‘Coda’ and how deaf culture sings | Sundance movie review

Coda starts Sundance 2021 off on a high note. While it doesn’t stray too far from its familiar coming-of-age dramedy plot, its keen observations of the hardships and joys of being deaf in a hearing world. It’s impossibly charming, funny, and filled with memorable characters.

▶︎ CODA is now streaming on Apple TV+

Coda tells a story it feels like we’ve seen hundreds of times before — but trust me when I say you haven’t seen anything like it yet. Coda premiered in the U.S. dramatic competition section of the virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival, the second film of writer and director Sian Heder to premiere at the fest, and will likely be one of the year’s success stories.

You know the setup. Ruby (Emilia Jones — get to know this name), an angsty and picked-on teen, struggles her way through her senior year of high school. She is mostly ostracised from her classmates because her family is poor and runs a fishing business, however the fact that she’s the only hearing member of her deaf family also plays into the torment. 

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As you could imagine, she feels a weight of obligation to help her father Leo (Daniel Durant) and older brother Frank (Troy Kotsur) with the business, and her mother Jackie (Oscar winner Marlee Matlin) doesn’t help things either. However, she does it out of love for her family, which other than being culturally deaf are completely happy.

Knowing her crush Miles (Sing Street’s Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is joining the choir, Ruby makes a rash decision to also join. However, as we see in moments of privacy, Ruby can sing — like really sing. As the movie progresses, her choir teacher Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez), offers to train her to audition for music school. Of course, though, she keeps it from her family for fear of disappointing them.

You know the plot. You can tell me what you think is going to happen and I’ll probably tell you you’re right. However, there are moments where Coda breaks from the genre trappings to deliver one of the best musings on what it’s like to be deaf in a hearing world. 

When Ruby’s parents watch her perform for the first time, we hear the song for the first few moments — and then silence. We’re in her parents’ heads. We can’t hear what she sounds like, which is anxiety-inducing for them. However, they begin to look around. The gift of observation that those that are deaf have allowed them to see what the music is doing to the audience so that even though they can’t hear her they know that she has something.

Coda benefits from its stellar and deep exploration of every character, each of whom just happens to be made of pure charm and delight. We get to spend a little time with each of them to understand exactly why they make the decisions they make, the struggles that they fight through — exploring the minutiae of being culturally deaf.

Coda never strays to the melodrama. Every moment feels earned and grounded in something real thanks to the strong performances from the entire cast. However, if there is a breakout this year at Sundance, it is Emilia Jones. She pours with emotion at every point often slipping in and out of signing that is wracked with emotion. If Coda is about anything, it’s about the joys we find through adversity. And though that adversity might shape us, it doesn’t define us. A stunning wait to start the fest.