Sound of Metal

Darius Marder built this out of Derek Cianfrance’s unfinished project Metalhead. Riz Ahmed trained for months with daily drum and American Sign Language lessons, and Marder kept him away from the dailies. They shot on film, and by Ahmed’s account each scene got about two takes. Sound here is method, not subject. Nicolas Becker recorded inside Ahmed’s mouth and throat and even at his eyelids to build the world as Ruben hears it, so the film keeps swapping between the sound of the room and the sound inside his head. Every print carried burned-in English captions, withheld only during the sign language scenes, so hearing viewers are cut off from dialogue at intervals too. Paul Raci, who plays Joe, is the hearing son of deaf parents; he came back from Vietnam into metal and signs Black Sabbath lyrics onstage. It was nominated for Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role, Actor in a Supporting Role and Original Screenplay, and won Sound and Film Editing. The BAFTAs gave it the same two awards, with Ahmed and Raci again nominated and not winning. A good fit if you want the question of whether deafness is a loss or another state left open to the end. Not for anyone waiting for music to keep running, since long stretches rest on hum and silence.