REVIEW:  

CODA ★★★½ ★★★★

Aug 15, 2021

Bryan Macklowe’s review published on Letterboxd:

Ruby (Emilia Jones, Netflix's "Lock & Key") is a high school teenager who happens to be a CODA, child of deaf adults. Her family is a hard-working unit which operates within the local fish industry. She is the family's only link to the hearing world, placing a lot of responsibility onto her young shoulders. One day, Ruby decides to take a chance on signing up for the school choir. She loves to sing along to the radio on fishing shifts, so why not? 

While at first shy about singing in front of her classmates, her teacher encourages Ruby to develop her talent. Before long she is invited to take lessons with her music teacher, Mr. Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez, "How to Be a Latin Lover"), in order to study for a prestigious college audition. This creates a clash between her desire to sing and her family's reliance on her. Making matters even more complicated is that her loving but rather isolated parents (Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin, "Children of a Lesser God," and Troy Kotsur, "Wild Prairie Rose") don't really understand or, at first, want to understand, her interest in singing. They see the hearing world as filled with enemies and bullies, and would rather have Ruby stay with them selling fish. How she balances these conflicting issues is at the core of the film, in addition to navigating her own social life and developing a relationship with a fellow musician student (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, so good as the lead in "Sing Street" a few years ago).

Some of these elements reminded me a bit of the now-classic coming-of-age movie "Billy Elliot," in which an aspiring young dancer must confront his coal-mining family about his desire for a different life. "CODA," despite familiar themes of the genre, differentiates itself through this fresh perspective of a family struggling to communicate in a world that seems separated from their own lives. 

The performances are uniformly good here, with particular attention to Emilia Jones, who brings a grounded appeal to Ruby that immediately creates sympathy for her situation. Matlin and Kotsur are excellent as the parents who must slowly come to a recognition that their experience might be clouding their view of their expectations for their daughter. Also strong is Daniel Durant ("Silent Notes") as Ruby's strong-headed older brother Leo, who is also deaf and wants the family to stand up to the people who take financial advantage of them at the fishing docks.

"CODA" transcends its genre origins as a coming-of-age story to tell an engaging story about family and following your passions in a way that isn't cloying or sappy.