The History of Sound ** (2025, Paul Mescal, Josh O’Connor, Chris Cooper) – Classic Movie Review 13,851

Oliver Hermanus’s 2025 period romance drama film The History of Sound stars Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor.

Oliver Hermanus’s 2025 period romance drama film The History of Sound is written by Ben Shattuck, based his short stories The History of Sound and Origin Stories, and stars Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor.

Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor play young music students Lionel and David, who meet in 1917 while attending the the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and bond over their shared love of folk music, as well as their obvious, if under-stated pleasure in each other’s company. They reconnect a few years later World War One, travelling together on a song collecting trip recording folk songs of their countrymen in the backwaters of rural Maine in the winter of 1920.

The History of Sound may be well meaning and meticulous, but, boy, is it slow and bloodless, more interested in the sky, landscapes and water, and of course folk songs, than entertaining or exciting an audience. It does look pretty in Alexander Dynan’s beautiful cinematography, outstandingly pretty, in an austere kind of way of course. The period artefacts and backgrounds are laid out for visual admiration. But, so what?

Dull, dreary, downbeat and depressing, The History of Sound is a museum piece relic from a bygone age, best kept in a museum. It’s Brokeback Mountain without the passion and without Jake and Heath, and that ain’t good. Do these two men even like each other, let alone love each other? The film is so gloomy, wrapped up in a celebration of misery, loss and death, relishing it, and wallowing in it. There’s no joy at all, though we are all supposed to take pleasure in the gloomy folk music, apparently. The men’s passion for this music is, probably, a substitute for passion for each other. Neither is able to commit. Both are doomed to unhappiness. And so are the members of the audience.

Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor work hard enough, and act well enough, but maybe other actors could have made the film work better, though The History of Sound’s deficiencies are not their fault. All the blame for the tedium is at the door of writer Ben Shattuck, who manages some corny platitudes along with weak scenes and flat dialogue.

Molly Price as Lionel’s mother and Raphael Sbarge as Lionel Worthing Sr give very welcome, impressive support performances, and so does Chris Cooper in a cameo as the Older Lionel in 1980 at the end of the film. Talking welcome, the 90-year-old Gary Raymond appears as William Swain.

South African film director and writer Oliver Hermanus (born 26 May 1983) is celebrated for the marvellous film Moffie (2019).

Cast: Michael Schantz, Peter Mark Kendall, Brian Hutchison, Molly Price, Alison Bartlett.

Duration: 127 minutes.

Country: UK, US, Sweden.

Production: End Cue, Film4 Productions, Tango Entertainment, Fat City, Storm City Films, Closer Media, Film i Väst, Filmgate Films, Tango Entertainment.

The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2025 and was nominated for the Palme d’Or. It was released in the US by Mubi on 12 September 2025.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,851

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