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‘The History of Sound’ Review: Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor Star in a Gay Period Romance That’s Like ‘Brokeback Mountain’ on Sedatives
Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor play two men united in love and music, but the film's style is pictorial and polite, and so is its romantic passion.
Lionel ( Paul Mescal), raised on a farm in Kentucky, and David (Josh O’Connor), who grew up as a wealthy orphan in Newport, Rhode Island, meet one night at a piano bar when they’re both students at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. I say implicit because nothing in “The History of Sound” would ever be stated that overtly; if it were, the film wouldn’t have the cred of its faux “subtlety.” At the same time, the period setting, and Lionel’s rural Southern background, helps account for the lack of copious dialogue. It wants to wrench our hearts, but coming 20 years after “Brokeback Mountain” did that very thing, this thin-blooded, art-conscious knockoff of that film’s tragedy is a movie that may end up falling in theaters without making a sound.
Or read this on Variety
