Tom and I were both RTVMP majors when we were undergraduates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That major no longer exists—at least not by that name. RTVMP stood for Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures. Tom envisioned a future of working in the field of live television and my dream was to be a documentary filmmaker or a film editor. At some point that department merged with the Journalism Department and became the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Even though neither of our futures followed the direction we imagined, our love for media, especially films, exists to this day.
Every year since we can remember we have watched the Academy Awards. Even the years when we had no television set (during our ‘back to the land’ days), we would always be traveling or somehow wind up at someone’s house or at a hotel and would discover that it was the night of the Oscars. And we watched. Even the years when we had not seen the films.
In more recent years we have tried to make a point of seeing all the films that are nominated for Best Picture and in the most recent years we have been able to even view the nominated short films. The Academy Awards were presented last year on February 9, 2020,before we were all quarantined and movie theaters closed down. The films were all from 2019, just as this year’s nominees are from 2020. You could go and spend the day (and night) at the movies watching film after film after film. We never did that, but we did go day after day after day to enjoy the nominees.
We saw every film (except for The Joker which I pre-judged as too scary for me) last year. We watch the Oscars to the very end. Parasite, an outstanding film, won for Best Picture. But this year is a very different story. Theaters have been closed until recently and even though some have re-opened, Tom and I are not quite ready to go there. This year we are making an effort to watch as many Best Picture nominees as possible through streaming.
Last night we watched the film SOUND OF METAL. Before we started it, Tom said to me, “I don’t think you are going to like this.” I liked it very much. This morning I asked him why he had said that (though I sort of knew) and he said he thought it was going to be more focused on heavy metal music and he knew that was not my cup of musical tea.
Yes, there IS heavy metal music. If that is not your favorite music genre, I encourage you not to skip this film because of that. This is a magnificent film. The film is the story of a punk metal drummer named Ruben played by Riz Ahmed. Ruben begins to experience periodic hearing loss. He doesn’t want to admit it or face it, but Lou (his girlfriend and band mate played by Olivia Cooke) insists that he see a doctor. The diagnosis is grim: his hearing loss will get worse. Not good news for anyone but certainly not for a musician.
The other piece in this complex puzzle is that Ruben is a recovering heroin addict. He has been clean for three years, but Lou fears that his loss of hearing may tip him back into his addiction. She locates a sober house for the deaf and insists (against Ruben’s will) that he live there for a period and hopefully learn to accept his deafness.
The story continues and I won’t spoil it by telling you any more. It is a powerful film. It has been nominated for Best Picture, Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actor (Paul Raci as Joe), Film Editing and Sound.
The sound. The sound is amazing as it tries to let you, a hearing viewer, understand what it is like to lose your hearing. What would it be like to hear only 20% of the words spoken to you? How can you make sense of the world if you are deaf?
The film has not been completely well received by the deaf community. There are valid issues here. Why do films almost always select hearing actors to play the part of those who are deaf? A point well made though in the case of Ruben, he is (at least in the beginning) a hearing person and his journey into deafness is what many of us in the hearing community can relate to. What would it mean to lose our hearing? What choices would we make? How well could we find our way into a new community? Many of the other actors in the film are deaf or what is known as CODP, Children of Deaf Parents.
But the thing about this film is that it is not just about deafness. It is about life. It is about loss and recovery and accepting a life that is nothing like what we imagined our life would be or become.
This past year of living with the Covid-19 virus has also been about loss and recovery (with recovery not completely here but coming… or so we hope). Many people have had to learn to live into the silence of the pandemic. Yes, this is not permanent, but it has been challenging, especially for people who live alone. Many others have had to learn to live with enormous loss, the death of someone they love. Lou pushes Ruben because of her love for him and because she knew that ultimate loss was a real possibility if he fell back into addiction.
John DeFore writing in the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER says this film is about “embracing the inevitability of unpredictable change.” Indeed, it is. The effects, both short and long term of this pandemic have been about this, too. Because Tom and I now live in a retirement community, we also see each day the unpredictable changes that aging brings. This is not to romanticize youth or to view aging as a terrible tragedy, it is simply to acknowledge that life is filled with unpredictable changes, some quite dramatic and others that arrive a tablespoon at a time.
SOUND OF METAL is a film with profound insights, amazing acting, a deeper understanding of what it means to be deaf and the power of love, acceptance and surviving loss.
You might be able to catch it in a theater if you are ready to return to that venue or you can stream it on Amazon Prime.
I'm inspired to watch this, as you've evoked its meaning convincingly on so many levels, as Tom's comment suggests. I'm glad that you liked it and wrote about it, even though, like you, I'll never be a fan of heavy metal. So the story is resonating in me, even before I watch the film, just as your sermons always did.
I love how you write about the importance of small things. Your words are so inspiring! Everyone needs to read your blog!