The History of Sound (2025)

Sheet Music, Longing, and a Missing Spark - The History of Sound review by griggs

For the first forty minutes, I was properly in: a 1920s Brokeback Mountain with sheet music instead of saddles, and a soft ache humming under every scene. The melancholy feels lived-in, not sprayed on.

Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor are the best argument for the film. They nail that first love / lost love / forbidden love longing — the look you give someone when the room isn’t safe. Which is why the strangest thing is how weirdly buttoned-up it feels. With those two, and this premise, you expect some heat — not explicitness, just presence: desire that stays in the shot long enough to register. Instead, the film keeps cutting away, leaving the messy new-relationship stuff in the gaps.

It also starts to sprawl like an overlong novel, with a middle you could lift out and barely notice. The craft is gorgeous, almost too tasteful: curated sadness, and carefully arranged. The voice-over framing is beautiful, but it lands slightly unearned because everything else holds you at arm’s length.