The Oscar-Nominated Movie Rock Fans Need to Watch

Sound of Metal is officially an Oscar-nominated movie and rock music fans absolutely need to give [...]

Sound of Metal is officially an Oscar-nominated movie and rock music fans absolutely need to give it a watch. The film stars Riz Ahmed (Venom, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) as heavy metal drummer Ruben Stone, who begins to lose his hearing in the middle of a tour. Ruben plays in Blackgammon, with his girlfriend, Lou Berger (Olivia Cooke), who quickly decides that they have to cancel their tour so Ruben can get help. After seeing a doctor and identifying that he does in fact have a rapidly deteriorating condition, Ruben checks into a home for deaf recovering addicts, as he is a recovering drug addict as well.

Blackgammon could be described in many different ways but might be best explained as experimental grindcore. The music is both ambient and fast, essentially seeming to blend elements of doom metal and hardcore punk. The sound invokes comparisons to artists such as Chelsea Wolfe and Lightning Bolt, the latter of which is actually featured on a Sound of Metal Spotify playlist by Topsify Movies. Other bands who turn up on the playlist include Metallica, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and Black Flag. Notably, in a previous CinemaBlend interview, Cooke stated that Margaret Chardiet of electro-noise band Pharmakon was her "mentor" for the project, and joked that she "just stole, ripped off her entire being."

Sound of Metal also has an official song, "Green," composed by Abraham Marder, which is beautifully ethereal, reminiscent of Bon Iver. Marder co-wrote the film's screenplay with his brother, Darius Marder, the film's director. Darius was previously most well-known for co-writing The Place Beyond the Pines with director Derek Cianfrance and Ben Coccio.

Notably, The Marder brothers have a bit of a personal stake in the story, which follows Ahmed's Rueben as he struggles to accept his new reality. Their grandmother Dorothy Marder — their father's mother — was a gay activist who became deaf after taking an antibiotic for pancreatitis. Their father, Efrem Marder, previously told Recorder that his mother's sudden deafness "imprinted on Darius very much."

Interestingly, Sound of Metal was born out of the ashes of a project by Cianfrance, titled Metalhead. It featured members of the sludge metal band Jucifer playing themselves and was about a heavy metal drummer who loses his hearing when his eardrums rupture. The project was eventually canceled and abandoned, but Darius took over and crafted it into Sound of Metal.

Sound of Metal is nominated for a total of six Academy Awards: Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor - Paul Raci, Best Actor - Riz Ahmed, and Best Picture. Ahmed is the first Muslim and Pakistani actor to be nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars. Sound of Metal is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime for subscribers.

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