Why Critics Are Divided over 'The History of Sound': Too Polite or Pure Masterpiece?

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Casting Paul Mescal as Lionel and Josh O'Connor as David created instant buzz among cinephiles. Both actors have established reputations as masters of vulnerable, wounded masculinity. Mescal, carrying the bruised sensitivity familiar to viewers from Normal People and All of Us Strangers, plays Lionel with a tentative, observant stillness. O'Connor, known for his raw, tactile energy in God's Own Country and Challengers, provides David with an electric, wandering spirit.

Their on-screen dynamic operates almost entirely through subtext. A lingering glance across a campfire, the shared tuning of a vocal pitch pipe, and brush-past touches in drafty colonial parlors substitute for grand romantic declarations. For champion critics, this discipline avoids the melodramatic pitfalls common to period romantic drama. For detractors, this restraint calcifies into stiffness. Across Letterboxd and Reddit discussion threads, viewers argue that the sexual and emotional gravity between the leads feels subdued, keeping the central relationship locked behind glass rather than letting it bleed onto the screen.