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

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.

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

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.

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)

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

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.

The film presents a dichotomous struggle of a man trying to find tranquility through accepting his situation while also desperate to get his own life back, and this dichotomy is present in the very fundamental of Ruben's character. Riz Ahmed's powerful yet intimate performance is not only aggressive and determined, but venerable and touching; not just angry, but scared. The artistry of its storytelling - the directing, the acting and the sound design - is as pure as its message; that is, the journey toward accepting the things that cannot be changed and seeking peace wherever it can be found. An emotionally devastating drama with the grip of an intense thriller that, through a combination of claustrophobic sound design and Ahmed's towering performance, allows us to experience the world through the ears of the hearing impaired, proving that a realistic and profoundly empathetic drama can be far more terrifying than a horror film.

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

Hardcore emotions. (This would actually make a really good double feature with Soul.)

Perhaps much of the subtlety of this movie is just lost on me, but it just didn’t satisfy me as I had hoped. I think I got the point, but I just didn’t love the way they delivered it to me. 

There is good to this movie. I think it made me a little more aware of some things I’d not given a great amount of thought to. It’s also a horror movie for me because losing my hearing terrifies me as a drummer. Always protect your ears, folks.

Silent..........

One of my greatest and probably most irrational fears, being born and grown up with all 5 senses, is losing one of 5 said senses. I felt nothing more than remorse and sympathy throughout Sound of Metal. It details the struggle of losing one of the most precious things that we hold for granted. Once one of those granted specialties devolves, we are left with a shell of our former selves just waiting for a redemption back to the world we once knew. It is a struggle, however, it is one many persevere, leaving us with the reality of what being human is all about.

wow

Has anyone made a joke about that Wilco song yet? I’ll let someone else have it, I just don’t have the energy to make it

This felt like the cinematic equivalent of a pat on the back for all those years people at shows called me a pussy for using earplugs.

Beautiful and so painful. Give Riz Ahmed all of the awards.

movies that feel like an a24 film but arent:
- this one.

🤘🏼😭🤘🏼

There was a moment that had me tearing up at the sound of grass blowing in the wind.

De verdad que amo este filme, ya es la cuarta o tercera vez que la veo y no puedo dejar de sentir este amor que siento hacia ella, cada vez que pierdo la calma y me ciento frustrado vuelvo a ella, porque me recuerda que para qué las cosas estén bien primero tienen que estar mal, se que ese no es el mensaje general de película pero pensar aquello me llena el alma.

This one is pretty great, there’s an important lesson or maybe multiple lessons about finding peace and it just has a beautiful look to it. Also the sound design is interesting it really puts you in the character. At first I thought it was going to be a movie about drumming but it’s way beyond that.