20 Best Movie Performances Of 2020

Though Sound of Metal is a sublime showcase for Riz Ahmed's incredible performance - which we'll be getting to later - it serves as an equally fantastic breakthrough for actor Paul Raci, who plays Ruben's (Ahmed) deaf alcohol counselor Joe.

Raci brings a calmness and warmth to the role that allows him to command attention despite never raising his voice, his scenes opposite Ahmed proving quietly devastating as he tries to convince Ruben to simply accept his deaf diagnosis rather than swim against the tide.

The film's greatest scene, a quietly tense confrontation in which Raci gives Ruben a polite dressing-down for refusing to accept his new circumstances, is a masterclass of performance and, in a just year, would net Raci a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination - if not the win outright.

For an actor few will have been familiar with prior to the movie, this is a performance only as affecting as it is totally unexpected.