Sound of Metal

2019 Directed by Darius Marder

Music was his world. Then silence revealed a new one.

A drummer begins to lose his hearing and has to come to grips with a future that will be filled with silence.

Riz Ahmed Olivia Cooke Paul Raci Lauren Ridloff Mathieu Amalric Tom Kemp Chris Perfetti Hillary Baack Chelsea Lee Shaheem Sanchez Rena Maliszewski Michael Tow William Xifaras Jamie Ghazarian David Arthur Sousa Bill Thorpe Marisa Defranco Jeremy Lee Stone Alex Kilgore Dani Miller Sean Powell Alan Resnic Thomas O'Brien Vallor Domenico Toledo Elan Sicroff Ezra Marder Hartmut Teuber Joe Toledo Jonathon LeJeune Show All…

Alternative Titles

El sonido del metal, O Som do Silêncio, Звук металла, Zvuk metala, Zvuk kovu, 金屬之聲, A metál csendje

drama music

121 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by carter ★★★★★ 203

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.…
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
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…
Review by muriel ★★★★½ 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
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.
Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★★½ 36

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.
Review by adrianbalboa ★★★★ 5

so that’s what sound design means
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)
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.
Review by Drew Edelstein ★★½ 46

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,…
Review by josh lewis ★★★★ 2

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

Recent reviews

Review by Julianna ★★★★

Riz Ahmed is a genius and should’ve gotten an Oscar for night crawler in the first place
Review by j cummunist🖤 ★★★★★

96
Review by Ribbs ★★★★

I can't hear you! LOUDER!
Sorry, anytime I see something about deaf people I reminded of that episode of A Different World with the rapping deaf duo.
Review by tonylee064 ★★★½

Felt like it dragged on towards the middle but maybe it was necessary. Simple yet satisfying ending
Review by Ethan Van Der Korput ★★★★½

Some of the best sound design I’ve experienced in a film, so glad I decided to watch this with headphones on to get the full experience. Jumping from that the film in its entirety was fantastic, so real and emotional.
Review by SUJIN_ ★★★★

상실에 대처하는 자세를 노래하는 영화적인 연주의 고요한 가치.
Review by Sinead ★★★★★

There is nothing I didn't love about this movie. It is one of the best movies I've seen in a very very long time.
The use of sound throughout the entire film is probably the most powerful I've seen. It reminded me alot of Gravity, and caused the same anxiety I got when there is that deafening silence (excuse the pun)
And to see Riz Ahmed again!!! I hadn't seen him in a movie since four lions. I spent half of the movie like a proud mum watching their child kick a goal in soccer. Brilliant actor.
I could go on for hours about how incredible this movie was to me. But instead I just sit here and hope you will watch it for yourself
Review by Ian ★★★★

great ending
Review by donutbruja ★★★★

sooooooooo fucking good ohmygod !!! 😩😭❤️✨
Review by nic520 ★★★★½

either watch it by yourself or with someone who isn’t gonna talk during the movie
Review by grace 🦕 ★★★★

holy shit there’s some powerful stuff here!! the acting is amazing all the way around and the screenplay is beautiful. lauren ridloff and olivia cooke are fucking stunning. the sound design is literally academy award winning!!! also, paul raci my beloved.
however... the choice to not constantly show sign language (especially when d/Deaf characters are speaking) in a film about d/Deaf acceptance and the d/Deaf experience is fucking insane on every level. a whole star off for that.
Review by Archiebon ★★★

It was interesting how much dialogue you don't understand in writing, sounds, signs, even French. There were a lot of cool choices in this movie that made it pretty interesting. Good film.