[Rags to Riches by Tony Bennet starts]

As far back as I can remember, I’d always wanted to be one of south West London’s top three film bloggers. To me, being SW London’s third best film blogger was better than being Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Even before joining WordPress, I knew it was a website I wanted to join. It’s a website for somebodys on an internet full of nobodies. You could write what you want. You could give Shawshank Redemption a grade F, nobody would give you a ticket. In the summer when you threw someone’s popcorn in the bin as it was too noisy, nobody would ever call the cops. (They may call the police, but that was a different story). Joey Swiftero, he ran the Film Ramble film blog, rating films and giving meaningless awards nobody cared about. It didn’t matter, because it was his blog. He wrote in the same area as Rebel Wilson. Rebel Wilson may have moved slow, but that’s because Rebel Wilson didn’t have to move for nobody.

These were the good times.

*50 film posts later*

[The piano part of Layla by Derek & The Dominos Starts]

Still, I’d never seen Joey so happy. He had no money coming in through this blog, and even after a while, his lukewarn review of Joker thing began to calm down. That morning was the day that Joey was being made. He was so excited. There was a signal, so they’d know when the ceremony was over. We always called each other GoodGuys, like you’ll get on with this person, he’ll be alright. He’s a GoodGuy. We were GoodGuys, WiseFellas. Joey could never be made. Even though he lived in SW London, he had Essex blood. They only allowed in pure SW London people. Joey being made was like we were all being made.

“Oh no”, Bang.

Joey wrote a bad review about cats and the Surbiton Rebel Wilson Fan Club needed revenge. There was nothing we could do about it. Unlike the other movie, Joey got away and found a new place to live. However, only six weeks later, the Surbiton Rebel Wilson Family found him again, meaning he has to move out in a couple of weeks, which is why his blogging output fell recently.

These were the bad times.

That had better have been worth it (Martin Scorcese thinks this blog is true film blog, not just a theme park ride). Long story short, guess whose moving again. But that’s not what this post is about. This post is about one of this years best picture nominees, The Sound of Metal.

The opening scene of the movie has s midway into a heavy metal concert with drummer Ruben (Riz Ahmed) and his girlfriend and heavy metal singer Lou (Olivia Cooke) making an awful lot of noise, which to the untrained ear, such as mine, is some form of heavy metal. They’re passionate about this stuff and all is well. However, Ruben starts to notice that things are going off with his hearing. He’s having spells where he tunes out. Soon enough, he finds himself unable to hear anything, having lost 75% of his hearing. A former addict, Ruben’s life is in danger of spiralling. However, he joins a residential camp for the deaf community to learn how to deal with his issues, before having to deal with his whole future.

The whole film is strongly lead by Riz Ahmed, who is worthy of his best actor nomination, although it is likely to only be a nomination. Between this film and Mogul Mowgli, he really has had a strong year. To his credit, I felt his anxiety and forgot that the actor himself isn’t deaf. The scene where he says goodbye to Lou before going into the camp was particularly powerful, as were some of the later scenes. Paul Raci as the councillor was very good and Olivia Cooke isn’t getting enough plaudits for her supporting role either.

Of course, one of the most important elements in this film is the sound. It’s about deafness and starts wth loud music. The sound mixing was brilliant. There wasn’t some epic soundtrack. It was minimalist and this worked. It allowed a contrast between the deafness and when Ruben could hear. As the film goes on, the effects only get better. It probably is the best use of sound mixing and effects in any movie I can think of, and if the film does have cinema screenings, I will go and rewatch the film on the big screen, purely for the audio experience. If you’re at home, have the film as loud as you can.

Where I felt a bit let down was some of the timing. The third act definitely became much slower. However, the actions came out of left field, leaving me with a bit of whiplash. Ruben’s actions didn’t feel consistent with the arc we were watching, so a smoother transition towards it would’ve been much more effective. While the third act had a good final pay-off, it certainly would’ve been easier to focus on in the big screen. Therein lies the idea that should be noted before watching the film. It’s good, however it’s much slower and calmer than the trailer and the premise make it seem.

Otherwise, the film is a solid effort. It focuses on one part of film making in the sound and executes that brilliantly. In years to come, this will be the film we look to when looking at effects and mixing. When you watch this film, watch it as loud as you can. You won’t regret it.

Summary

With strong performances and brilliant sound editing, Sound of Metal has plenty going for it, making it a solid enjoyable film to watch. While there are pacing issues and inconsistent character jumps between acts, I was able to get over these enough to get plenty out of the movie. [Grade: B]