Sound of Metal (2020) on Netflix
Ruben Stone drums in the metal duo Blackgammon, touring in an RV with his girlfriend Lou. When he begins losing his hearing, a doctor says the rest will go quickly.
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- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb7.7/10189,021 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes97%
Trailer
Plot summary
Ruben Stone is the drummer in Blackgammon, an avant-garde metal duo, and Lou, his girlfriend, sings in it. They tour the country in an RV. When Ruben begins to lose his hearing, a doctor finds that most of it is gone and that the rest will deteriorate rapidly. Cochlear implants exist, but his insurance will not cover them. Lou worries about his safety on stage and about his sobriety, since he is a recovering drug addict. Their sponsor, Hector, finds Joe, who runs a rural shelter where deaf addicts in recovery live. Joe lost his hearing while serving in the Vietnam War. The shelter does not take Lou, so she leaves, then persuades Ruben to return. There he meets residents including Diane, a schoolteacher, and learns American Sign Language.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Sound of Metal (2020)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Sound of Metal began as Metalhead, an unfinished film by Derek Cianfrance about a metal drummer who suddenly goes deaf, with the band Jucifer playing themselves; the project was scrapped until Cianfrance's friend Darius Marder took it up.
- Dakota Johnson and Matthias Schoenaerts were cast in the leads in January 2016, but in July 2018 Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke joined the film replacing them, alongside Mathieu Amalric.
- Before casting began, director Darius Marder spent 13 years vetting actors who would match his commitment to the film.
- Riz Ahmed trained for eight months, putting in two hours a day on American Sign Language, two hours a day on drums, two hours a day with a personal trainer and the rest with his acting coach.
- Darius Marder wanted Riz Ahmed to trust his instincts, so he did not allow the actor to review dailies of his performance or his script analysis.
- Working on a limited budget, Darius Marder shot the film in only 24 non-consecutive days and allowed just two takes per scene.
