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The Movie Room · a Living Undefeated resource
What is CODA actually about?
A hearing seventeen-year-old who is the only person in her family who can speak to the outside world, and who wants to leave. There is no death in it, no illness, and no villain — which makes the one warning it carries an unusual one.
⚠ Check before you press play
Strong language throughout and frank sexual humor between the parents. This is not a film for a mixed-age room, and it looks like one. It is rated PG-13 and sits at the far edge of that rating.
That is the whole warning. Nobody dies, nobody is ill, and nothing arrives in the last fifteen minutes to undo you.
What it is
A 2021 drama written and directed by Sian Heder, running a hundred and eleven minutes, remade from the 2014 French film La Famille Bélier. Emilia Jones plays Ruby, the only hearing member of a Deaf family who fish out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin play her parents and Daniel Durant her brother — all three Deaf actors. Ruby joins the school choir, a teacher hears something in her voice, and the family business needs her on the boat at four in the morning.
Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur.
Who this is wrong for, and when
Any evening where a younger child is in the room. Beyond that, very little — though a parent whose child is about to leave home, or who has lost the chance to watch a child leave home, should know that the whole last act is a leaving, handled with great tenderness and no cruelty at all.
Why it is on this list
Because it is built entirely out of two legitimate needs that cannot both be met. The family genuinely needs Ruby. Ruby genuinely needs to go. Nobody is wrong, nobody is punished for wanting what they want, and the film declines to invent a villain to make the choice easier.
That is rarer than it should be, and it is useful. Families in the middle of something hard are usually not dealing with a villain either. They are dealing with two things that are both true, and a film that models sitting inside that without resolving it cheaply is worth an evening.
If this one is not right for you
The Peanut Butter Falcon — the same instinct about difference, on a raft.
Hidden Figures — if the room includes a younger child.
Paddington 2 — if nothing at all should be asked of you tonight.
Where to watch it
Start with your library. Kanopy and hoopla both carry award titles after their first window, free with a library card. It otherwise sits on Apple's service in most regions.
We make nothing from any of these links. There are no affiliate links anywhere on this site and there never will be.
Back to the room
The Movie Room — one hundred films, sorted by what the evening needs.
How to tell if a charity deserves your money
We publish the test we use on ourselves, including the parts we do not pass yet. Read it here.
If tonight is bad
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988, any time, anywhere in the United States.
Crisis Text Line — text HOME to 741741.
These are never behind a form on this site and never will be.
Before you give to anyone
How to tell if a charity deserves your money
We wrote down the checklist we use. Before we send a dollar anywhere, we run the organization through CharityWatch, the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Navigator and Candid. It is one page, and it works on any charity — including this one.
Read the checklist — freeOn the site, right now. Nothing to fill in and no email needed.
Start here — free, no sign-up
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If tonight is bad
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. Free, confidential, 24 hours a day, anywhere in the US. You do not have to be in immediate danger to use it.
Crisis Text Line. Text HOME to 741741.
Veterans Crisis Line. Dial 988 then press 1, or text 838255.
If there is an immediate danger to life, call 911.
