Ty Watches "The Sound of Metal"

Tuesday mornings have become my time to catch up on movies that I have wanted to watch, and haven't gotten around to for one reason or the other. This morning while both my kids were at school I watched "Sound of Metal". Let’s discuss.

This movie has been on my radar for awhile now. And, last night when my wife and I watched an episode of "The Boys", the ad beforehand was for the movie. I said right then that I was going to watch it this morning. I did and I was blown away.

“The Sound of Metal” is one of the better movies I have seen in quite some time. It is also very sad and dire and gut wrenching, but kind of uplifting near the end. For those that may not know, "Sound of Metal" is about a drummer in a heavy metal band that loses his hearing, and the trials and tribulations he faces when he realizes he is losing his hearing. Riz Ahmed plays the drummer, his name is Ruben, and he is amazing. His performance is right up there with Daniel Kaluuya from "Judas and the Black Messiah", and Delroy Lindo from "Da 5 Bloods". He is also better than Sacha Baron Cohen from "Trial of the Chicago 7". The difference here is, Ahmed plays a fictional character. He and Lindo are the only two that do that. Cohen is exceptional as Abbie Hoffman, and Kaluuya is magnetic as Fred Hampton. I come from the school that thinks awards should be given to original characters, and not someone playing a real person. This year is the exception, because Kaluuya is so great, but Ahmed is right up there too. He is tremendous. I fully bought in and believed he was Ruben and he was going deaf. Ahmed played the role to absolute perfection. He is also a recovering addict, and he pulled that off as well. He showed the grief and terror and frustration and willingness to do what he felt he wanted to do so well. The first couple scenes, when you can watch him begin to lose his hearing is relatable. He is trying to unplug his ears thinking that they may be popped. Or he tries to clean them out. All of the stuff we all do when our ears feel weird. When that doesn't work, he skirts getting the problem checked out because he has a show that night. The show is not great, and the lead singer of the band, and his girlfriend, exceptionally played by Olivia Cook, notice something is wrong. He gets help from a doctor, and this doctor sends him to a place for addicts that happen to be deaf. The scenes that take place here are wonderful and sad and touching and moving all at once. From when he first gets there, he doesn't want to be there, he feels it is a waste of time, to him figuring out sign language, to him helping the staff and students, and even him leaving to go get surgery, it is played and shot so well. Even with the surgery, spoiler alert, which doesn't work out like he hoped, it is done perfectly. I think what helps it work so well is how they use sound in this movie. This movie goes from very loud to silent to small noises, and at times, it hurts to listen. But this was done on purpose. The writers and director want us to go through this journey with Ruben. They want us to feel the things he feels. Now, I do not know what it is like to be deaf, I thankfully have my hearing, but there were times watching this that I just could not imagine how hard it would be, especially to go deaf later in life. But they do show some things that are moving for deaf people. The way musical vibrations are used in this movie is absolutely terrific. I assume this is how deaf people enjoy music, and it is done so well. When Ahmed and a young student go outside and play drum beats on an aluminum slide, I could have watched that for hours. Or when he teaches the kids how to drum, that made me tear up. When they all stand around a piano with their hands on it to "hear" it, it was truly amazing.

This movie is going to stay with me for a long while. The stuff after he gets the implant, how it doesn't go the way he hoped and wanted, that was stunningly made. The way they used sound for that, the sound engineers deserve all the accolades in the world. This is a tough movie, but it is also a very, very good movie and well worth your time. It is on Amazon Prime right now, and I cannot recommend this movie enough. Go watch it. It is great.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Should Have Skipped the Not So Good "Venom"

Last night my wife and I sat down and watched "Venom". It was on Starz awhile back, I recorded it, and we finally had some time to check it out.

Before I get into it, the cast for this movie is really incredible. Tom Hardy is Eddie Brock/Venom. He is one of my favorite actors. I enjoy pretty much everything he does. Hell, I was one of the few people that liked "Taboo". Michelle Williams has a big role in this movie. She is a multi Academy Award nominee. She has been in some great movies. She has had the best career of anyone that was on "Dawson's Creek". Fight me on this, I dare you. Riz Ahmed was the bad guy. He is a legit soon to be star. He was excellent on that crime show on HBO a year or so back. Jenny Slate has a small yet prominent role. I don't think anyone has made it bigger than she has after her snafu on "SNL". She has a solid and growing career right now. Also, "Obvious Child" is one of the most underrated movies. It's a gem. And there is a Woody Harrelson cameo. Harrelson is also one of my favorite actors of all time. He is a super duper star.

All of this is being said because I had high hopes for "Venom". It did not live up to my hype. I'm not going to openly be mean and trash the movie because I am trying to be better about stuff like that. But man, "Venom" was confounding and dull and slow and poorly CGI'd and just not very fun. I was utterly confused by the dynamic that was created by Hardy when Venom took him on as a host. It seemed as if Hardy decided he was just going to totally go for it and be as wild as possible, also trying to be funny, and it simply didn't work. It was confusing. When he was talking to Venom, it felt like the movie shifted into a romantic comedy about Brock and Venom, which could have worked oddly, but it was too far fetched. And Williams looked liked she would rather be anywhere else. She seemed to really phone it in. I read some interviews where she pretty much conceded she did the movie just to do a super hero movie. Her and Hardy had zero chemistry. Her relationship with the guy that plays Dan Egan on "Veep" was much more believable. Slate gave it her all, but her role was added to the movie, she is not from the comic books, and it just felt forced. She was good. I put the onus on the 7 writers, that's right, 7, as to why her character didn't really belong. Ahmed goes full Eddie Redmayne from "Jupiter Ascending", and it was bizarre. He constantly contradicts himself. He isn't believable as the bad guy, and when he turns into his symbiote, that is what they call the alien host, Riot, it was far too similar to Venom. He just had some added moves, and it was pretty blah. I respect that all these actors, for the most part, went for it, it just didn't work. I was very disappointed in the outcome.

I really wanted to like this movie. I even tried to make excuses while we were watching it. But, I just can't. It just isn't a very good movie. There are a few decent scenes, but they are immediately erased the very next moment. And man was Hardy's choice for Venom's voice totally absurd. It really takes you out of the movie. I am also bummed that it got the dreaded PG-13 rating. "Venom" should be R, and possibly a hard R. Look at how great a movie like "Deadpool" is because of the R rating. Venom is scary and gross and an alien that likes to eat people. Don't rate a movie like that PG-13. It takes away so much.

Needless to say, I do not recommend "Venom". It just isn't very good.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. It is weird that Ty does not think Katie Holmes is the best actor from the “Dawson’s Creek” crew. She really sold her role as wife of Tom Cruise.

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