#CODA or Child of Deaf Adult is a Sundance hit that won Best Picture at the Oscars this year and is now streaming on #AppleTV. While one can say a million things about the movie, I think what stands out is writer/director #SianHeder’s sensitive and authentic portrayal of familial emotions and boundless love. At one level, it is a coming-of-age film but at a different level, this is how the strive for authenticity raises the bar on film making. And talking about authenticity, Heder employs three real-life deaf performers - Oscar winner #MarleeMatlin, #TroyKotsur and #DanielDurant.Hows that for authenticity??
#EmiliaJones plays 17-year old high-school teenager RubyRossi, the only person who can hear in a family of deaf people. She lives in the picturesque sea-side town of Cape Ann’s Gloucester. She wakes up at dawn to help out her father Frank (#Kotsur) and brother Leo (#Durant) to manage the fishing business. She then attends school and seems to lead a peaceful, balanced life. Until she discovers her love for music; spurred on by her teacher Bernanrdo Villalobos (#EugenioDerbez), she aspires to gain admission to Boston’s Berklee College of music. And this sets off a flurry of emotions in the Rossi household that tend to throw things completely off-balance!
#CODA stands out for its endearing characters. Rubi is tentative and yet clear of what she wants to achieve. Her mother Jackie (#Matlin) is a former beauty queen struggling to come to terms with her daughter who doesn’t care about dressing up. She plays the perfect antithesis to the tall, lanky, bearded Frank who does not care to mince his words (!) when it comes to giving it back to the local politicians who are trying to make life difficult for fishermen like him. The couple is feisty and Rubi has to put up with the ridiculousness of her parents making love, grunting and screaming! Rubi also has her school crush Miles (#FerdiaWalshPeat) and they make quite a pair, trying to figure out each other. Her teacher Bernardo is perhaps the only caricaturish character with his idiosyncrasies but passionate about music.
#MariusDVries' music score stands out . Watch out for “You’re all I need to get by” the duet by #MarvinGaye and #TammiTerrel, as also “Both sides now” by #JoniMitchell. The film is adapted from the French original #LaFamilleBelier.
As Rubi navigates her passions, dreams and emotions without hurting anyone, you cannot but turn emotional. #CODA stands out for its simplicity and a throwback to familial love; an emotion that is at a premium in the post covid world. As you look back at the script, you realize it has its usual tomes of the classic underdog story - an unlikely protagonist, an idealistic teacher, unending montages of the rehearsals, the high-stakes audition and the nonplussed family. What elevates #CODA though is the treatment that is so real and so authentic. Truly well-deserved to walk away with Best Picture at the Oscars!
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