Elliot’s watching week of 5-2-21: Sound of Metal; Borgen

Elliot’s watching week of 5-2-21: Sound of Metal; Borgen

Darius Marder’s 2019 film, Sound of Metal, starring Riz Ahmed at Ruben in a career-making role, is a vivid and powerful look at the life of a young man, a drummer in a fiercely loud tock band, who is experiencing a rapid and sudden loss of hearing. He seeks some medical help, but he is in the nomadic life of a rock roadie, living in an airstream with his girlfriend (Olivia Cooke), the lead singer - they are in no position to get proper medical attention. As Ruben’s hearing deteriorates, his girlfriend brings him to a rural treatment center for those with deafness, a place run by a religious/charismatic director who’s guiding principal is that hearing loss is not something to be “fixed” but must be accepted and lived w/ to the fullest. R has trouble adjusting to the life in the clinic, with its strict regulations (his girlfriend can’t stay with him - putting of course a huge strain on their relationship). Aside from the intelligent drama and dialog, what’s particularly striking about this film is the way in which it allows us to experience and sense how the world is experienced by those w/ no hearing and, later, how the world sounds and feels to those w/ cochlear implants. There are some really powerful, beautiful, sometimes scary sequences, in particular toward the end when R tries to reunite with his girlfriend and to come to terms w/ his life without hearing. I think this film outshines the admirable but only loosely dramatic Nomadland and should have copped the best picture award. 

Season Three of the Danish series Borgen held our interest throughout the 10 episodes yet it did feel like a bit of a falling off from the drama, both political and familial, of the first two seasons. Two reasons: First, the central, driving element of the plot, which in this season entailed the career comeback of ousted prime minister Brigitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen), felt much less consequential and more diffuse than in previous seasons; in essence the PM  is struggling to set up a new political party that will can win just enough seats to be determining factor in a new government. Well, that entails endless discussions about the various parties and their strengths/weaknesses, really tough going for an American viewer and a diffusion of energy for all. Second, the personal stories of the two lead women - Nyborg and her top communications assistant Katrine (Birgitta Hjort Sorsensen) - both lead to relationships that somehow just don’t feel right: Nyborg w/ a slick British architect (leading to many scenes in English, and I don’t think Knudsen acts as well in these) and Katrine with a smoothie way too old for her and work colleague to boot, big mistake. The season is kept aloft, though, by the newsroom drama involving Torbe (Soren Malling) as he tries desperately to keep a bit of integrity in the newsroom as he’s pushed to chase ratings through gimmicks - and he also gets in a misguided relationship with one of his co-workers. So in short the bar was set high by the first two seasons and, though there’s still plenty of reason to watch this developing drama, the tension and energy seem to be drifting a bit; the door is obviously left open for passage onto a 4th season.