Sound of Metal [Amazon]

This was a good, albeit slightly unfocused, film that had a fantastic leading man performance by Riz Ahmed and an even more amazing sound design. The latter will surely nab the film Oscar nominations for Sound Design and Mixing, and Ahmed is now also definitely going to be in the running for an unusually wide-field of Best Actors nominees. The other standouts were Paul Raci, a dark horse for Best Supporting Actor, and Lauren Ridloff, a very charismatic actress who will next be seen in the MCU's Eternals.

Directed and co-written by Darius Marder (the other co-writer is his brother Abraham Marder; Derek Cianfrance shared credits for the story and his fingerprints are obvious), this film explored the themes of lost of self and identity, strength and importance of community, addiction, and happiness. The film started off strong with a great first and second act bolstered by a lived-in and possessed performance by Ahmed that showcased the terror, fear, hopelessness and desperation of an ex-addict, musician coping by sudden hear loss (although that "sudden" bit was rather unbelievable from a medical POV) that slowly evolved to a grudging acceptance tinged with the eternal hope of recovery. 

However, the third act was an unnecessarily long and meandering route to a heavily telegraphed and soapy conclusion. That was where Cianfrance's fingerprints were most obvious in the story but the execution lacked his usual flair. If perhaps this was a three-episodes mini-series more could have been mined from this finale, but here it almost felt like a separate story tagged onto the more engaging prequels. Nonetheless, the final moments remained a showcase for Ahmed. In addition, his co-star Olivia Cooke was also at least given some sort of character/narrative closure.

Ahmed deserves the praises that has been lavished on him throughout this awards season. He gave an engaging and riveting performance that felt authentic and lived-in. The feelings that his character went through translated clearly in his body language and haunting eyes. From the frustration and desperation, to the fear and pain, and eventually to hope and acceptance, here was a portrait of the stages of grief/loss and the internal, eternal, struggle of an addict, brought alive in the big screen with no major histrionics or over-the-top melodrama.

Kudos too to Marder for keeping the authenticity in casting Raci and Ridloff. Raci, as a hearing child of deaf parents, definitely brought a sense of legitimacy to his role and performance as a mentor/leader; Ridloff, a deaf actress, was also crucial in helping to establish the bond between Ahmed's character and the deaf community in which he found himself with. 

Co-writer Abraham Marder also shared credits with Nicholas Becker for the music, and cinematographer Daniel Bouquet did some beautiful lensing of the film. 

However, technically, it was Becker's amazing sound design for the film that stole the show. It totally enveloped you into Ahmed's character's world. It was as disorienting as it was immersive, and one could only imagined how much more powerful the impact would have been in a cinema. This will be surely beat Tenet in the Oscar race. 

Marder's film is not without its flaws, but led by a top-of-his-game Ahmed in a riveting performance and the superb, immersive sound design, this was an engaging film that shed a spotlight on the deaf/hearing-impaired community and the struggles of those who suffered later in life.