With the Oscars on everyone's mind today, I'd like to take a look back at a one of my favorite Oscar winning films, The Sound of Metal.
The Sound of Metal follows the journey of Ruben, a drummer in a noise band, played by Riz Ahmed (Star Wars Rogue One, Nimona, Nightcrawler). Suddenly confronted with deafness, Ruben's experience as a musician becomes a compelling story of loss and adaptation. For a musician, hearing loss is more than just losing a sense—it's losing their paycheck, their joy in life, and their identity. This gripping narrative earned the film nominations for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor (Ahmed), and Best Supporting Actor (Paul Raci). It clinched victories for Best Sound and Best Film Editing at the 93rd Academy Awards.
After watching the movie, a mutual friend introduced me to Carlos Cortez Navarette, one of the multi-award-winning sound engineers who worked on the film's soundtrack. He and the team who worked from Splendor Omnia did an extraordinary job of immersing the audience in the experience of hearing loss by fading dialogue and sound in and out, mixed with low-frequency hums and high-pitched sounds like guitar feedback. As a former drummer for noisy punk bands myself, it was horrifying to watch Ruben's hearing slip away during a performance. If you haven't seen the movie yet, I wholeheartedly recommend it. It's available to subscribers on Amazon Prime.
If you've seen the film, and you're a musician, hard of hearing, deaf, or have cochlear implants I'm curious to know what your thoughts are on Carlos' work.
To learn more about Carlos, check out:
To learn more about George's work, check out:
Recommended Listening: Deaf Club “For a Good Time, Call Someone Else”.
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