CODA 4K Review (Apple Original Films)

CODA is a 2021 coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Sian Heder (Tallulah, The Path, Orange Is the New Black, Little America, and GLOW). It’s a remake of the 2014 French feature “La Famille Belier” (aKa The Bélier Family). It was produced by Patrick Wachsberger (Bad Lieutenant, Vanilla Sky, Wrong Turn, Sniper, P2, The Hunger Games franchise, Child 44, Killer Force, and Starcrash), Fabrice Gianfermi (Lord of War, Larry Crowne, The Take, Source Code, and What Happened to Monday), Philippe Rousselet (Captives, Tristan, and Ourika), and Jérôme Seydoux (The Seed, Snowden, and Life for Real). It won 3 Oscars including Best Motion Picture of the Year. It’s the first film from a streaming service to achieve that. The budget was $10,000,000 and it grossed $1,905,058 worldwide at the box office. Gifted with a voice that her parents can’t even hear, seventeen-year-old Ruby Rossi (played by: Emilia Jones from Locke and Key, The Running Man, Task, and Charlie Harper) is the sole hearing member of a deaf family which is known as a CODA. (Child of Deaf Adults). She has spent her whole life acting as interpreter for her parents Jackie (played by: Marlee Matlin from Children of a Lesser God, Hear No Evil, Walker, Excision, Reasonable Doubts, and The West Wing) and Frank (played by: Troy Kotsur from The Number 23, Black Rabbit, Scrubs, and Curb Your Enthusiasm) plus her older brother Leo (played by: Daniel Durant from Silent Notes, Switched at Birth, You, and Florida Man). She’s been working on the family’s struggling fishing boat every day before school with her father and brother. Ruby decides to join her high school’s choir club to spend more time with her crush Miles (played by: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo from Sing Street, Here Are the Young Men, Pistol, and Vikings). She discovers her love for singing. Her teacher Bernardo Villalobos (played by: Eugenio Derbez from Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Instructions Not Included, Sandy Wexler, Geostorm, and Overboard) takes her under his wing and he convinces her to apply to a prestigious music school. Ruby finds herself torn between the obligations she feels to her family and the pursuit of her own dreams!!!! CODA is one of the first Apple Original films to get a physical media release. It won 63 awards including 3 Oscars. I remember being shocked that it beat out King Richard, Dune, Licorice Pizza, Belfast, and Nightmare Alley that year for best picture. Honestly, it deserved it after revisiting it here. It was written and directed by the impressive Sian Heder. This is one of the better remakes in a while. Emilia Jones is amazing as Ruby Rossi. She’s just a teenager but she’s forced to live an adult life to help out her family. She has put away her goals for a long time to support them with the their struggling business. Shes does it all here. She can sing, sign, and she gives a damn near perfect performance in this. Her chemistry is amazing with all of the main cast. I feel like her presence elevated every scene that she was in. Oscar winner Marlee Matlin is top notch as the fiesty Jackie Rossi. She never backs down despite communicating different from others. She doesn’t mean it but she puts lots of pressure on her ambitious daughter. Troy Kotsur is hilarious as Frank Rossi. He doesn’t know anything but fishing but that’s all threatened when the community changes the rules. He just wants to provide for his family but he keeps getting ripped off by the locals for his work. Daniel Durant as Leo Rossi is the only person in Ruby’s family that wants to her to carry out her dreams but the rest of them are stubborn to this idea. He’s the tinder obsessed guy looking for something no matter what he’s going through. He doesn’t let his disability define him, he’s willing to make it no matter what. Eugenio Derbez damn near steals the show as the blunt Bernardo Villalobos. He’s never afraid of telling the truth and he’s always real in every situation. He just wants the best for Ruby and he sees all the potential in her. He pushes her to embrace all of her skills without holding it in. The rest of the cast includes Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Kevin Chapman (Person of Interest), John Fiore (The Sopranos), Armen Garo (The Sopranos), Lonnie Farmer (The Judge), Amy Forsyth (Hell Fest), Courtland Jones (The Monkey), Jose Guns Alves (Power Book III: Raising Kanan), Owen Burke (The Town), Melissa McMeekin (The Fighter), Erica McDermott (The Fighter), and Molly B. Thomas (Lioness). CODA is a coming of age story with so much heart. This family is trying to survive in a world where lots of people don’t understand what they are really going through. For being a film that’s mainly subtitled and done through sign language, it has excellent conversations and deep meaning within these scenarios. It’s full of humor, it has plenty of laugh out loud scenes. The audience gets invested in this close group and what they do to get by. It’s a heartfelt look making serious choices that will alter lives forever. It’s about chasing your dreams and giving something new a shot. It had a good flow to it and it has quality replay value to it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation from Apple Original Films! This 2160p (1.85:1) transfer with Dolby Vision looks amazing on home video. This is the best it’s looked so far, I feel like it’s a step above the streaming version. The locations pop out on the screen here and they are the highlights when it comes to the visuals. It has a few different audio options which includes English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, and Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks on the UHD. This is an interesting feature considering it deals with lots of sign language rather than spoken words. The audio really shines from the music and it’s soundtrack. All of the dialogue is crisp, the comedy is elevated, and the music has a huge boost to it. It has English SDH and Spanish SDH subtitles. There’s no special features on the disc. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!