A double Oscar win for Coda - The ultimate triumph of a hearing daughter of deaf parents, caught between two worlds.

Introduction - A heartwarming charmer with a difference. Best supporting actor Oscar and BAFTA wins for deaf actor Troy Kotsur and an Oscar for best picture.

Name of film: Coda

Director: Sian Heder

Year: 2021

Official Poster

Trailer

Review

When Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) sings, she feels alive. Her voice is soulful and harmonious. But her good natured, gruff dad, (Troy Kotsur) older brother,(Daniel Durant) and mother, (Marlee Matlin) pay no attention to her. It is not that they can't be bothered, they just can't hear. This is a US remake of the 2014 French comedy-drama La Famille Bélier
Writer-director Heder, casted deaf actors in deaf roles for this film, which the original didn't do.
The Power of the Dog was tipped to win best film at this year's Oscars - but the top award instead went to this meticulously crafted crowd pleaser - a warm timeless coming-of-age story. Perhaps with the current world troubles, we need a reason to feel hopeful and hope is what this film offers.
Fiesty and likeable Ruby, dreams of becoming a singer. She is also a Coda – a hearing child of deaf adults - she has become the whole family’s unofficial interpreter, translating their sign language to the local fishing community and the authorities. It’s a full-time job that competes with her schoolwork, her social life and mostly the love of her life - singing. Her music teacher, Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez), can see there is something special in her, despite her lack of confidence. He nurtures her spirit, insisting she work towards auditioning for Boston’s Berklee College of Music. He is funny, eccentric and strict but the viewer knows it only to bring the best out in Ruby
Ruby's love interest is Miles (Sing Street star Ferdia Walsh-Peelo).
The two are to perform Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s, You’re All I Need to Get By at the school concert, which they practice back to back in Ruby's bedroom. The shy scenes between these two as they inch towards intimacy are unshowy and touching.
Martin gives a complex performance as Ruby's mum, her most high-profile since her landmark Oscar win for Children of a Lesser God in 1987. Frustrated by Ruby’s obsession with music, she bans headphones at the dinner table. But her brother can go through Tinder because it is “something we can all do as a family”. Unlike the shy, responsible Ruby, her parents are sexually demonstrative - the film plays their scenes as romantic and comedic. But this family is bonded with real love. Their humour, politics, parenting and desires are presented without much of a filter - nevertheless, you cannot help but root for everyone in this film.
To her credit, British actor Jones as Ruby is pretty much note-perfect. Her singing voice is what the film is all about. Even viewers who will say this film is cynically constructed to pull at the heart strings - that they have this set up before, might find themselves wiping away a tear at the end of this good natured film.
The best supporting actor triumph for Kotsur, means he becomes the first deaf male to win an Academy Award.
It was a hit at this year’s Sundance film festival, winning a record-breaking $25m distribution deal with Apple TV+ as well as four of the festival’s top awards.

My favourite scene "My nuts are on fire!" Ruby and her parents go to the doctor - He tells them no sex allowed. Funny.

Number of SUBs out of 10 - 8 out of 10

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Thanks for reading my review, always up for comments and a chat about films and TV.