A Story Defined by What It Holds Back

Read Time:5 Minute, 56 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
The History of Sound
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Genre: Drama, Romance, Music
Year Released: 2025, 2026 Blu-ray
Runtime: 2h 8m
Director(s): Oliver Hermanus
Writer(s): Ben Shattuck
Cast: Paul Mescal, Josh O’Connor, Chris Cooper, Molly Price
Where to Watch: available now, order your copy here: www.moviesunlimited.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: There’s a version of THE HISTORY OF SOUND that feels like it should hit you a lot harder than it actually does, and that gap between intention and impact ends up defining the entire experience. On paper, this is exactly the kind of film that should knock you over, a story about two men, a shared love of music, a fleeting connection shaped by time, distance, and repression, all set against the backdrop of a changing world. It has all the ingredients of something devastating. But what you actually get is something far more restrained, almost to a fault, where the emotion never quite breaks through the surface.

The film follows Lionel, a naturally gifted singer from rural Kentucky, and David, a more composed and intellectual counterpart, whom he meets at the Boston Conservatory. Their connection is immediate, rooted in music first, but clearly building toward something deeper that neither of them acknowledges. When they reunite years later to travel through Maine collecting folk songs, the film finds its strongest footing. These sequences feel authentic, not just because of the music itself, but because of the sense of discovery and intimacy that comes with it. There’s a looseness here that the rest of the film struggles to maintain, a feeling that, for a brief stretch, it understands exactly what it wants to be.

That’s where the frustration starts to creep in, because the film never quite builds on that. Instead of allowing the relationship between Lionel and David to evolve in a cumulative way, it keeps everything deliberately muted. The love story is present, but it’s always just beneath the surface, never expressed the way I wanted, never given the space actually to resonate. You understand what the film is going for, the idea of a connection that exists more in memory than in reality, something shaped as much by absence as by presence, but understanding it and feeling it are two different things.

Paul Mescal does much of the work of holding this all together, carrying the film through its later stretches, when the narrative becomes more fragmented and introspective. There’s a quiet sadness to Lionel that never really leaves him, a sense that his life is defined by something he can’t quite articulate. Mescal plays that with restraint, letting small shifts in expression do the work, and for the most part, it’s effective. Josh O’Connor brings a different enthusiasm as David, more immediate and slightly more defined, which makes his presence in the film's earlier parts stand out even more. The problem is never the performance; they’re doing exactly what the film is asking of them. The problem is that the film doesn’t always give those performances enough room to translate into something emotionally tangible.

As the story expands beyond their time together and follows Lionel through different stages of his life, the pacing begins to work against it. The film spans years and locations, but instead of deepening its themes, it starts to feel repetitive. Moments remain without adding new layers, and the sense of intentional emotional distance begins to feel limiting. There’s an attempt to frame the story as a reflection on memory, on the way certain relationships define us long after they’ve ended.

There’s an almost painterly trait to the cinematography, especially in the rural sequences, where landscapes feel almost frozen in time. The use of natural light and muted tones reinforces the film’s focus on nostalgia and preservation, tying back to the idea of recording music as a way to hold onto something that would otherwise disappear. The music itself is one of the film’s most effective elements, not just as background, but as a theme. It represents connection, history, and memory all at once, even when the narrative struggles to integrate those ideas into the emotional arc of the characters.

THE HISTORY OF SOUND is kind of held back by how carefully it controls itself. There’s a reluctance to push too far, to let moments become messy or overwhelming, and that restraint keeps it from reaching the level of impact it’s clearly aiming for. It’s not that the film lacks emotion; it’s that it never commits to it. Everything is measured, composed, and intentional, but that precision comes at the cost of immediacy. I know this review reads as a lot of negatives, but I want to make sure it's understood that the film is brilliant; I wouldn’t be fair to myself without critiquing it. After it all, you’re left thinking about what the film was trying to capture more than what it actually made you feel in the moment. There’s something undeniable about that approach, and for some, that quietness will be exactly what works. For others, it will feel like a missed opportunity, a story that had all the right pieces but never quite assembled them into something.

THE HISTORY OF SOUND is a good film, sometimes a very good one, but it never quite crosses into something greater. It’s beautifully made, well-acted, and thematic, but it holds itself at just the right distance to keep you from fully connecting with it. In the end, it’s less about the impact it delivers and more about the one it almost had.

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