Popular reviews

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  Review by carter ★★★★★ 223

  I don’t think I can remember a time where I didn’t hear it.

  The ringing.

  The noise nobody but me could seem to hear. I couldn’t stand it. I had no idea what it was at first, but it was loud, and it was getting louder. I told myself it would just go away, but even back then I don’t think I believed myself.

  When I was nine it got worse, I was having hearing problems, so I told my parents. They took me to a doctor and I was officially diagnosed with mild hearing loss in my left ear, specifically of low tones, but they said it would get worse. I didn’t think to tell them about the ringing.…

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  Review by Lucy ★★★★½ 14

  AFI 2020: film #5

  "today is not a good day”

  one of the most devastating parts of life is not being able to get back to a happiness you once had, especially if it involves people you love. feeling that joy slipping through your fingers, time cannot rewind and only moves forward, and without your consent. relentlessly, painfully. adapt or die. this is a crushing look at that fight against time and change, but it's also hopeful, and eventually peaceful. the sound design was incredible and the hardcoded subtitles were such a smart move. one of the most essential and fitting movies of 2020

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  Review by David Chen ★★★★½ 11

  There's a moment about 10 minutes into this film when Ruben (Riz Ahmed) is at a hearing specialist's office. The specialist is explaining to him that the majority of his hearing is gone, and all his efforts at the moment should be dedicated to preserving what's left.

  The film smash cuts to Ruben performing at another metal concert that very night, seemingly disregarding the specialist's advice. It's a stunning depiction of that innate human desire to maintain normality -- to act like nothing's wrong, to carry on as though everything's fine.

  That's ultimately what the film spends the rest of its runtime navigating: The impact of that desire, and the consequences. When something cataclysmic happens, you can do everything you can to go back to your old life, or you can try to accept your new one.

  Either way, you'll have to live with that decision.

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  Review by Muriel 2

  everyone already knows how hard both the sound design and riz ahmed’s performance fuck so i’m just going to say this: olivia cooke’s bleached eyebrows

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  Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★½ 20

  there are few things more grating to me than describing a piece of art as “for the times” or “exactly what we need right now,” as if that means anything, but i was really struck by just how impeccably current Sound of Metal feels without being, like, directly about living through a pandemic. it’s a film about the trauma of having to adapt to new life circumstances that have been thrust upon you. it’s about not processing said circumstances as something to fix, but something to adapt to. you watch ruben go through every stage of the kubler-ross grief model, fully understanding where the story has to end. and though the analogy isn’t a 1:1 (the pressures of ruben’s new…

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  Review by karsten ★★★★½ 35

  Everyone involved in this deserves recognition but if anyone should get that ‘best actor’ award this year, it’s Riz. And it isn’t even close!

  Talked about this on my podcast, the Karstcast.

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  Review by iana ★★★★½ 12

  riz ahmed being left handed made him 500% hotter to me i’m sorry

  maybe the only movie i’d recommend watching on a laptop with good headphones (or a good surround system but i don’t have that lol)

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  Review by hunter strawberry ★★★★ 8

  one might see this film as a drama, but Damien Chazelle sees it as a missed opportunity to further bully Miles Teller in Whiplash.

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  Review by Drew Edelstein ★★½ 62

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  This review is a critical look at Sound of Metal's exclusionary stance towards cochlear implants, and the ways in which it personally demeans me as a hard of hearing individual with the procedure. Sound of Metal is a worthwhile film that takes a staunchly traditionalist perspective on deafness, and while I would ultimately recommend it for the mere fact that it is one of the few fictional features that attempts to depict a "deaf perspective," that it comes at the expense of a major segment of the hard-of-hearing community is beyond insulting to me. I can't discuss the film without discussing the plot in depth, and have noted when I begin to go into spoilers. To put it simply though,…

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  Review by Syaoran ★★★★ 2

  The ending of this film is so authentic and impactful. I could not ask for a better one.

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  Review by josh lewis ★★★★ 2

  holy shit! did not expect this to be as sensetively made and lived-in as it is.

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★½

  Much more thoughtful and articulate than I anticipated, full of careful choices but never sacrificing drama for the sake of some self-satisfied sense of subtlety. Full of really incisive observations and representations of the deaf community. Ahmed is terrific.