CODA: A heartwarming treasure

CODA (2021) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, for frequent sexual candor and amusing profanity

Available via: Movie theaters and Apple TV+

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 8.20.21

If you’ve been dismayed by the absence of real people and relatable stories in recent films, you’ll love this one.

 

Ruby (Emilia Jones, left) is mortified when she's forced to vividly translate the intimate,
ah, "medical problem" that is plaguing her parents (Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin),
while a mildly amused doctor takes in every detail.

Writer/director Sian Heder’s richly nuanced CODA — say it as a word, not an acronym — is a sure cure for the summer blockbuster blues. Her warmly sensitive script is populated by engaging characters brought persuasively to life by a cast of talented (and mostly unrecognized) actors. The resulting coming-of-age story has more depth than most; it’s the wry, frequently funny and occasionally shattering saga of a teenage girl struggling between family loyalty and finding her own bliss.

The setting is modern-day Gloucester, Mass. Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) wakens each day at 3 a.m., in order to join her father Frank (Troy Kotsur) and slightly older brother Leo (Daniel Durant) on the family’s fishing boat; the daily catch keeps a roof over their heads. Ruby’s participation is essential, because she’s the conduit to all the buyers and other fisherman; she’s her family’s sole hearing member (which is to say, a Child Of Deaf Adults).

 

Her father, mother (Marlee Matlin, as Jackie) and brother are culturally deaf, relying on sign language to communicate with each other, and with Ruby … and relying on her as interpreter (which can get embarrassing during, say, visits to a doctor).

 

After each early morning’s ocean excursion, Ruby bicycles to the local high school, where she tries to avoid falling asleep during her senior year classes. She’s long been the target of cruel taunts, in part due to her “weird” family, and also because she often arrives smelling strongly of fish. Best — and only — friend Gertie (Amy Forsyth) is her sole salvation.

 

The plan, up to this point, has been for Ruby to join the family business full-time after graduation: something she never has thought to question.

 

But one otherwise ordinary day, as all students select an elective class, she impulsively signs up for choir … mostly because she has been silently crushing on Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), who also did so. Truth be told, Ruby has grown up adoring all sorts of music, particularly that of obscure pop/rock bands.

 

The first choir session is deeply intimidating, thanks to the flamboyantly formal behavior of instructor Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez, who deserves an Oscar nomination). His almost regal bearing would elicit snickers of derision, if he weren’t also so damn intimidating. But that’s all surface; it quickly becomes apparent that he’s one of those sublimely talented teachers who makes a difference in young lives.

 

He quickly recognizes that Ruby is talented. Quite talented. Even if it takes her awhile to accept this opinion.

Sing Street: A joyful noise

Sing Street (2016) • View trailer 
Four stars. Rated PG-13, for dramatic candor, profanity, underage smoking and other questionable teen behavior
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 4.29.16

I’m in love.

Much the way the young star of this indie charmer worships the mysterious girl who lives across the street from his school, I adore the filmmaking chops of Irish writer/director John Carney.

Having worked up the courage to chat up the intriguing girl (Lucy Boynton) who often
stands across the street from his school, Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) concocts an
improbable scheme to get her attention. The problem, then, is making good on his
grandiose claims...

He came to our attention Stateside with 2007’s endearing Once, and its music-laden saga of a Dublin busker and Czech immigrant who meet and then bond over their shared love of songwriting and performing. Stars Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová fell in love during production, and it showed; nothing could have been sweeter than their Academy Awards performance of the film’s signature tune, “Falling Slowly,” which deservedly galloped home with an Oscar.

Carney detoured with a couple of less successful projects before returning to the music world with 2013’s equally appealing Begin Again, which found washed up, Manhattan-based music exec Mark Ruffalo embracing one last career shot by encouraging the efforts of fledgling singer/songwriter Keira Knightley. As with Once, the action unfolds against a backdrop of catchy, radio-ready new songs: another instant soundtrack hit for delighted fans.

Pleasant as it was, though, a certain something was missing from Begin Again: something that has become obvious with the arrival of Sing Street. As a writer, Carney clearly has the most fun exploring his Irish roots; this new film’s hard-scrabble, working-class Dublin setting affords a rich tapestry of young angst and earthy ensemble dynamics.

Carney sets his story in the 1980s, as a bleak employment depression sends ferryloads of young Irish citizens to London, in the (often vain) hope of landing a steady paycheck. Against this backdrop, 15-year-old Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) finds life at home increasingly distressing. Parents Robert (Aidan Gillen) and Penny (Maria Doyle Kennedy) are heading for a messy divorce, heedless of the impact the process is having on Conor, his sister Ann (Kelly Thornton) and their older brother Brendan (Jack Reynor).

Financial stress contributes to the trauma, and one immediate change affects Conor personally. To save money, he’s moved from his posh Jesuit private school to an inner-city comprehensive: Synge Street School, laden with cigarette-smoking bullies barely kept under control by mostly ineffectual priests. The one exception is the smugly authoritarian Brother Baxter (Don Wycherley), a tyrannical monster who takes pleasure in humiliating his students.

Barely into his first day, Conor runs afoul of both Brother Baxter and the hulking Barry (Ian Kenny), a vicious older student likely passed from one grade to the next, just so his previous instructors can get rid of him.