Sound of Metal

Riz Ahmed stars as drummer Ruben who just a few minutes into this film discovers he has serious and permeant hearing loss. As a former addict now in a vulnerable position, he is sent to a rural shelter for deaf recovering addicts and gradually becomes a valued member of their community before doing something that means he is no longer welcome. 

I think I expected this to be a much more angry and bleak film than it actually is. It's certainly awful when Ruben loses his hearing and tries to deal with it but the focus is far more on what comes after that and on the character and his emotions. It portrays the deaf community in a really positive light and just the idea of having a film which highlights deaf people and uses a large number of deaf actors is fantastic. 

I thought that the structure of the film is really interesting. It knows that the story it is telling is interesting and so doesn't waste time introducing us to the character. We see he's a drummer and then immediately understand that he has hearing loss and it's only then that we get to know the character better. 

Part of the reason the film works so well is the sound editing. For much of the run time we hear what Ruben hears and this is done excellently. During the course of the film it changes too and so as a viewer you feel like you have an idea of what Ruben is going through. Sound editors always have an important job but I think it's this aspect that makes the film work.

The other key component is Riz Ahmed and it's great to see the British actor getting great lead roles and getting acclaim for them. Here's the focus and because so much of the film doesn't rely on sound he has to use body and later sign language to express himself. The combination of Ahmed and the sound editing mean that I've never felt like I've been inside a character's head like I did here.

The premise is really rather simple but it's executed supremely well by all involved. Really excellent.