![]() Amy Forsyth, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin, and Troy Kotsur in CODA. Her family hasn’t always felt welcome in the wider community, and they need her. Ruby is finishing high school and loves to sing her music teacher (Eugenio Derbez) encourages her to consider studying music in college, but she’s not even sure that college is a possibility. The Rossis live in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and own a small fishing business, though they’re increasingly struggling to get by. Ruby has spent her life as her family’s de facto translator. Ruby is the only hearing member of her family, which is also comprised of her older brother Leo (Daniel Durant) and parents Frank (Troy Kotsur) and Jackie (Marlee Matlin, who is also the only deaf performer to have won an Oscar). But it’s also an acronym for child of deaf adult, which Ruby Rossi (the excellent Emilia Jones) is. “Coda” is a musical term, referring to the last bit of music before the end of a piece - the finale, the conclusion. But it’s also fresh and innovative in important ways - and it absolutely won my heart. CODA follows a coming-of-age formula that feels familiar, and like the movies I remember from my youth, it’s a little corny at times. There’s always some hype involved with big Sundance films, but the audience’s response made plenty of sense in this case. (And it literally paid off, when Apple bought the film for a record $25 million CODA is being released in theaters and on Apple TV+ simultaneously.) Though we were on our couches instead of crowded into theaters in Utah, you could still feel the buzz, mostly on Twitter. ![]() Ordinary people learn important lessons about love, belonging, and maturity, and maybe we do too.ĬODA isn’t about kids - its teenaged protagonist is about to finish high school - but it gave me the same cozy feeling when it premiered at the (virtual) Sundance Film Festival in January. ![]() ![]() Some are screwball comedies, others far more sober, and they’re always sentimental, but in a good way. There’s a particular flavor of family coming-of-age movie that I associate with the 1990s - movies like Beethoven or Free Willy or Mrs. ![]()
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