Screening note: This digital screening is available to view between 10:00am PT on Thursday, October 15, and 10:00am PT on Sunday, October 18, and is available to ticket buyers and passholders within the United States.
Questions about how to watch this film online? Click here to read about system requirements and how to watch on different devices.
It starts with a ringing in the ears—that piercing noise that heavy metal drummer Ruben (Riz Ahmed, Nightcrawler, MVFF37) hears right before a gig which only seems to be getting worse. Once he goes to a doctor, he’s told that he’d better act fast to stave off total deafness. His bandmate/girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke, Katie Says Goodbye, MVFF39) is worried that Ruben is going to backslide from years of his hard-earned sobriety. He’s concerned that life as he knows it is irrevocably over. The narrative debut of writer-director Darius Marder (co-writer of The Place Beyond the Pines), Sound of Metal completely immerses you in Ruben’s perspective, painting a humanistic portrait of the deaf and hard of hearing community where this musician learns to navigate a brave new noiseless world. And thanks to an absolutely showstopping, career-best performance by Ahmed, you understand how this sudden loss actually helps a broken man regain his self-esteem and his soul. All the rest is silence.
Be sure to watch the Q&A with Riz Ahmed, moderated by Lars Ulrich.