Plot Synopsis: Tone-deaf detective Amadeus Warnebring (Bengt Nilsson) tracks down a guerrilla music group by the name of One City and Six Drummers, whose unique instrumental work is terrorizing the city.
Matt Stetler
Permit me to reuse a line from my last review, but, man, what an awesomely fun film this is.
Sound of Noise is a hard film to describe, since it has moments of humor mixed with moments of family drama. Moments of over the top craziness mixed with moments of sincere romanticism. It’s one big grab bag of different elements held together in a drummer’s wet dream. Nick Cannon and Drumline can kiss this films ass, because this is what a percussion based film is all about. Being a drummer myself, the trailers featured some wild looking drum sequences, which is what got me to this film’s front door. The story that accompanied it is what got me to come inside, get comfortable and have a few drinks.
A cop named Amadeus, who is born into a musical family but tone deaf, stumbles upon a case of what is initially labeled as terrorism but as the movie plays out, it’s more of a performance artist piece. The 6 drummers are performing somewhat of an anarchist’s drum solo as a way to turn the “normals” on their ear and cause an artistic earthquake throughout their town. Amadeus, who has his own issues with music, is on a mission to shut them down. However, the closer he gets to the drummers, the more he evolves as a character and soon finds a way to achieve something for himself through their music and mayhem.
The characters are great in Sound of Noise. The drummers, outside of the leaders of the group, don’t get much backstory, but the actors add enough to each character to make them interesting. They seem like they should be those douchey performance artist types, but they don’t come across as such. Maybe it’s because I’m a drummer also, but I would totally jam with these guys. And speaking of jamming, the music sequences are nothing short of brilliant. From the opening piece of a drummer playing along with the sounds a van makes while driving (you heard me) to the “Electric Love” sequence at the end, every one of them is amazing. This is the first movie we’ve reviewed that I could easily go back and watch again and again.
I can’t stress enough how much I truly enjoyed myself watching Sound of Noise. As a drummer, it was like a fantasy film. Watching six drummers make these amazing sounds with things like CO2 canisters, paper shredders and construction vehicles (you heard me) made me want to get out on the streets myself with a pair of drumsticks and beat rhythms on anything and everything I could. Even if you’re not a drummer, you will still find so much to like about Sound of Noise. Definitely give this one a view. And lastly, I know what I want for Christmas…a van with a drum set in the back.
Why you should put this in your queue? What’s one of things that everyone gets excited about when you go to a concert? The drum solo! This is a great movie…with drum solos!
Why you shouldn’t put this in your queue? I hate sounding like a broken record about this, but again it’s subtitled. Also, you may cause some damage within your home after watching this, because you’ll be playing all things in your house like a drum.
Justin Oberholtzer
As much as this film is about the love of music, it also raises some questions from the viewer. By making the bad guys as unorthodox musicians (their brand of music is similar to that of “Stomp”), one automatically assumes this is a message by the writers. Even our protagonist, Amadeus, hates their music and is dead set on putting an end to it. However, he hates all types of music because of his tone deafness. Though it’s pretty clear he hates orchestral symphonies due to his family’s love affair with it.
In the most interesting character development of the film, we learn that Amadeus comes from a family of famous musicians. His brother was the wunderkind of the two and became one of the most renowned musicians of his time. Amadeus was always jealous of him, not to mention his music could make his ears bleed. Despite knowing this, people ignore Amadeus’ disability and take his distaste as disrespectful.
This same group of snobs look down on One City and Six Drummers for their unorthodox musical talents. Two of them get banned from a college for not adhering to the musical standards (that and vandalism). They got four other disgruntled drummers together and created four creative symphonies to disrupt and destroy public property. They give hints via flyers where their next performance will be, almost taunting Amadeus.
The band are the only people that seemingly realize how destructive their music can be to Amadeus, as they use it as a weapon against him. By blaring sirens and using musical keys that will disrupt his hearing, they impair him from hearing their whereabouts. This unintentionally gives them away, since anything they use becomes silent to him afterward. This includes people. Ola Simonsson & Johannes Stjärne Nilsson (who directed & co-wrote with Jim Birmant) have the sound editors block out the noise to creative (and at times comedic) effect. This is one of many flourishes they do as directors to make this film stand out.
Their biggest flourish, of course, is the music itself. Not only are the performances mesmerizing (especially the grand finale), but they do get you thinking. The question I posed in the beginning of the review comes directly from the musical acts. While the performers are the antagonists, their eclectic style of music is tantalizing. Is their a deeper meaning that music comes from the soul, not just musical keys? Am I looking too deep? Whether or not I am doesn’t change the fact that the film itself is a joyful experience! If it doesn’t get you thinking, you’ll simply be entertained by the story, music and humor. If it does get you thinking, that’s just icing on the cake.
Why Should You Put This In Your Queue? It’s a creative story centered around unique music. The directors add comedy that mostly works and never distracts from the proceedings. It’s also possible there’s an underlying message about musical taste, unless I’m just crazy.
Why Shouldn’t You Put This In Your Queue? The band’s motif can get lost in the shuffle, confusing some people, and there’s a love interest that feels tacked on for no reason. This kind of hurts the ending, which could be viewed as a cop out (albeit a beautiful one).