Time: 128 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Sex scenes & suicide references
Cast:
Paul Mescal as Lionel Worthing
Josh O’Connor as David White
Chris Cooper as Older Lionel
Director: Oliver Hermanus

I was curious about The History of Sound, I mainly knew that it was a sort of romance starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor. There seemed to be some mixed reactions, but those two actors had me interested to check it out, and I ended up liking it.

The History of Sound does feel relatively guarded and paced slowly across its somewhat stretched out runtime of 2 hours and 10 minutes, and it felt like it lost something in much of its second half. However, I was nonetheless invested enough to see how this melancholic romance would play out, and I thought that it landed the final stretch and ending at the very least.

Paul Mescal is really great, delivering an effectively quiet and subtle performance. Josh O’Connor is also good, the chemistry between him and Mescal was believable and the scenes of them together were highlights of the film. Chris Cooper makes the most of his small screentime and is impactful in his scenes.

I liked Oliver Hermanus’s work on Living and his work here is great too. It’s very well shot, I liked the music and singing here, but I also thought that the use of silences were effective.

The History of Sound is an effectively quiet and well directed period romance with great performances from Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor.