As of now, there have been two times the Oscars have occurred on my birthday during my lifetime.
I have had a few birthday parties on Oscar night (such as the one in 2002, when A Beautiful Mind won Best Picture), but it was exactly two decades later, on my 35th birthday, when it was even more memorable. All people remember from this night, of course, is Will Smith slapping Chris Rock (giving me the ample chance to tell my friends not interested what had transpired), yet even that could not dampen my spirits. I got my highest prediction score to date, getting 21 of 23 (I missed Best Editing and one of the shorts categories). And, of course, the Best Picture award went to my favorite movie of 2021, CODA.
This coming of age story is indeed a cliche: a young person is torn between spreading their wings to follow their dreams and helping their family. Here, it is young Ruby (Emilia Jones), a senior in High School who happens to be the only non deaf member of her immediate family.
She truly has little time for herself, as she wakes up at 3am to help her dad Frank (Troy Kotsur), mom Jackie (Marlee Matlin) and older brother Leo (Daniel Durant) with fishing off the coast, while still trying out for the school choir alongside her crush Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), under the tough but sympathetic direction of Mr. Villanobos (Eugenio Derbez).
The film is a clear cut example of how we as an audience care more about the journey than the destination (for we know how the film is going to wrap up). Each of the actors are so perfectly cast (all the deaf characters are played by deaf actors) it is indeed next to impossible to tell if they are acting at all (the cast won the SAG ensemble award for best cast on the way to it winning all of its three Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Kotsur).
Looking back, one can see how overlooked Jones was as not just having to play a character towing the line between the deaf and speaking world, but also a young woman going through the emotional rollercoaster all young people go through.
There is also the timing of the film’s release, being in the last days of the COVID-19 Pandemic and lock down. A feel good film was needed, and this one simply delivered, and then some.
I’ve shared this before in my original review, but it bears repeating that I saw this film in a unique way the first time. When I rented it on Apple TV, the subtitles for the deaf speaking characters simply did not show up on screen.
I had assumed this was a choice by director Sian Heder (who won the Adapted Screenplay Oscar), and I thought it was a fascinating choice. Only months later, when I saw the film a second time (in a theater) did I realize the subtitles must not have been turned on for some reason.
The emotional diaphragm punch of the film still remains intact.
(As of this writing, CODA is available to watch on Apple TV, although I still eagerly await when it releases on physical media.)
Nothing else to say 