned, almost documentary-like narrative that eschewed the previous smashing confusion in "Pines" and a humanly understandable, stubborn hero. Reuben is confident in his omnipotence and continues to play at the same pace as he did before his loss, with complete frenzy, relying on mere vibrations until it's time for changes and decisions.

Ahmed has played a dozen different roles over the past five years, from partner to obsessive "Stringer" to rebel in "Star Wars," but none of them (including this year's "Where You Come From") seemed as realistic and intimate as in "The Sound." Reuben is spontaneous and irritable, has a narcotic past, but at a certain point replaces rebellion with remorse, reconciling with his ego. Having tried submission, he chooses self-determination, which we observe and hear throughout the story pulsating and chaotic. With the fantastic work done by the sound engineers and the minute-by-minute reverberations, Reuben as a character would have had the indiscretion to roll into stereotypes in a less nimble performance. Ahmed takes the liberty of going "underwater," where he reflects every slice of desperation and awareness, constantly evolving.

The main mentor for Reuben becomes Joe, one of the managers at the center. In a breakthrough character, Paul Racy appears here, an actor almost unfamiliar to most (one series in "The Clinic" and "Parks and Recreation"), but outstanding. Racy has been a professional sign language interpreter for 25 years, has hearing-impaired parents, while managing to avoid personal hearing loss. The defining scene in the film is the episode where Joe brings Reuben's "training" to an end, denying him a further stay, but giving him advice: get rid of the shame of his situation, accept it. Having been raised in atypical conditions since childhood, Racy imperceptibly reaches so deeply into the heart of both himself and the audience that he doesn't even have to hold back his tears - they flow by themselves, and the notorious "method" that leading actors dream of using pales into insignificance and gives way to soulful knowledge, authentic inflexibility.

"The Sound of Metal" is also an accurate representational story. Most of the film's actors (quite a few of them children, too) are hearing-impaired, but they don't look caricatured in Marder's story, asking for no regrets, being self-sufficient, living not as outcasts but as a friendly commune. They accept the world, the demanding selection, and its standards as add-ons to which they can adapt, but not necessarily at all. Reuben is initially broken, but even more stressful for him turns not to destruction, but to a springboard. Having pushed back, having received a "closed" sign, he pacifies himself. From the rattle of implants to contemplation, sitting in the center of Paris, he cautiously imbues himself with the life without sound from which he has persistently but aimlessly escaped.