CODA
2021
****½
Director: Sian Heder
Cast: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Amy Forsyth, Kevin Chapman
As a hearing person, 17-year-old Ruby is an essential interpreter for her deaf parents and brother. During her last year of high school, she struggles to balance her family's needs with her own dreams of becoming a singer. This feelgood film is based on the 2014 feature La Famille Bélier. The story is formulaic and manipulative but irresistibly funny and warm-hearted. These wonderfully portrayed characters feel like authentic three-dimensional human beings. The picture, screenplay, and Troy Kotsur, who plays Ruby's father, won Academy Awards. The title refers to a child of deaf adults.
