"Sound of Metal" (2019), Darius Marder

From viral YouTube videos of people getting cochlear implants straight to your scripted film, "Sound of Metal" it's a double entendre about the music genre and the implants'   initial impressions on its users.  

Technically  it sits straight on 21st Century pseudo-realism, with shaky cams and naturalistic conversations. Its cultural underpinnings belong to the new mainstream: identity politics of unthinkable corners, such as the Deaf community.  It seems that being deaf is not currently a disability but an entire culture, a position maintained by rich families supporting enveloping institutions as seen in Netflix' reality show "Deaf U".  I'm guessing that the rest of the community riding in their coat-tails have no moral quandaries on cashing disability checks though. 

There is a smear of guilt over the entire film, our character drums (his drums away) even when being told not to do so, gets his operation despite possible rejection by the Deaf (cult), and has certain shame over his relationship with a girl with rich daddy issues.

It is watchable, Oscarizable and a bit forgettable.  Its disservice to a medical achievement that alleviates a significant problem makes it a time capsule of the era of cultural relativity.  In short, if we could solve deafness tomorrow it would be immoral not to enforce it. 

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5363618/

"Rust and Bone" (2012), "The Father" (2020). Capsule reviews.

"Rust and Bone" (2012), Jacques Audiard. 

Marion Cotillard is just astounding as a marine park trainer in search of a new meaning in life after a devastating accident. Movie is sensual and dirty but dated, since lust for the low class hunk has been commodified by Tinder into easily disposable one-night stands.  I can't feel sympathy for the lumpen-proletariat and the story of redemption-by-woman. Still, movie has many moments of beauty (see photo).

"The Father" (2020), Florian Zeller. 

Terrifying movie about dementia.  Disorienting until we understand that we are seeing things from the point of view of the sufferer, a spectacular Anthony Hopkins in what is probably his swan song.  Once we get the gimmick we try to (re)solve the clues into a coherent situation, but the film ends being dishonest, since it abandons Anthony's POV to show the degeneration from the outside. Educational, but is it really different from a short advertising about the subject?  This is one end of the story for many Boomers, and given Covid-19 is not even the worst possible one. If I was in my sixties or seventies I would not watch this.

"You Were Never Really Here", (2017), Lynne Ramsay. Review.

This movie stands in the intersection between mass appealing commercial filmmaking and a traditional art-house outing. Joaquin Phoenix plays yet another maladjusted introspective violent man that saves kidnapped children and teens.

It is full of beautifully photographed transition shots, so full that they become a significant chunk of the runtime.  Yes, they're Rockwellian and pretty to look at, but is it cinema? They call attention to themselves and many are not very original, just what you would expect from the current state of digital correcting wizardry, in color grading and specific effect shots.  I certainly enjoyed them, but their superficial beauty is not so different from a Marvel green screen tableau. When Laughton filmed a body in the water in "The Night of the Hunter", its haunted beauty had intent, meaning and looked like an impressive technical achievement.  When Ramsay does the same it feels like she watched "Under the Skin" on repeat.  To be fair, "Get Out" was released the same year and used the same idea.  It is now a popular staple between independent filmmakers and suspect a technological reason is involved. This is modern art temporary exhibition material. 

Many reviewers seem to remember only a specific part of this movie: action scenes are not followed but shown (or not) through CCTV shots.  Some called it "an inaction film".  Trite but quite fulfilling. After all, going to an art school exhibit is still an acceptable way of having fun.