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SUNDANCE 2021 REVIEW
CODA
By Danny Munso
The term “feel-good” movie can sometimes have a negative connotation attached to it. Yet, there’s nothing off-putting about CODA, the brilliant film that opened the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. It’s a pitch-perfect movie that unapologetically wears its heart on its sleeve, while also offering deep and moving ruminations on communication, family and responsibility.
The story follows Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), the only hearing member of her family that includes her parents Frank and Jackie (Troy Kotsur and Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin) and brother Leo (Daniel Durant). The Rossi’s are a fishing family and Ruby is crucial to their fledgling business as their translator and communicator. Yet she also harbors a deep love for music and after her voice is discovered by the school music teacher (Eugenio Derbez), she decides to audition for Boston’s Berklee College of Music. But if she’s accepted, how will her family connect to the rest of the world?
The film was written and directed by Siân Heder, based on La Famille Bélier, a French film from 2014. Heder has had a distinguished career, writing standout episodes for Netflix’s Orange is the New Black before making her directorial debut at Sundance with 2016’s Tallulah and co-showrunning AppleTV+’s Little America. The latter two heralded the arrival of an exciting new filmmaker but the leap from there to the virtuosity of CODA still feels massive. The sheer will and command Heder must have had to get the film in the can must have been massive. And though it’s an adaptation, it is still clearly a personal work: Heder explained in the post-film Q&A how she as a Massachusetts native tailored the film to her home-state and the struggling fishing industry of Gloucester. Her next project immediately become appointment viewing for film diehards.
Narratively, the script doesn’t hold any great surprises. Some of the plot points are telegraphed and mostly everyone gets their happy ending. But these facts hardly seem to matter while the film is playing. Just because we know what’s coming doesn’t lessen the impact of when it arrives. And still, Heder finds ways to interject originality. A choir scene where Ruby shines with her parents in the audience may be predictable, but Heder’s decision to show us that moment from her parents’ inaudible perspective is unique and moving.
A special mention should be made to the cast. We already knew how special an actor Matlin was and now we can say the same of her on-screen family. Kotsur in particular is a revelation in a moving and often-hilarious performance. Late in the film, his character asks Ruby to sing to him as he places his hands on her throat so he can feel the vibration of her vocal cords. His face during that scene says more than any piece of dialogue ever could. Durant perfectly plays the complicated relationship his character has with his younger sister. He wants her to pursue her dreams, both because he loves her and, selfishly, so his family can start relying on him more than her. But its Jones that steals the film. Anyone who watched Netflix’s great adaptation of the comic series Locke & Key knew how talented she was. But her performance here feels like a true star-is-born moment. There’s a scene where her family is blaming her for a major work problem. She responds in mostly ASL yet it has twice the power as if she were saying the words out loud. It’s a stunning performance.
Early reports say that CODA has already sparked a massive bidding war and could break the festival record for a purchase price. Nothing about that is surprising. CODA is defiantly a crowd-pleaser. In this day and age, who would complain about a thing like that?
For more info on CODA, visit its official Sundance page HERE.
DIRECTED BY: Siân Heder
WRITTEN BY: Siân Heder
PRODUCED BY: Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, Patrick Wachsberger
STARRING: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbz, Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant and Marlee Matlin
This year the Sundance Film Festival is online – which means you can join in on the fun from anywhere in the world! While some films are sold out – tickets do become available sometimes at the last minute so make sure browse the catalog for a film you’d like to see and check for ticket availability here.
Want to read some interviews with today’s top storytellers? We hope you’ll check out our in-depth interviews or read a cool screenplay in its entirety in Backstory Magazine! You can read us on a desktop/laptop or via our iPad app. You can see Issue 42’s Table of Contents – or we hope you will consider – Subscribing or buying a single issue!
If you decide to subscribe – please use code: SAVE5 to save $5 off your one year subscription in the checkout cart on our website. Your login credentials will work both on a desktop/laptop or via our iPad app.