Rehab and revenge
Sound of Metal ★★★★★ Cert: 15
Riz Ahmed gives a career-defining performance in this heartfelt drama from Jewish writerdirector Darius Marder. Based on an unfinished project entitled Metalhead by co-writer Derek Cianfrance, Sound of Metal tells the story of an alternative rock drummer whose career is up-ended by a sudden loss of hearing.
Life feels like it’s almost over for punk metal drummer Ruben (Ahmed) when he loses his hearing overnight. Concerned about falling back into bad habits, the former heroin addict is persuaded by his bandmate and girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke) to enter a rehab facility for the deaf to help deal with his anxieties.
Devastated by the end of his touring life with Lou, Ruben puts all his hopes on a costly medical intervention which could recover some of his hearing. Ruben is caught between the agonising longing for his old life on the road and accepting his new status.
“Being deaf is not a handicap, not something to fix,” utters addiction facility coach Joe (Paul Raci) in the hope of getting through to his troubled new charge. It is this idea that sits at the heart of Sound of Metal’s beautifully layered narrative. Marder’s film does away with the stigma attached to disabilities, choosing to represent them as differences rather than handicaps.
The film often feels more like a fly on the wall documentary, with many parts played by non professional actors. Ahmed and Cooke put in two electrifying and gorgeously understated turns as two people struggling to accept the inevitable as they navigate a new set of challenges.
Sound of Metal is a beautifully executed story of alienation, acceptance and new beginnings. It is truly one of the most exhilarating films of the year and deserves even single one of its seven Oscar nominations.
Promising Young Woman ★★★★✩
CERT: 15
Emerald Fennell’s BAFTA-winning debut feature Promising Young Woman stars Carey Mulligan as a troubled woman out for revenge after losing her best friend to painful tragedy. Written by Fennell, this darkly comedic #MeToo story had its debut at Sundance in 2020 and has since been nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress for Mulligan.
By day Cassie (Mulligan) is a barista at a trendy cafe in her hometown where she still lives with her parents (played by by Clancy Brown and Jennifer Coolidge). By night, she trawls local bars and nightclubs terrorising predatory young men who prey on drunk girls.
After a chance meeting with charming former college friend Ryan (played impeccably by Bo Burnham), Cassie is almost ready to move on from the dark episode that has consumed her life since her early twenties. The two hit it off almost instantly, but then a shocking revelation leads her towards a dangerous path.
Promising Young Woman cleverly mixes romantic comedy tropes with more serious issues to give us one of the most complex #MeToo narratives we’ve seen so far. Fennell’s ability, at 35, to navigate both genres makes her into one of the most astute and accomplished filmmakers of her generation.
Fennel’s film features an unabashedly pop heavy soundtrack
- a sequence which sees Ryan and Cassie singing along to a Paris Hilton hit from the early noughties is one of the most exhilarating moments in cinema. Elsewhere, there’s a lot to be said for the inspired casting of classic nice guys Adam Brody, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Chris Lowell as the abusers in Cassie’s crosshairs.
Overall, Promising Young Woman is on mission to right some wrongs and it does it in style. Even if some will find the heightened reality in which it lives a little jarring, Fennell has definitely put her own stamp on this highly unusual revenge story.
Being deaf is not a handicap, not something to fix