Reviews for Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor’s new gay romance film The History of Sound are here, and there’s plenty of comparison to 2005’s Brokeback Mountain – something Mescal isn’t too pleased about.
Helmed by director Oliver Hermanus and based on Ben Shattuck’s short story of the same name, The History of Sound follows Gladiator II star Mescal as Lionel and Challengers actor O’Connor as David.
An official synopsis for the film reads: “Two young music students, Lionel and David, attending the Boston Conservatory in 1917, bond over their shared love of folk music. They reconnect a few years later, embarking on a song collecting trip in the backwaters of Maine.”
As they grow slowly older, Lionel lives in Europe and finds a life of success and happiness, but can’t escape the memories he built with David.
Reviews of the film have been mixed to say the least, with several publications drawing comparisons to the Oscar-winning queer phenomenon Brokeback Mountain, though not quite in a positive way.
In a less-than-impressed review, Variety dubbed The History of Sound as a “minimalist ‘Masterpiece Theatre’-on-the-frontier riff on Brokeback” that “mostly just sits there”.
“It’s far from incompetent, but it’s listless and spiritually inexpressive. It’s Brokeback Mountain on sedatives,” the review continues.
In a similarly negative, two-star review, The Guardian suggested that the queer romance movie has “become a quasi-Brokeback Mountain” offering.
The publication’s film reviewer Peter Bradshaw stated that he found The History of Sound to be “an anaemic, laborious, achingly tasteful film… which has become a quasi-Brokeback Mountain film whose tone is one of persistent mournful awe at its own sadness”.
The Times went one step further, describing the new film as the “Brokeback for today”.
Yet Paul Mescal doesn’t quite see the comparisons.
Speaking at a press conference at Cannes Film Festival yesterday (21 May) where the film premiered, Mescal dubbed the comparisons “lazy”.
“I personally don’t see the parallel at all between Brokeback Mountain, despite the fact that we spent a little bit of time in a tent,” he said, via Deadline.
“When I look at Brokeback Mountain, it’s dealing with repression, this film is pointed in the opposite direction,” he added.
“To be honest, I find those comparisons lazy and frustrating.”
The History of Sound’s director Hermanus agreed that Brokeback Mountain offered no inspiration for his film.
“That movie wasn’t in our heads,” he shared.
“It just shows there should be more forms about these nuances of queer relationships, beyond the context what most movies deal with.
“I felt that the idea of History of Sound, it wasn’t about the complications of their sexuality that wasn’t the problem between them, rather what was going to keep them apart is that they would have other loves in their life.”
Aside from those Brokeback Mountain comparisons, The History of Sound has found criticism for being “too polite” and “never coming to life”.
Both Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor have played roles in queer films before – in All of Us Strangers and God’s Own Country respectively – but neither actor brings the same “passion” to The History of Sound, according to Bradshaw.
Despite the naysayers, The History of Sound does have its supporters. At Cannes, the film received an agreeable nine minute standing ovation, and some have praised Mescal and O’Connor’s “compelling” performances.
The History of Sound does not yet have a theatrical release date.
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