Sound of Metal is thoughtful in its refusal to offer pat solutions for complex and changeable medical circumstances, and immersive without being exploitative, never suggesting that it represents any monolithic experience of disability.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 23, 2024

A drama that's as visceral and hard-hitting as its protagonist's drum solos.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 16, 2021

Marder does away with the stigma attached to disabilities, choosing to represent them as differences rather than handicaps.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 16, 2021

Simply put, you don't hear movies like this every day.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 14, 2021

A film that deserves to be seen by the widest possible audience, reminding us of cinema's unique ability to challenge, entertain, uplift and unite.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 11, 2021

Somebody, please, give Riz Ahmed a starring vehicle worthy of his talents.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 9, 2021

Ahmed's performance is a force to be reckoned with.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 9, 2021

Darius Marder's film is just as much the story of an awakening - a man's learning to listen, and to value a certain kind of stillness - as it is about the surface-level crisis of being suddenly struck deaf.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 9, 2021

A beautifully argued parable about the need to go where life takes you, Darius Marder's debut thrives on the soul of Riz Ahmed and the bold creativity of sound designer Nicholas Becker.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 8, 2021

Ahmed's performance clarifies the drama and delivers the meaning of Ruben's final epiphany. He gives the film energy and point.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 8, 2021

A remarkably accomplished debut; expect big things from Marder.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 16, 2021

With Oscar buzz surging for Riz Ahmed, the time is now to check out his virtuoso performance as a rock drummer facing deafness in a riveting, resonant film whose thrashing power and emotional gravity exert a grip that won't let go.

| Feb 19, 2021

So much of the film rests on [Ahmed] selling you this man's experience with bare bones expressions. You get everything you need and then some.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 27, 2021

The film is startlingly artful for a directorial debut, and endlessly surprising.

| Jan 5, 2021

A purposefully-quiet film...

| Dec 30, 2020

Riz Ahmed delivers one of the most complex and moving on-screen transformations of the year.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 17, 2020

What do we owe ourselves, and how do we fail ourselves? The challenges of those reckonings are the core of Sound of Metal, a film whose technical achievements mirror the quality of its emotional truths.

| Dec 7, 2020

There is a breathless sonic majesty to Darius Marder's superb Sound of Metal that left me a discombobulated mess long after the drama had ended.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 6, 2020

A film that is a surprisingly hard watch, but also essential viewing...how often does a movie make your whole body feel invested, suffocated, and finally - cathartically - floating?

| Dec 5, 2020

Ahmed simply must get an Oscar nomination. It's a beautiful tale about recovery and moving forward.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 4, 2020