coda movie review guardian

Coda review – formulaic yet sweet-natured crowd-pleaser

A hearing girl with a deaf family is torn between two worlds in a well-intentioned but conventional attempt to win over audiences

T here’s an earnest old-fashioned Sundance-ness to writer-director Sian Heder’s broad comedy-drama Coda , the kind of warm-hearted crowd-pleaser that the festival is most widely known for. In any normal year, it would probably have been met with audible approval throughout its premiere. But this isn’t a normal year, with the majority of festival goers watching the film at home, perhaps less pumped up by the thrill of seeing it with a crowd. With or without an audience, it’s a minor film, a little too formulaic at times, a tad too comfortable sticking to a dog-eared playbook, eager to be loved but not really trying hard enough to be remembered.

Ruby (Brit Emilia Jones, boasting a pitch perfect American accent) is a Coda – a child of deaf adults – who helps her family fishing business while struggling to stay ahead at high school. Her mother (Marlee Matlin), father (Troy Kotsur) and brother (Daniel Durant) need her to translate, and so she’s required to be in five places at once, ensuring her brother isn’t getting ripped off before helping her parents understand an awkward medical diagnosis. But when Ruby decides to join the school choir (to be closer to a crush), she realises that singing is a passion she wants to pursue outside just her bedroom, sparking the interest of her music teacher and the ire of her family.

Pleasantly ambling along, hitting every beat one would expect, there’s plenty to like here but nothing to really make it stand out from the crowd, filled with films ever so slightly similar (Coda itself is a remake of French movie La Famille Bélier ). Despite the grit of the Massachusetts setting and the earthy way in which Heder chooses to shoot it, Coda firmly takes place in Movie Universe, where a great deal of the action and dialogue isn’t rooted in enough of a recognisable reality for it to have much of an impact. The plot, which contains an inspirational sassy music teacher, a burgeoning young romance, wacky horny parents, a big last act school concert and a big last act singing audition just feels a little too assembled, the end product resembling a generic, low-stakes Netflix teen movie rather than anything of much substance.

The differentiating factor, that Ruby’s family is deaf, does create some of the film’s more interesting situations, and gives us brief insight into an intriguing dynamic that’s been mostly unexplored (plus, we get to learn the sign language for “twat waffle”, which feels important). Depictions of deafness on screen are still incredibly rare and Heder (who made the equally sensitive yet far more effective Tallulah in 2016) handles the set-up with care, showing us the frustrations that are felt by both Ruby and her family, how communication can rapidly go from easy to impossible and how home becomes its own community, safe from judgment and misunderstanding. Jones is a winning, confident lead, believably plucky enough to stand up to the fishermen who denigrate and mistreat her family and a strong enough singer to sell her musical subplot. There’s a non-cloying sweetness to her YA romance scenes, helped largely by the decision to have her and crush tasked with a duet of You’re All I Need to Get By (a song that’s nicely used in a climactic scene with Ruby and her father too) and the aforementioned big concert sequence is smartly designed, allowing her parents to understand the effect her voice has on others.

Heder takes a few too many abrupt shortcuts with some of her plotting, forgetting some characters and shoving other key moments in a montage, with Ruby’s best friend and mother both introduced with gusto then confusingly sidelined and the rise of her family’s relaunched business happening with confusingly breakneck speed. These problems would perhaps be less distracting if Heder accepted that her film takes place in the realm of fantasy, the kind inhabited by Nicholas Sparks adaptations and Lifetime Christmas movies. But it takes itself a little too seriously for that to be the case, leaving it awkwardly stuck between both worlds, the rules it subscribes to not making sense in the structure of a grounded indie drama. Coda is a mostly likable concoction, but one that’s just too formulaic and ultimately rather calculated to secure the emotional response it so desperately wants by the big finale. A sweet but forgettable start to the festival.

Coda is screening at the Sundance film festival with a release date yet to be confirmed

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At first glance, you might think that writer/director Sian Heder ’s “CODA” is all about predictable beats you’ve seen countless times before. After all, it tells a pleasantly familiar coming-of-age tale, following a talented small-town girl from modest means with dreams to study music in the big city. There’s an idealistic teacher, a winsome crush, moving rehearsal montages, a high-stakes audition, and naturally, a family reluctant about their offspring’s ambitions. Again—and only at first glance—you might think you already know everything about this feel-good recipe.

Caring, boisterous, and adorned with the hugest of hearts, “CODA” will prove you wrong. It’s not that Heder doesn’t embrace the aforesaid conventions for all their comforting worth—she does. But by twisting the formula and placing this recognizable story inside a new, perhaps even groundbreaking setting with such loving, acutely observed specificity, she pulls off nothing short of a heartwarming miracle with her film, the title of which is an acronym: Child of Deaf Adult. Played by the exceptional Emilia Jones (who is blessed with Grade-A pipes), the gifted young girl in question here happens to be one, navigating the intricacies of her identity, passions, and familial expectations, trying to reconcile them without hurting anyone’s feelings, her own included.

Admittedly, “CODA” is adapted from the French film “La Famille Bélier,” so the idea of it isn’t entirely novel. What’s new here—and it makes all the difference in the world—is the cast. While the family in the well-meaning original were played by hearing cast members (with the exception of the brother brought to life by deaf actor Luca Gelberg), they are all portrayed by real-life deaf performers in Heder’s movie—a sensational group consisting of legendary Oscar winner Marlee Matlin , scene-stealing Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant —infusing her adaptation with a rare, inherent kind of authenticity.

Jones is the 17-year-old Ruby, a hardworking high-schooler in the coastal Cape Ann’s Gloucester who habitually wakes up at the crack of dawn every day to help her family—her father Frank (Kotsur) and brother Leo (Durant) and mother Jackie (Matlin)—at their boat and newly found fish sales business. Heder is quick to give us a realistic taste of Ruby’s routine. Accustomed to being her family’s sign-language-proficient interpreter out in the world as the only hearing member of the Rossi clan, she spends her days translating every scenario imaginable two ways: at town meetings, at the doctor’s office (one early instance of which plays for full-sized laughs thanks to Kotsur’s golden comedic chops) and at the boat where a hearing person must be present to notice the signals and coastal announcements.

What Ruby has feels so balanced and awe-inspiring that it takes a minute to recognize just how exhausting the whole arrangement is for the young girl, even though she makes it look easy with maturity and a sense of responsibility beyond her years. For starters, she is all too aware of everything private about her parents, often including their medical conditions and (to her riotous terror), sex life. When the hearing world becomes cruel or belittling, she steps in, almost with protective instincts, always prioritizing them over herself. But when Ruby joins the school choir and discovers her talent for singing, it throws off her balance and puts her at odds with her family, especially when she decides to apply to Boston’s Berklee College of Music, adopting a rehearsal schedule that often clashes with her duties in the family business. Complicating the matters further is a fellow singer and romantic interest named Miles ( Ferdia Walsh-Peelo from “ Sing Street ”), a shy kid with a genuine admiration for Ruby.

If there’s one misstep here, it’s how far Heder leans into the inspiring teacher trope with Eugenio Derbez ’s Bernardo Villalobos, a character that somehow transmits a sitcom-y artificiality in an otherwise earnest movie. Derbez does what he can with a collection of cookie-cutter dialogue lines, but his scenes don’t always land with the same honesty we see elsewhere in “CODA.” Still, this lapse in judgment feels minor in a movie so affecting, so in touch with its old-fashioned crowd-pleaser character. (Had it actually played in a physical version of the Sundance 2021 instead of its virtual edition, this would have been the standing ovation story of the festival.) And plenty of other types of sincerity throughout “CODA” make up for it, from the way Heder portrays Cape Ann and the life around it through lived-in details, to how she honors the joys and anxieties of a working class family with candor and humor, without ever making them or their Deafness the butt of the joke.

Most of all, she makes us see and believe in our bones that the Rossis are a real family with real chemistry, with real bonds and trials of their own, both unique and universal just like any other family. What Ruby’s chosen path unearths is the distinctiveness of those everyday battles. Would her sound-driven talent put a distance between Ruby and the rest of the Rossis? What would the world look like for the quartet if Ruby chose to leave? Through a number of deeply generous (and to this critic, tear-jerking) scenes—but especially a pair that play like each other’s mirror images—Heder spells out the answers openhandedly. During one, all sound vanishes while Ruby sings in front of her nearest and dearest, making us perceive her act from the point of view of the non-hearing. During the other, featuring a well-chosen track that might just melt even the frostiest of hearts, sound doesn’t matter at all. Because Heder ensures that we see the boundless love that’s there, in their shared language.

On Apple TV+ today.

Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), she regularly contributes to RogerEbert.com , Variety and Time Out New York, with bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Journal International, Vulture, The Playlist and The Wrap, among other outlets.

Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi
Eugenio Derbez as Bernardo Villalobos
Troy Kotsur as Frank Rossi
Ferdia Walsh-Peelo as Miles
Daniel Durant as Leo Rossi
Marlee Matlin as Jackie Rossi
Amy Forsyth as Gertie
Geraud Brisson
Marius De Vries

Cinematographer

Paula Huidobro

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‘CODA’ Review: A Voice of Her Own

An openhearted embrace of deaf culture elevates this otherwise conventional tale of a talented teenager caught between ambition and loyalty.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

The template of “CODA” — the title is also a term used to describe the hearing children of deaf adults — might be wearyingly familiar, but this warmhearted drama from Sian Heder opens up space for concerns that feel fresh.

Ruby (Emilia Jones, delightful), a shy 17-year-old in Gloucester, Mass., is the lone hearing member of her rambunctious family. Between interpreting for her parents (Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur), and helping run the family’s fishing boat with her father and older brother (Daniel Durant) each morning before school, Ruby is exhausted. Since childhood, she has been her family’s bridge to the hearing world; now, her newly awakened desire to sing is perhaps the one thing they will struggle most to understand.

Weighed down by a groaningly predictable plot — which includes a cute-boy crush, a colorful music teacher (Eugenio Derbez) and a climactic singing audition — “CODA” relishes the opportunity to showcase the expressiveness of sign language. (The film is extensively subtitled.) The actors work together seamlessly, the blue-collar coastal setting is richly realized and the family’s cohesiveness solidly established. And if some interactions move to the clichéd beats of a sitcom, Ruby’s efforts to share her musical talent (notably in one lovely scene with her father) are remarkably affecting.

More than once, Heder effectively flips the film’s viewpoint to that of her deaf characters (who are all played by deaf actors). At a school concert, the camera watches Ruby’s family in the audience as the soundtrack abruptly cuts out, allowing us to glimpse the sometimes blanketing isolation of a silent world. In moments like this, when the quippy dialogue subsides and the story relaxes, we see the ghost of a more fruitful movie, one that would rather surprise its viewers than feed them a formula they have come to expect.

CODA Rated PG-13 for unrestrained flatulence and a bawdy mime. In English and American Sign Language with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. Watch on Apple + .

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‘CODA’ Review: Sian Heder’s Family Drama Kicks Off Sundance on a Note of Enthralling Emotion

The story of a high schooler who's the only hearing person in her family, it's an authentic crowd-pleasing gem.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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“CODA,” which features three remarkable deaf actors, is most assuredly a crowd-pleaser, though in this case I want to be specific about what that means. In many ways, it’s a highly conventional film, with tailored story arcs that crest and resolve just so, and emotional peaks and valleys that touch big fat rounded chords of inspiration.

Yet the movie, written and directed by Siân Heder (it’s a remake of the 2014 French film “La Famille Bélier”), brings this all off with such sincerity and precision, and the film is so enthrallingly well-acted, that you may come away feeling grateful that this kind of mainstream dramatic craftsmanship still exists, and that it thrives at a place like Sundance. I wouldn’t want every independent film to hit you over the heart as squarely as “CODA” does, yet I wouldn’t want to live in a world where we don’t have movies like this one. In its straightforward way, the film delivers an emotional knockout. It’s a movie about a family, and by the end you may feel you know them as well as you know your own.

They speak in ASL, a form of communication the film treats with supreme neutrality, even as it gives the audience a de facto crash course in it. Frank, in particular, is a highly colorful and effusive signer, given to eloquently obscene kiss-offs that he spits out with a kind of percussive gesticulation. The signage, like any language, has its own music, and Heder, as a filmmaker, captures its expressive power as fully as I’ve ever seen it captured in a movie.

Troy Kotsur, from “The Mandalorian,” is an extraordinary actor, and here, with squiggly hair, burning eyes, and haggard features set off by a thick gray fisherman’s beard, he looks like Roberts Blossom with a touch of an ancient Frank Zappa. Frank, a pothead and ebullient curmudgeon, is a man of force and fury and, at times, too short a fuse. In his pickup truck, he pumps gangsta rap at top volume so that he can feel the rhythm through the seats, and he says things like “You know why God made farts smell? So deaf people could enjoy them too.” His fishing business is struggling, mostly because the middlemen on the Gloucester docks are squeezing the fisherman dry. But back at the large, messy, ramshackle house that Frank shares with his wife, Jackie ( Marlee Matlin ), a former beauty queen who’s as gnarly and argumentative as he is, and their two kids, the Rossis are a feisty, happy, settled clan. They support each other and know how to have fun, even if that means passing around Leo’s Tinder prospects at the dinner table.

At school, Ruby is a serenely well-adjusted if somewhat shy senior, with a best friend, Gertie (Amy Forsyth), who acts out the raunchy impulses Ruby is too cautious to consider. Ruby signs up for choir as an elective, and it’s mostly to be near Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), a shaggy cute dude who’s got the same quiet gracious vibe she does; the singing is secondary. But Ruby, in fact, has quite a voice, and when the choir teacher walks in, with his dandy beard and dour smirk and flamboyant accent, and introduces himself with R-rolling theatricality as Ber- narrrrdo Villalobos, we know just what we’re looking at: a teacher who’s going to be a stern taskmaster, a prize eccentric, and a straight-out-of-the-movies inspiration. Eugenio Derbez portrays him with a grandiose persnickety fervor but, beneath that, a note of unspoken sadness, and it’s an irresistible performance because it becomes a lifesize one.

And then there’s Ruby’s mom. Marlee Matlin plays her with a bracing blend of affection and cantankerousness, making her a bit of a pill, the kind of loving but overly cautious mother who doesn’t realize she’s using her fear to squash the dreams of others. Jackie and Frank have a robust sex life, but they fight like cats and dogs about finances. And Jackie’s relationship with Ruby is even trickier. Ruby, under Mr. V’s influence, wants to apply for a spot at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and Jackie, who already resents her daughter’s attraction to singing (“If I was blind, would you want to paint?”), is now terrified of losing her baby. These two have it out in a scene where Ruby dares to ask her mother if she wishes Ruby had been born deaf. The answer stings, but it’s naked in its honesty, and it kicks off the most wrenchingly emotional movie scene I’ve seen in quite a while.

Siân Heder, who came up as a writer and story editor on “Orange Is the New Black,” has directed just one previous feature (“Tallulah”), but she’s got the gift — the holy essence of how to shape and craft a drama that spins and burbles and flows. There are daring touches in “CODA,” like the way the school concert plays out (rarely have you heard silence this golden). And there are scenes that will stir you to the core, like the one where Frank listens to Ruby sing by holding up his hands to her vocal cords. As Ruby, Emilia Jones acts with a captivatingly authentic purity of feeling. Her Ruby is a girl of vibrant impulses, poised between Motown and the Shaggs — and more than that, between acting as her parents’ communicator to the outside world and communicating to them what’s really on her mind. All of them are great talkers. But the story the movie tells is about what it takes for them to hear each other.

Reviewed in Sundance Film Festival (online), New York, Jan. 27, 2021. Running time: 111 MIN.

Production: A Vendôme Pictures production, in association with Pathé. Producers: Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, Patrick Wachsberger, Jérôme Seydoux. Executive producers: Ardavan Safaee, Sarah Borch-Jacobsen.
Crew: Director, writer: Siân Heder. Camera: Paula Huidobro. Editor: Geraud Brisson. Music: Marius de Vries.
With: Emilia Jones, Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin, Eugenio Derbez, Daniel Durant, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Amy Forsyth, Kevin Chapman.

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'CODA' Review: A Must-See Coming-of-Age Crowd-Pleaser Brimming with Soul | Sundance

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There’s a reason why we have coming-of-age movie tropes. They’re often appealing, lend themselves to clearly communicate particular ideas, and spark certain emotions. You can go one way or the other with such storytelling devices. You can merely lean on them as a road map offering the easiest possible route to the desired response, something that often feels conventional and forced. Or, you can use familiar genre assets to bolster the impact of something new. That’s exactly what writer-director Siân Heder accomplishes with CODA .

Inspired by the 2014 French film La Famille Bélier , CODA stars Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi, the title character, a Child of Deaf Adults (CODA). As the only hearing person in her family, Ruby’s parents ( Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin ) and brother ( Daniel Durant ) often rely on her to keep the family’s fishing business afloat. When she isn’t working on their boat, Ruby’s trying to make her way through high school. When she impulsively follows her crush ( Ferdia Walsh-Peelo ) and joins the school choir, she discovers a passion for singing, a passion her family seemingly can’t share and also one that clashes with her family business obligations.

In a sense, Ruby’s your average high school senior. She’s dealing with pressures from her parents, the challenge of navigating the high school social scene and keeping control of sky high nerves near that crush of hers, Miles. While that might all sound very familiar, it’s the specifics of Ruby’s situation and the earnestness with which Heder explores them that makes her story a coming-of-age crowd-pleaser that’s especially unique and also quite profound.

Amy Forsyth, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin and Troy Kostur in CODA

Jones is essentially challenged to bring two sides of Ruby together. On the boat and docks, Ruby operates with confidence, determined to insure her family gets what they’re owed for their hard work. At school? Ruby’s totally out of her element. She’s bullied frequently by classmates and rather than snap back and command the scene like she does on the docks, with her peers, she clams up. Not only does Jones convey that believable resourcefulness when it comes to the family business, but she also manages to offer up a sense of Ruby’s history and how it’s brought her to this specific place at school - even down to her impulsive decision to sign up for choir behind Miles. Yes, the crush she has on him is clearly a factor but, whether she knows it or not at the time, she’s a young adult reaching for something of her own, and that’s a driving force through much of the film.

But Ruby’s story isn’t as simple as breaking free of family obligations. Not only is Ruby well aware that her family truly needs her in order to navigate the local fishing business packed with hearing people who don’t sign, but she also deeply cares for her family. That’s a lot for one kid to deal with right there and CODA conveys it all extremely effectively thanks to Jones’ work and also to how well Heder builds the characters around her.

In order to feel the full force of the weight on Ruby’s shoulders, it was vital for Heder to clearly convey the stakes for the folks around her, and she does so quite well. A standout component in CODA is the family dynamic. The chemistry between Jones, Durant, Kotsur and Matlin is endlessly charming and moving, quickly sparking engagement and deep investment in their situation. But then Heder takes it a step further, fleshing out every member of the Rossi family and selling them as powerful individuals, too. They’re all in this boat together, so to speak. Their livelihoods are on the line, but when you factor in the emotional weight of dealing with that and the inevitable changes that come with Ruby growing up and looking to pursue her own dream, they each approach dealing with that in their own unique ways, ways that speak to their own personal history and place in the family.

While the characters outside of the Rossi family aren’t as well developed, most do make an impression. Amy Forsyth feels underused as Ruby’s friend Gertie, but her presence does contribute to a couple of standout beats in the movie. And as we saw in Sing Street , Walsh-Peelo can effortlessly sell an undeniable sweetness, well-supporting why Ruby’s drawn to Miles. But as far as this portion of the ensemble goes, it’s Eugenio Derbez as Ruby’s choir teacher that makes the most significant impact. He comes in strong as Bernardo Villalobos, teetering on the edge of heightened teacher tough love. However, as his relationship with Ruby develops, Derbez gets the opportunity to show off why Bernardo is so passionate about investing in particular students. That’s when Derbez starts to take that character convention and make it his own, ultimately making Bernardo feel like a fully realized person while significantly contributing to Ruby’s journey.

Every comedic beat in CODA doesn’t land and there are moments here and there that feel a tad contrived, but those types of flaws are absolutely no match for a movie that’s oozing with such passion and heart. You feel it in the performances and in the delicate camerawork. Visually, CODA ’s a movie designed to highlight its greatest assets with sensitivity and soul - its lead performance and cast chemistry. It does that, making CODA an undeniable charmer. The movie clocks in at 111 minutes, but it’s not enough. Heder does tell a very full story that well earns its big finish and the puddle of tears I sat in watching it, but she also sparks that special kind of connection between viewer and characters where you just don’t want to leave them.

And while CODA does offer a mighty satisfying conclusion, it’s not an unrealistically neat one that sends the characters on their way without a care in the world. No matter the circumstance, we’re all constantly juggling obligations to friends, family and self. When CODA hits the right notes in that balancing act, it’s downright euphoric.

For more of our Sundance 2021 reviews, peruse the links below:

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How It Ends
On the Count of Three
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Review: 'Coda' is an emotional powerhouse and one of the year's best movies

Here’s the movie that restores the good name of the crowd-pleaser.

Here's the movie that restores the good name of the crowd-pleaser. You'll laugh, you'll cry and all steps in between at the funny, touching and vital "CODA," now in theaters and on Apple TV+. CODA stands for Children of Deaf Adults. It also represents the very best in family entertainment.

Having broken records with its $25 million sale at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, the Oscar-buzzy "CODA" also describes Ruby Rossi (breakout star Emilia Jones), a hearing Massachusetts high school student who lives with her mom (Marlee Matlin), dad (Troy Kotsur) and hotheaded brother (Daniel Durant), all deaf and all played by deaf actors.

Jones, a British acting and singing discovery, merges effortlessly into the role of an American teen growing up in a Gloucester fishing village. Ruby must, by necessity, act as an intermediary for her working-class family in the hearing world. The livelihood of her parents depends on it.

But what about Ruby's ambition to sing? When her choir teacher Bernardo Villalobos (a sweetly over-the-top Eugenio Derbez) urges her to try for a scholarship at Boston's competitive Berklee College of Music and pairs her with heartthrob duet partner Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo from "Sing Street"), romance and career start intruding on her role as family point person.

MORE: 'The Green Knight' review: Dev Patel deserves Oscar attention

The movie has great fun with mom and dad's rowdy sex life, especially when they use it to embarrass shy Ruby when she dares to bring home a boy. But Jones is tender and tough when she needs to be to show why the bond holds despite tension between Ruby and her family.

Still, the acting triumphs of "CODA" belong to the trio of deaf actors at its core. Hollywood has traditionally cast non-deaf performers in such roles. In the 2014 French film, "La Famille Bélier," on which "CODA" is based, both parents were played by hearing actors. Not this time.

Matlin, who won an Oscar at 21 for 1986's "Children of a Lesser God" (she's still the only deaf actor to do so) had the clout to insist on representational casting. She's a sparking livewire as Jackie, the loyal mom with an edge who calls other town wives "hearing bitches" and resents Ruby's music ("If I was blind, would you want to paint?").

MORE: Review: 'In the Heights' pure unleashed joy grabs you and never lets go

Ruby's brother Leo (an explosive Durant) is even more disgruntled when Ruby steps in to negotiate the best price at the fish market since Leo feels, rightly, that outsiders need to learn how to cope with his deaf family without cheating them in the process.

As Frank, Ruby's raucous dad, Kotsur is hilarious and heartbreaking. In one scene, he asks Ruby to sing just for him, placing his hands on her throat to feel the vibrations of her vocal cords in his fingers as she sings the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell classic, "You're All I Need to Get By."

If that moment doesn't bring you to tears, an earlier one will have you reaching for a tissue as the sound drops out at a concert in Ruby's school and we understand what the Rossi clan experiences when the audience applauds a musical performance they can't hear or share.

Download the all new "Popcorn With Peter Travers " podcasts on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Tunein , Google Play Music and Stitcher .

All praise to hearing writer-director Sian Heder, who learned American Sign Language to communicate with actors who give their soulful all. Not just with hand gestures, body language and facial expressions, but with the rare ability to connect heart to heart. However you say it or sign it, "CODA" is an emotional powerhouse and one of the year's best movies.

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CODA review: Tender coming-of-age Sundance drama earns its praise (and price)

This review initially ran out of the Sundance Film Festival in February 2021. CODA will be released Aug. 13 in theaters and on Apple TV+.

The Sundance Film Festival is still often a place for small unpolished gems. But CODA , which premiered there on Thursday night, is the kind of movie that seems to arrive fully formed — and has already been rewarded accordingly with by far the highest purchase price in Sundance history, $25 million by Apple TV+ . (Andy Samberg's existential rom-com Palm Springs set the record last year , with $17.5 million.)

Those staggering numbers seem at odds at first with the film's modest outlines — a classic coming-of-age tale, populated mostly by lesser-known actors and set in a small Massachusetts town. The charm in writer-director Sian Heder's breakout second feature is easy to find though, and much of it stems from the sweet specificity of her premise; British actress Emilia Jones (Netflix's Locke & Key ) stars as Ruby Rossi, the only hearing person in a deaf family.

The Rossis are a rowdy crew: Patriarch Frank (Troy Kotsur) and his grown son Leo (Daniel Durant), both tattooed brawlers, descend from a long line of local fishermen; they drink and smoke and make fart jokes, and when Frank's not on the boat, he's usually finding a way to have spectacularly noisy sex with his beloved wife, Jackie (Oscar winner Marlee Matlin ), a midlife sexpot in skinny jeans. Ruby rises every day at 3 a.m. to work alongside them, hauling in the daily catch before the sun is fully up. Then she pulls off her waders and heads to high school, where the mean girls make snide cracks about smelling fish when they pass her in the halls, and even her best friend Gertie (Amy Forsyth) can't understand why she wants to join something as deeply uncool as choir.

But music, which her family has no way of knowing — they can't hear her singing along to old Motown songs and Nina Simone while she works, or belting them out in her bedroom — is the thing that brings her the most joy.It also terrifies her though, so it takes a burgeoning crush on a classmate ( Sing Street 's Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) and the careful attentions of a teacher, Mr. Villalobos ( Eugenio Derbez ), to nudge her out of her skittish shell and closer toward the public performances she fears so much.

Heder, a writer and producer best known for her work on shows like Orange Is the New Black and Little America , never leaves any real doubt that Ruby will find her way when it comes to both first kisses and longer-range career plans. And CODA does often have the feel and scale less of big-screen moviemaking than of the television background she comes from, albeit expertly done (and with more than a few premium-cable profanities). But a handful of sitcom-ish moments seem like small glitches in a script that works so winningly to bring the often unseen (or just terminally under-explored) world of deafness to such joyful, ordinary life.

Jones — who trained intensively in voice work and American Sign Language for the role — has the gift of coming off like a genuine teenager, and more particularly a girl torn between her unique obligations to the people she loves and the bigger dreams she holds for herself. Matlin is great too, both tough and tenderhearted, though Durant and Kotsur deserve to be singled out for largely wordless performances that still convey so much in every scene: Anger, vulnerability, outrageous humor. Together, they somehow manage to make CODA feel like both the best and most familiar kind of family film, and one you've never quite seen before. Grade: B+

‘CODA’ Review: Deaf Family Saga Makes the Coming-of-Age Drama Feel New Again

Kate erbland, editorial director.

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Apple will release the film in theaters and on its streaming platform on Friday, August 12.

There’s little surprising about the shape of director Sian Heder ‘s latest feature: It’s a family drama and a coming-of-age tale that combines familiar beats about finding yourself, breaking free of your family, and making plenty of mistakes along the way into one tear-jerking package. Yet what “ CODA ” lacks in storytelling originality, it more than makes up for with other touches of ingenuity. Chief among them is that it’s a film that focuses on a deaf family and treats their woes as being just as worthy — and relatable — as innumerable other stories that, at least, initially feel just like it.

As Heder’s film evolves and leans further into the patterns of the genre, that seeming familiarity becomes one of its greatest assets. You may think you know this story, and you probably do. But you’ve never quite seen it like this, with these characters, and with this care paid to an underrepresented portion of the population. In fitting so neatly inside expectations, Heder makes a sterling argument for more films like it — which is to say, movies that focus on under-served characters and performers (all of Heder’s deaf characters are played by deaf actors, the film is subtitled) that still contain massive appeal for everyone. It’s a crowd-pleaser that works its formula well, even as it breaks new ground.

Anchored by star-making turn from Emilia Jones as teenage malcontent Ruby Rossi, “CODA” takes its title from Ruby’s lot in life: as the child of deaf adults, her vibrant parents Jackie (Marlee Matlin) and Frank (Troy Kotsur). In fact, Ruby is the only hearing person in her household — her older brother Leo (Daniel Durant) is also deaf — and she’s long served as the Rossis’ hearing proxy to the world. And while the Rossis have mostly avoided being a part of the wider world, their fortunes remain entirely tied up in it and, by extension, in Ruby.

The Rossis have been fishermen for decades, and every morning, Frank, Leo, and Ruby set out on their trawler to gather an early morning catch. Ruby, a senior in high school, doesn’t just get up at the crack of dawn to do a man-sized job before heading off to class, she’s also the one charged with bargaining for how much their haul will sell for. It’s a tough ask in a town dominated by conglomerates that institute “bullshit quotas” on their hardest-working denizens. After that, it’s off to high school, where Ruby and her family are the subjects of teasing and bullying, while Ruby’s entire social life consists of her brassy pal Gertie (Amy Forsyth) and a simmering crush on Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo).

Heder’s knack for lived-in authenticity — from her sets to costumes, locations to casting — helps some of the film’s earliest machinations go down a touch easier. Ruby, it seems, may have too much on her plate, but she’s also harboring a big secret: she’s a wonderful singer, and perhaps she can make something of that gift. That Ruby would be so possessed by a talent that her family literally cannot experience for themselves sounds like the making of an eye-rolling ham-fest, but Heder studiously avoids layering on cheesy twists. “CODA” feels real, even in those moments ripped from the coming-of-age playbook. That’s no small feat.

While Ruby and her family are always vivid — this is not only a star-making turn for Jones, it’s also a reminder of just how many layers Matlin contains — the film’s supporting characters must labor through a first act that draws them with painful broad strokes. Gertie is initially introduced as something of a boy-crazy flake, while Miles only opens his mouth to sing (talking? what’s that?) and Ruby’s would-be mentor Mr. V (Eugenio Derbez) is presented simply as a scarf-flipping fast-talker who loves nothing more than to make his teenage charges sing inappropriate songs, like “Let’s Get It On.” Eventually, all of these characters will get their own dimensions, but early experiences with them are something to be plodded through.

Perhaps, however, that’s the point, as Heder hews closely to the expectations of the coming-of-age story, all the better to package it with the same gravitas as a film about a less interesting — and less often seen on the big screen — family and its evolutions. Ruby’s problems are deeply relatable, but the precise nature of them is unique, and if early pieces of plotting feel done-to-death (the sassy best friend, the flashy mentor, the crazy dream), it really only reminds that, well, they haven’t been. Not like this.

As Ruby struggles to balance her life, setting her sights on a major collegiate choice just as her family preps a business plan that hinges on her ability to be at their beck and call, “CODA” ramps up to some necessary blood-letting. The result is a powerful, probing exploration of familial bonds that isn’t narratively groundbreaking, but speaks to the special power at work in Heder’s film. It may look recognizable, but Heder and her formidable cast and compelling emotion make sure it doesn’t sound like anything else out there.

“CODA” premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section.

As new movies open in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic, IndieWire will continue to review them whenever possible. We encourage readers to follow the safety precautions provided by CDC and health authorities. Additionally, our coverage will provide alternative viewing options whenever they are available.

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CODA 's story offers few surprises, but strong representation and a terrific cast -- led by Emilia Jones' brilliant performance -- bring this coming-of-age story vividly to life.

Well-written, well-acted, and thoroughly heartwarming without being heavy-handed about it, CODA simply works.

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‘coda’: film review | sundance 2021.

Sian Heder's film revolves around the tensions that arise when the sole hearing member of a deaf family discovers she has a talent for singing.

By Jon Frosch

Senior Editor, Reviews

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There are films that upend conventions and subvert expectations. And there are those that lean into them — hard. CODA , a U.S. remake of 2014 French dramedy La famille Bélier , about the sole hearing member of a deaf family who discovers she’s a gifted singer, is of the latter ilk. Even with its unusual premise (CODA is an acronym for “child of deaf adults”) and the representational novelty of three out of four leads being deaf — a notable difference from the original — the movie hardly feels like uncharted territory. CODA faithfully works its way through a checklist of tropes from high school comedies, disability dramas, musical-prodigy and inspiring-teacher narratives, coming-of-age tales about young people struggling to declare independence from overbearing families and indie chronicles of blue-collar America.

Full credits

Venue: Sundance Film Festival (U.S. Dramatic Competition) Production companies: Vendome Pictures, Pathé Films, Picture Perfect Federation Cast: Emilia Jones, Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin, Daniel Durant, Eugenio Derbez, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Amy Forsyth Writer-director: Sian Heder Producers: Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, Patrick Wachsberger Executive producer: Sarah Borch-Jacobson Director of photography: Paula Huidobro Production designer: Diane Lederman Costume designer: Brenda Abbandandolo Editor: Geraud Brisson Composer: Marius De Vries Casting: Deborah Aquila, Tricia Wood, Lisa Zagoria Sales: ICM Partners, CAA

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'CODA' Will Yank Shamelessly On Your Heartstrings ... But It's Very Good At It

Linda Holmes

Emilia Jones and Marlee Matlin play daughter and mother in the new film CODA . Apple TV+ hide caption

Emilia Jones and Marlee Matlin play daughter and mother in the new film CODA .

Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) is in her last year of high school. She doesn't have much of a plan beyond graduation, because she assumes she's going to continue as she has been, working with her father and brother on the family fishing boat out of Gloucester, Mass. Ruby loves music and loves to sing, but the idea of actually trying to study or explore music seems like an impossible idea, even after her choir teacher (Eugenio Derbez) sees promise in her and encourages her to apply to Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Deciding whether to work in the family business or strike out on your own is always tough, but for Ruby, it has an added wrinkle: her parents (Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur) and her brother (Daniel Durant) are deaf. Ruby herself is not; she is what's called a CODA: a Child of Deaf Adults.

Directed and written by Sian Heder, CODA is closely based on a 2014 French film called La Famille Bélier , but this version has one important quality that the French film didn't : The deaf characters are played by deaf actors. Matlin is probably the most famous deaf actor in the United States, but CODA also has hugely appealing turns from Kotsur and Durant, both of whom have worked with the Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles , including on its lauded production of Spring Awakening. Matlin has worked there, too.

How Troy Kotsur of 'CODA' broke barriers as a deaf actor, on stage and on screen

How Troy Kotsur Broke Barriers As A Deaf Actor, On Stage, On Screen And Now In 'CODA'

The fundamental conflict for Ruby is the disruption it would cause in her family for her to leave. She's been her parents' interpreter since she was a child, and she feels responsible for things like making sure her father isn't cheated when he sells his fish at the end of every day.

Her parents — especially her mother — wonder what they would do without her to act as a bridge to the local community, which seems to have made no effort at all, either socially or in business terms, to communicate with the Rossis. This weighs on her parents, and it weighs on Ruby. It cannot go on like this forever, but what, her mother wonders, is the alternative?

CODA is a cheerfully conventional story in many respects: a kid discovers what she loves and has to figure out what she's willing to give up to follow her dream. She has an inspirational teacher who believes in her. She's met a boy, and that relationship is also making her think about life beyond the family she defends fiercely and sometimes resents. It's a predictable piece in structure that's sharp in execution, and that's so inventive and fresh in some of its particulars that it almost disguises the most conventional story beats.

Widely released films rarely embrace ASL as much as CODA does, even for deaf characters: here, rather than speech being prioritized for hearing audiences, the actors sign and are subtitled, and the language is allowed to breathe in a way that's moving, often funny, and very effective. ( According to Variety , the French film didn't subtitle the signing; hearing audiences only understood it through the daughter repeating or responding to it.)

Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin are outstanding as Ruby's parents in CODA . Apple TV+ hide caption

Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin are outstanding as Ruby's parents in CODA .

There is no question that Ruby's awakening about music can be vigorously corny — but the thing is ... so are a lot of real high school awakenings about art. I myself went to a summer music camp as a teenager where lots of people were very serious musicians headed for conservatories. We learned the song "I Sing The Body Electric" from Fame — from actual, literal Fame , for heaven's sake! — and believe me, at 15 I was deeply moved by singing lines like "I'll look back on Venus, look back on Mars/and I'll burn with the fire of ten million stars." It was extremely corny and it meant the world to me. What's more, our choral director believed everyone should know how to learn parts by ear, so she taught us that one without sheet music, just standing around together, which made it feel even more like a thing that would ... you know, happen in a movie.

So while Ruby's path is audience-ready and feels engineered to cause tears, sometimes music and theater kids are exactly that swept up in what they're doing. It might be cheesy, but if you're going to go for this kind of grand emotion, this actually might be the right setting for it.

And in the meantime, you get a much more subtle story alongside that about the ways in which this family dynamic both hurts and serves everyone in it. Ruby feels like she's sacrificed a great deal for her family; her brother senses that she gets something from being the only person she thinks can communicate with the rest of the world effectively. This gentle study of patterns in families, where everybody can love each other while still being stuck in habits they need to break, doesn't have the bombast of the musical sequences, but it has its own resonance.

Did CODA deserve to crowd out everything else to the degree that it did when Sundance handed out its awards? Probably not. But there is a place for the crowd-pleaser, the tear-jerker, the movie that wants to manipulate your emotions and make you cry — particularly if it manages to bring something new to an old formula. The performances here, especially from Kotsur and Durant, neither of whom were actors I had seen much of, are excellent. And if it feels silly to cry while people sing, then, well, as we all learn in time, there are worse reasons for tears.

Get ready for ‘CODA,’ the feel-good movie that will emotionally destroy you

Emilia Jones and Eugenio Derbez in “CODA,” premiering globally on Apple TV+ on August 13, 2021.

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My first review of “CODA,” Siân Heder’s sublime coming-of-age story of a child of Deaf adults (the film’s title is that very acronym), came right after watching it on the opening night of this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival and consisted of a message sent to a colleague containing the sobbing emoji repeated three times.

Having had the chance to revisit the movie several months later, that review seems insufficient. “CODA” warrants at least half a dozen sobbing emojis, followed by a dozen hearts and a couple of bouquets of flowers and, I don’t know, maybe a peach and an eggplant (or whatever the kids use these days) for the number of times the movie emphasizes the parents’ spectacularly healthy sex life.

But as you’re reading this, you might be interested in ... I don’t know ... words. So let me say that “CODA” contains a great many elements familiar to this kind of movie. It’s about a restless teenager trying to break free from her parents’ expectations, helped along by an inspirational teacher, putting her on the path to a tense, make-or-break musical audition that’s followed by an emotional catharsis that will wound even the most hardened soul.

But because Heder — whose previous work includes the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black” and “Glow” and feature “Tallulah” — is so adept at establishing the emotional bonds between the film’s close-knit family, the presence of all these conventions doesn’t matter. Much. You might find yourself in the film’s final 20 minutes begging for mercy as the story careens from a heart-to-heart talk between mother and daughter to a beautiful moment between father and daughter to the use of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” in a way that literally embodies the lyrics “tears and fears and feeling proud / To say, ‘I love you’ right out loud.” But you will not mind because Heder has earned the right to destroy you emotionally.

A father with his arm around his daughter in the bed of a pick-up truck outside a house in the dark

“CODA” focuses on Ruby (Emilia Jones), a high school senior in Gloucester, Mass., who wakes up before the sun rises so she can help her father (Troy Kotsur) and older brother Leo (Daniel Durant) on the family fishing boat before heading to school to fall asleep at her desk and endure taunts that she smells like haddock. Ruby is the only hearing person in her family, which puts the weight of responsibility on her shoulders, whether negotiating the price for the fish they catch or translating to her parents the doctor’s diagnosis as to why their private parts feel like they’re on fire. ( Marlee Matlin plays the mom, and she and Kotsur possess the kind of harmony that deserves its own movie.)

Ruby loves singing and she’s good enough that her choir teacher, Bernardo (Eugenio Derbez), offers to train her so she can audition for the for the prestigious Berklee College of Music. Bernardo, or, should I say — as he does — Ber-narrrrrdo (if you can’t roll your Rs, just call him Mr. V) also pairs Ruby with the cute boy (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) she’s been crushing on for a duet of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “You’re All I Need to Get By.” It pretty much guarantees that they’ll fall in love because, singing that song, how could they not?

The other certainty is that Ruby’s desire to leave home and pursue her dreams will conflict with her family’s need for her to stick around and help. One thing that separates “CODA” from every other coming-of-age movie is the way that Heder seamlessly moves between speaking and American Sign Language in the family scenes. The signing is subtitled, rather than translated, highlighting its vibrancy as a form of communication. And because we see mother, father, sister and brother communicating with this energy and intimacy, our understanding of the family — its dynamics, the love they share and what’s at stake if Ruby leaves — is heightened.

That means you care about these people — a lot. Which leads to the aforementioned waterworks when Ruby, played by British actress Jones with an authenticity that captures the character’s sensitivity and youthful impulsiveness, sets out on the final part of one journey so that she can begin another.

As Joni’s song puts it: Something’s lost, but something’s gained. Have some tissue handy.

Los Angeles, California-July 31, 2021-Director Sian Heder, center, worked with actors Troy Kotsur, left, and Marlee Matlin, right, in the new movie "CODA," which stands for "children of deaf adults, also staring Emilia Jones. Photographed in Los Angeles on July 31, 2021. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Review: Brilliant 'CODA' is a moving, must-see movie that will inspire you to sign up for Apple TV+

The fantastic, funny and heartfelt dramedy “CODA” doesn’t astound by breaking the mold of teen romances and coming-of-age tales. Instead, its brilliance lies in combining these well-tread tropes with an important sense of inclusion for a sweet story that truly sings.

Written and directed by Siân Heder – and based on a 2014 French film – “CODA” (★★★½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters and on Apple TV+ ) features a breakthrough role for talented newcomer Emilia Jones and a thoughtful narrative that takes audiences into the personal lives of a deaf family with a single hearing member. By the end, you’ll have Joni Mitchell stuck in your head, a renewed respect for Oscar-winning great Marlee Matlin , perhaps a want to learn American Sign Language and probably a couple of tear-drenched hankies.

So if "Ted Lasso" hasn't already inspired you to sign up for Apple TV+, this should do the trick.

'We are not costumes': Why Marlee Matlin put her foot down about 'CODA' casting deaf actors

Ruby (Jones) is a 17-year-old Massachusetts girl – the Child of Deaf Adults, or "CODA" in the title – who works on the family fishing boat with her worrying mom Jackie (Matlin), salty dad Frank (Troy Kotsur) and headstrong brother Leo (Daniel Durant). Seafood buyers in the coastal town of Gloucester try to take advantage of the working-class clan, with Ruby usually stepping in as the resident translator. She juggles that life with her high school days, where she’s mocked by classmates for her hardscrabble roots (“Do you smell fish?” one mean girl quips passing by Ruby in the hall).

When it’s time to sign up for clubs, Ruby sees her crush Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) join choir and follows suit. Ruby is actually a really good singer, though her first meeting with eccentric choir director Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez) brings out old insecurities.

What to watch this weekend: 'Free Guy,' 'Respect' and 'CODA'

Mr. V takes an interest in Ruby, though, pairing her with Miles for a duet and offering to help her get ready for an audition at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. But her parents, a randy twosome who live to embarrass Ruby, don’t understand this new direction for her interests and insist she’s needed to help their struggling business. “If I was blind, would you want to paint?” Jackie signs to her daughter.

Like last year’s excellent “ Sound of Metal ,” Heder gives hearing viewers the perspective of a deaf person: When Ruby performs at a school concert, you experience the same silence as her dad, and instead of listening to the impact of his daughter’s powerful voice, you witness it in the facial reactions of those sitting by him. Similarly, during an emotional conversation between Ruby and her mom that's a long time coming, Heder again strips away the sound so audiences can give undivided attention to their hands signing and the important connection between mother and daughter.

Matlin charms as a mom doing what she can for the family while also navigating her own issues interacting with the hearing world, and Kotsur’s sure to find some new fans as the dad having his world opened up by experiencing – in his own way – Ruby’s musical gift. Jones is the most impressive standout, showing the blossoming from an awkward teen girl to one owning a freedom of confidence. Her chemistry with Walsh-Peelo is decent enough, though Jones and Derbez – a notoriously lively Mexican comedic star who lends a nuanced and restrained performance here – are a more dynamic duo.

The crowd-pleasing “CODA” uses a touching lead performance, common themes and a glimpse at a spirited deaf family to craft a beautiful exercise in empathy chock full of the warm fuzzies.

CODA Review

13 Aug 2021

If you were going to ask AI to come up with an identikit Sundance break-out hit, it might well be CODA . The winner of the festival’s 2021 US Grand Jury Prize: Drama (it subsequently sold to Apple TV for $25 million), writer-director Siân Heder’s film mixes up Sundance-favourite elements — family shenanigans, salty laughs, rough-hewn filmmaking, big dramatic beats, a feelgood ending — to winning, if not quite Little Miss Sunshine , effect. If it strays too close to the predictable, CODA tackles the realities of living with deafness with authenticity (the Deaf characters are played by non-hearing actors), empathy and heart.

The title is an acronym for Children Of Deaf Adults. The ‘child’ is Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones, who learnt American Sign Language for the role), an ostracised teen helping her Deaf father Frank (Troy Kotsur) and brother Leo (Daniel Durant) during hardscrabble days working in the family fishing business in Gloucester, Massachusetts. When we first meet Ruby she is singing gospel on board the boat and, joining a school choir, it transpires she has a beautiful singing voice, so much so that music teacher Bernardo (Eugenio Derbez) recommends she try out for the prestigious Berklee College of Music.

There is a palpable sense of the ways deafness can bring a family closer together.

Based on the 2014 French flick La Famille Bélier , CODA proffers a familiar dynamic of family commitment versus following your dream. Heder works wonders with the family part, creating a textured, vibrant and thoroughly likeable clan. Kotsur is an earthy but caring dad with a penchant for hard rap and bad jokes (“Why do farts smell?” “So Deaf people can enjoy them too”); Matlin as mom Jackie is not above guilt-tripping her daughter, but shares her fears about motherhood in an effective late-in-the-day scene; Durant as forever-on-Tinder brother Leo neatly evinces the frustrations of being older but less trusted than his kid sister. Scenes at the dinner table are lively, Heder making a fun use of signing-with-subtitles for comedic effect (“Twat Waffle” is a particular highlight) and there is a palpable sense of the ways deafness can bring a family closer together.

The film is on less convincing ground when it focuses on Ruby pursuing her dreams. Derbez’s Bernardo, Ruby’s music mentor, is an ersatz caricature, a well-tailored cardigan dropping one-liners and supporting-character lovability. The story beats are well worn here — will Ruby miss rehearsals over translating for her family? Will she fall for choir partner Miles ( Sing Street ’s Ferdia Walsh-Peelo)? — but you are carried along by Jones’ performance. She gives Ruby vulnerabilities, warmth and a spark to make you care for the character’s well-worn dilemmas, suggesting both the weight of responsibility she carries and her need to find her own place in the world. By the time she comes to the inevitable big sing-off, it’s a hard heart that isn’t moved by her performance, cinema’s biggest use of Joni Mitchell since Love Actually .

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CODA review: These deaf characters aren’t saints, role models or victims

The film’s success provides a robust argument that cliches have only become cliches because we’re so used to viewing them through a single, limited perspective, article bookmarked.

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Dir: Sian Heder. Starring: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin. 15, 111 mins

CODA redefines the concept of the crowd-pleaser. Any impulse to pigeonhole it – as the uplifting drama about the hearing child of a deaf family, which walked away from the Sundance Film Festival with a record $25m acquisition deal – disintegrates the moment we meet Frank (Troy Kotsur) and Jackie (Marlee Matlin). They’re parents to Leo (Daniel Durant) and Ruby ( Emilia Jones ), the latter being the only hearing member of the Rossi clan and, therefore, their de facto interpreter. At a doctor’s appointment, she looks on with an all-too-recognisable look of teenage mortification as Frank asks her to sign an increasingly graphic list of medical ailments (the phrase “like a boiled lobster claw” makes an appearance).

Writer-director Sian Heder hasn’t thrust upon these characters the mantle of saints, role models, or victims – nor any of the familiar narratives hearing people create about those who are deaf in order, primarily, to feel better about themselves. Frank and Jackie are like so many other lovingly enervating parents found in coming-of-age indie cinema. They’re slightly hippie-ish, with a high sex drive and a tendency to embarrass potential boyfriends with their lurid frankness (here, the unlucky stooge is played by Ferdia Walsh-Peelo). That familiarity – and the familiarity of the film’s plot, which sees Ruby torn between her home life and her nascent dreams of a singing career – has led some critics to accuse CODA of lapsing into cliche. Heder’s work isn’t even totally original, since the film is actually a sly remake of a French drama titled La Famille Belier .

But CODA ’s success, in all its tender-heartedness and unguarded humanity, provides a robust argument that cliches have only become cliches because we’re so used to viewing them through a single, limited perspective. Heder’s film is refreshing not only because it casts deaf actors as deaf characters, but in the sincerity of its storytelling. Deafness is both material and immaterial to CODA (which stands for Children of Deaf Adults) – Ruby’s path to musical success is threatened partially by her fears that leaving her family behind means stealing away one of their few concrete connections with hearing culture. She’s tethered, too, by her father’s fishing boat, the ever-dwindling source of their income. Corporate interest has stealthily taken hold of their sleepy Massachusetts town – now 60 per cent of their catch’s worth lines the pockets of middlemen. And within all that, she has to overcome her own self-consciousness to impress her school’s choirmaster, the demanding but ultimately visionary Bernardo (Eugenio Derbez).

Cinematographer Paula Huidobro pushes for delicacy over artistic flair – rightly so, since there’s no need for CODA to play theatrics with its camerawork. When Ruby’s in the outside world, there’s an openness to the way things are framed that feels both limitless and claustrophobic; when she’s home, there’s a glow that seems to emulate not from any particular light source but from the bodies that inhabit it. Every choice Heder makes is in service of the radiant performances – of the way Kotsur, Matlin, Jones and Durant perfect the dynamics of a family whose displays of affection consist mainly of teasing and name-calling.

Frank (Troy Kotsur) and Jackie (Marlee Matlin), noticing the tears of their fellow audience members, realise just how talented their daughter is

When they’re being truly honest with each other, their gestures pour out with the force of a flash flood. There’s a similar catharsis to Jones’s onstage performances – when she sings Joni Mitchell’s work, she pushes through into some yet untapped plane of emotional freedom. Her fluency in ASL is presented no differently from any other kind of bilingualism – it was her first language, and is still the one in which she feels the most comfortable expressing herself. It’s a small but meaningful choice on Heder’s part. She allows the film’s hearing audience to have some insight into the deaf experience on only one occasion. The sound cuts midway through one of Ruby’s performances. Frank and Jackie, picking up on the small, choked sobs and brushed-away tears of their fellow audience members, realise just how talented their daughter is. As with so much in CODA , it’s simple – but so beautifully executed.

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Review: ‘CODA’ welcomes us into a family we may never forget

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Emilia Jones, left, and Eugenio Derbez in a scene from “CODA.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Emilia Jones, left, and Marlee Matlin in a scene from “CODA.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Emilia Jones, left, and Troy Kotsur in a scene from “CODA.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, left, and Emilia Jones in a scene from “CODA.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Eugenio Derbez in a scene from “CODA.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

This image released by Apple TV+ shows, from left, Amy Forsyth, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur in a scene from “CODA.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Troy Kotsur, left, and Marlee Matlin in a scene from “CODA.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

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They say silence is golden. It’s a silly phrase, really, but it takes on an urgent poignancy for three stunning minutes in “CODA,” Siân Heder’s refreshing, loving and altogether irresistible film about a deaf family with one hearing daughter.

In this extraordinary scene, Ruby, 17 (impressive newcomer Emilia Jones) and mother Jackie (a superb Marlee Matlin) are having a heart-to-heart in Ruby’s bedroom — something all of us moms and daughters have experienced, except not, because one is deaf and the other isn’t. Ruby asks her mom if she ever wished that she, her only hearing child, were deaf. The answer will both make you smile and break your heart, like a lot of this movie. And then you’ll realize that for the entire three minutes, you’ve barely heard a sound — no spoken dialogue, just the very faintest hint of music, and the flutters of movement that accompany signing.

If there’s a flaw to “CODA” — the title stems from the term “child of deaf adult” -- it may be that it wears its brimming heart on its sleeve to such an extent that it occasionally nears that fine line into formula, especially when it invents plot-moving conflicts that seem unnecessary. But somehow it never crosses the line, and if you see a few predictable moments coming … well, so what? They work — boy, do they ever. If this is formula, I’m OK with that, and can you pass the Kleenex? There’s something in my eye.

Heder, who adapted her screenplay from the 2014 French film “La Famille Belier,” makes crucially effective decisions throughout, but none more important than the casting, with three extraordinary deaf actors playing the deaf family members. Matlin’s well-documented talent (she’s the only deaf actor to win an Oscar) is matched here by a terrific Troy Kotsur as her randy, jubilant husband Frank, and by a sensitive Daniel Durant as temperamental older brother Leo.

The film begins on a commercial fishing boat, which is how the Rossi family of Gloucester, Massachusetts, earns a living. Ruby, a high-school senior, begins her mornings at 3 a.m. on that boat, serving as both deckhand and interpreter with the hearing world. Then she goes to school, where she promptly falls asleep.

Naturally, Ruby’s parents rely on her. That in itself creates tension. She’s needed for every business meeting, every doctor’s appointment. In just one of many lovely comedic scenes, a doctor tells Ruby’s parents that, for reasons we won’t get into here, they can’t have sex for two weeks. Ruby mischievously translates that to: “You can never have sex again.” (Then she admits to her shocked parents that it’s just two weeks. They’re shocked at that, too.)

Another funny moment finds Leo swiping on Tinder at the dinner table. When someone complains that it might not be the most appropriate dinner activity, a reply comes: “Tinder is something we can do as a family.”

The joke, though, runs deep. Being a hearing person separates Ruby in many ways from the others. For example: she wants to sing in the school choir. Granted, it’s because a boy she likes is joining. But when Ruby tells her mother she’s joined, Jackie’s response is all about how they can’t share it: “If I was blind, would you want to paint?”

Turns out that Ruby, though she bolts from choir in embarrassment the first time she’s asked to sing, truly has a voice. It takes a determined teacher to discover this, and she has one in Bernardo (a highly entertaining Eugenio Derbez) — or, as he pronounces it, Berrrrrnardo — who quickly decides to take Ruby under his wing, preparing her for an audition to the Berklee College of Music, his alma mater.

But Ruby’s private lessons take her away from the family at crucial times, underscoring the outsized burden she bears. Her absence from the boat one day leads to a disaster that threatens the family’s livelihood. When Ruby agrees to put a stop to her dream of college, her parents are grateful but her brother erupts in bitterness, calling her “Saint Ruby.”

Jones, a British actress, had a steep learning curve: She needed to master American Sign Language, speaking in American dialect, and yes, working on a fishing boat. She clearly already could sing, though. A climactic performance of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” — we won’t give away what makes it special — rivals the emotional punch of that bedroom scene.

If you studied music, you’ll know “coda” has another meaning — it’s a certain type of ending to a piece of music. It’s easy to feel that part of Ruby’s life here, her childhood, is coming to its coda, especially in a late scene where she hugs her family and gets into a car.

But when she runs back for another hug, straight to the camera, we also feel like she’s running back to US. And that’s when we realize: We’ve become part of this family, and we likely won’t forget them.

And now pass that Kleenex again, please.

“CODA,” an Apple release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America “for strong sexual content and language, and drug use.” Running time: 112 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

MPAA definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Follow Jocelyn Noveck on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JocelynNoveckAP

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CODA movie review: Joyful coming-of-age story with supremely well-crafted performances, admirable nuance

CODA is a movie about being rescued — by your family, and from your family. The range of emotions that the film manages to conjure in under two hours, immensely satisfying.

Language: English

The best way to describe Sian Helder’s award-garlanded CODA is that you’ve seen films like it before. Think of that coming-of-age story about a precarious teen finding her own voice in a world that often doesn’t care to listen to her desires. Or that moving table about an underdog family rising against all odds and coming to realise that even the harshest storms pass. Perhaps, you’ve seen it as that high school drama about a bullied girl finally standing her own ground or as a rousing account about a musical prodigy hitting the right notes. CODA is like all of these films, which is to say that you’re bound to be familiar with what it has to offer. But it’s also like none of these films, in the sense that you’ve never really seen a movie do something this way before.

At its heart, CODA , which won the top three prizes in the US Dramatic category at this year’s Sundance Film Festival , is a movie about wanting to be seen for who you are. It’s a film about the power of family as well as the crushing weight of familial obligations. It’s a tale about moving on and yet not letting go. There are sacrifices, quiet achievements, ample rebellion, and romantic meet-cutes. But CODA , if the title is any hint at all, is most importantly, a film about endings — a story about closing doors instead of lingering near the doorknob, and starting afresh.

But the title is also literal. The film, written and directed by Helder, revolves around 17-year-old Ruby Rossi (newcomer Emilia Jones in a career-defining turn), the child of deaf adults (CODA). Ruby is the youngest child of her fishermen family, which includes her mother Jackie (Marlee Maitlin), father Frankie (veteran stage actor Troy Kotsur), and brother Leo (Daniel Durant). She is the only hearing person in her family, making her the de facto bridge between them and the world. That inevitably means that her childhood was spent being their protector, instead of the other way around. Before school, she doubles up as a helping hand to her fishermen father and brother as well as their interpreter, solely focused on ensuring that they get a fair bargain from the world designed to shortchange people like them.

“You have no idea what it feels like to hear people laugh at your family and have to protect them because they can’t hear it but I can,” Ruby declares to a classmate in one scene, summarising the agony of her existence. In many ways, Ruby has spent her whole life believing that she can never tear the umbilical cord that tethers her toward her family. And so, for 17 years, she has also forgotten that she is allowed to be her own person. College, for instance, never figured in her life plans.

That comes to a head when Ruby, an introverted teenager with a passion for singing, joins the school choir and meets her match in music teacher Bernando Villalobos (Eugene Derbez). Bernardo instantly recognises her vocal potential, offering her a lead role in the annual school concert and encouraging her to audition for a Berklee scholarship. It’s as if for the first time, she gets to have a life that is at a remove from being her family’s guardian. But her family is at a crossroads too — they’re about to start an ambitious new fishing business and need her around. That her passion is something that her family will never be able to witness adds to the film’s stakes.

Like any other film with a similar premise, CODA is centred on asking whether Ruby will do the right thing, but what sets it apart is that it is also the film that is equally invested in asking: Does Ruby really have to do the right thing? The answer to that, is winsome, even though the path, replete with dramatic plot twists and change of heart, is well-traversed.

If CODA stands out as the rare testament of a movie being immensely compelling despite being predictable, it’s primarily because of the supremely well-crafted performances and the Helder’s gaze.

Not once does she other Ruby or her family; CODA is instead told from their perspective, a narrative decision that proves to be rewarding simply because for most of the film it’s impossible to quite pinpoint why anyone would want to mock the Rossi family. In that, Helder makes a worthy point about not speaking down to a marginalised community when you can speak to them.

The performances are terrific across the board — the family of four share a deeply felt, genuine warmth that lights up every single frame and conveys the singularity of their tragedy without preachy dialogue. But Kotsur as the father trying to keep his family together is especially affecting. A standout climactic sequence where he asks Ruby to sing for him under the night sky and feels the reverberations on her neck, his face writ with longing, is unforgettable. As is another scene where Ruby quite literally sings for her family on the big stage. It really does make you laugh and cry, while giving you small moments to relish in between.

It’s the little flourishes that make CODA such a delightful experience, if not an apt celebration of the movies. In the hands of any other filmmaker, this could have only been a movie about being taken for granted by your family. But in Helder’s assured hands, CODA becomes a movie about being rescued — by your family, and from your family. The nuance is admirable. The range of emotions that the film manages to conjure in under two hours, immensely satisfying. After all, the sound of music doesn’t just have to be heard; it can be felt too.

Coda is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Rating: 3.5/5

Watch the trailer here

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Film Review: CODA (2021)
CODA movie review & film summary (2021)
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'CODA' review: Movie about a deaf family is a heart-warmer

COMMENTS

The Guardian
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CODA movie review & film summary (2021)
Played by the exceptional Emilia Jones (who is blessed with Grade-A pipes), the gifted young girl in question here happens to be one, navigating the intricacies of her identity, passions, and familial expectations, trying to reconcile them without hurting anyone's feelings, her own included. Admittedly, "CODA" is adapted from the French ...
'CODA' Review: A Voice of Her Own
An openhearted embrace of deaf culture elevates this otherwise conventional tale of a talented teenager caught between ambition and loyalty.
Coda review: Why this year's feel-good favourite was the right Best
In the chaos of awards season, the internet is starting to grasp wildly for the heroes and villains of this story. And it'd be wrong to dismiss Cod's Best Picture chances just because it's a ...
'CODA' Has Its Detractors, but It's an Oscar Winner with a Legacy
And "CODA," in that arena, has been treated as a "Hallmark movie," a tearjerker of maximum anti-cachet. It may, in its square way, be the uncoolest Oscar winner in many decades.
'CODA' Review: A Family Drama That Hits Notes of Enthralling
The story of a high schooler who's the only hearing person in her family, Siân Heder's drama is an authentic crowd-pleasing gem.
'CODA' Review: A Must-See Coming-of-Age Crowd-Pleaser
Perri Nemiroff reviews CODA, a coming-of-age story featuring a standout performance from Emilia Jones as Ruby, the only hearing person in her family.
Review: 'Coda' is an emotional powerhouse and one of the year's best movies
Here's the movie that restores the good name of the crowd-pleaser. You'll laugh, you'll cry and all steps in between at the funny, touching and vital "CODA," now in theaters and on Apple TV+. CODA ...
CODA review: Tender coming-of-age Sundance drama earns its praise (and
The Sundance Film Festival is still often a place for small unpolished gems. But CODA, which premiered there on Thursday night, is the kind of movie that seems to arrive fully formed — and has ...
'CODA' Review: The Formulaic Coming-of-Age Tale Gets a Freshening
'CODA' Review: Deaf Family Saga Makes the Coming-of-Age Drama Feel New Again Sian Heder's family drama is marked by familiar beats, but her characters — a deaf family and its one hearing ...
Coda (2021)
CODA 's story offers few surprises, but strong representation and a terrific cast -- led by Emilia Jones' brilliant performance -- bring this coming-of-age story vividly to life.
'CODA': Film Review
Sian Heder's film revolves around the tensions that arise when the sole hearing member of a deaf family discovers she has a talent for singing.
Review: 'CODA' Comes To Apple TV+ After Triumphs At Sundance : NPR
The family comedy-drama CODA nabbed big prizes at Sundance in January. Now, it arrives on Apple TV+. It doesn't hold back in going for the tears, but it mostly earns them.
CODA critic reviews
Metacritic aggregates music, game, tv, and movie reviews from the leading critics. Only Metacritic.com uses METASCORES, which let you know at a glance how each item was reviewed.
Review: 'Coda' is a small movie that hits all the right notes
Like another recent indie film, "Sound of Metal," "Coda" also makes brilliant use of sound, including the lack thereof, to illustrate the hurdles associated with being deaf in a hearing world.
'CODA' review: Apple TV's feel-good movie will destroy you
Get ready for 'CODA,' the feel-good movie that will emotionally destroy you. Emilia Jones and Eugenio Derbez in "CODA," premiering globally on Apple TV+ on August 13, 2021. My first review ...
Review: 'Coda' is an emotional powerhouse and one of the year's best movies
Here's the movie that restores the good name of the crowd-pleaser. You'll laugh, you'll cry and all steps in between at the funny, touching and vital "CODA," now in theaters and on Apple TV+. CODA stands for Children of Deaf Adults. It also represents the very best in family entertainment.
'CODA' review: Apple TV+'s dramedy is a beautiful exercise in empathy
The fantastic, funny and heartfelt dramedy 'CODA' creates a touching film about a deaf family and teen girl needing to find her voice.
'CODA' movie review: A winning cast, evocative atmosphere and genuine
A winning cast, evocative atmosphere and genuine tone make this dramedy about the hearing child of deaf parents impossible not to love.
CODA Review
Massachusetts. 17-year-old Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) is the only hearing member of a deaf family, an invaluable interpreter for her parents (Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin) and their struggling ...
CODA's deaf characters aren't saints or victims
The film's success provides a robust argument that cliches have only become cliches because we're so used to viewing them through a single, limited perspective
Review: 'CODA' welcomes us into a family we may never forget
They say silence is golden. It's a silly phrase, really, but it takes on an urgent poignancy for three stunning minutes in "CODA," Siân Heder's refreshing, loving and altogether irresistible film about a deaf family with one hearing daughter.
CODA movie review: Joyful coming-of-age story with supremely well
CODA is a movie about being rescued — by your family, and from your family. The range of emotions that the film manages to conjure in under two hours, immensely satisfying.

Coda review – formulaic yet sweet-natured crowd-pleaser

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