Coda (2021)

Set in a Massachusetts coastal town, a young 17 year old teenager (Emilia Jones) is the only hearing member of her deaf family. Making their living as fishermen, the family depends on her as their interpreter and the burden becomes too much for her when her ambition to study singing might have to be put aside to help her family. Based on the French film LA FAMILLE BELIER and directed by Sian Heder. Coming of age stories are a staple of the movies but it's never quite been done this way. Rather than using hearing actors playing deaf for the central roles, the film uses deaf actors. In the lead role of the hearing daughter, the young British actress Emilia Jones is a real find and her rendition of Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now is sure to bring tears to your eyes. I liked how the deaf parents (Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur) weren't portrayed as saintly victims but as flawed somewhat selfish humans who love to screw and the deaf brother (Daniel Durant, excellent) as a hot tempered angry young man. Jones's daughter is the anchor that holds the family together and the possibility of her departure puts the family in a panic and they must learn to stand on their own two feet and set her free. With Eugenio Derbez, Ferdia Walsh Peelo and Amy Forsyth.