Thursday, November 4, 2021

Coda (2021)

IMDb plot summary: As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family's fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents.
Directed by Sian Heder. Starring Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, and Daniel Durant.

CODA is a coming-of-age story about a high school girl who is the only hearing person in a family of deaf adults. Her brother and father work as fishermen, and she finds herself the default interpreter between them and the hearing world. But when finds she has a shot at attending a music college, she has to figure out whether her family will understand or forgive her abandoning them to go to school. With just a few changes, this is a story we’ve seen a hundred times. Kid grows up, tries to separate themselves from their parents, cue hurt and healing and growth. But those few small changes DO set this movie apart, particularly by moving this story into a setting we seldom see: the deaf community. The film’s title, CODA, stands for “Child of Deaf Adults,” and the film does an incredible job of showing the very specific challenges those students may face in their teenage years. And it does it RIGHT by casting deaf actors as the deaf characters. While I don’t know the community well enough to know how accurate it is, it’s definitely a perspective we see far too infrequently on film, and that in itself is enough to make this movie worth a watch, despite what is otherwise a traditional take on the genre.

How it entered my Flickchart:
CODA > Hustle & Flow
CODA > Jack Goes Boating
CODA < The Disaster Artist
CODA < All's Faire in Love
CODA > We're Not Married!
CODA < Back to the Future Part III
CODA < 21 Jump Street
CODA > Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
CODA > The Hunger Games
CODA > Il Postino: The Postman
CODA > Roxanne
CODA < Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Final spot: #730 out of 3454, or 79%.

No comments: