Sound of Metal

Deaf roles are mostly played by deaf actors, which serves the story world rather than a quota checklist. Riz Ahmed plays an American metal drummer and his ethnicity is never named or justified on screen. Lauren Ridloff appears as a capable black deaf teacher. The director called it an extraordinarily diverse movie, and press stressed authentic Deaf casting, but there is no engineered multi-identity friend group or race or gender swap of a legacy hero. Background includes a visible queer deaf character played naturally without signaling or emphasis.

Dialogue stays mostly personal about recovery, fear, love, and money for implants. Joe’s key speech says the community is built on the idea that deafness is not a handicap and not something to fix. That is cultural talk about disability, not race, gender, or DEI slogans. Political lecture lines are rare.

The middle of the film centers Deaf cultural identity. Deafness is shown as a language community rather than a defect, and medical implants are treated as a wrong kind of fix. Ruben fails to fully join that identity. The main spine is still personal grief, addiction patterns, and learning stillness, not race, gender, or queer politics.

On screen, Ruben’s need to fix, control, and provide is framed as self-harm close to relapse. Joe’s belief that nothing is broken and his stillness practice are the corrective. That is a mild critique of traditional male problem-solving, not an attack on Christianity, capitalism, or systemic whiteness. Insurance not covering implants is a plot obstacle, not activist healthcare messaging.

There was no major mainstream campaign calling the film too woke or a DEI race or gender swap. Some online posts labeled it deaf-supremacist propaganda for treating implants and the wish to hear as betrayal. Separate implant-user critiques focus more on accuracy than culture-war politics. Overall backlash stays thin.

Source summaries place Abraham and Darius Marder in low-activism personal indie work. Derek Cianfrance is linked to relationship and masculinity dramas without an activist score. Producers and casting directors land in a similar low range. The creative slate fits character drama more than political activism.