Coda is the 2021 coming of age film about a 17 year old, Ruby Rossi, with a passion for singing, born into a deaf family. The Rossi family lives in a small close-knit town and struggles to communicate with their hearing neighbors which forces Ruby into the uncomfortable position of having her family rely on her to be their mouthpiece. From doctor’s appointments, to business transactions, Ruby has to be there to translate and interpret everything.

When Ruby decides to join her high school’s choir, she finally acknowledges what it is that she wants to do with her life. Up until this point she hadn’t really been living for herself as much as she was for her family. Her whole world revolved around her family and their fishing business. Now Ruby has to learn to balance her familial obligations and her own desires as the local fishing market struggles to stay afloat and her family's license is threatened..

The film is everything one would expect a coming of age story to be, but at the same time it is fresh and wonderful. It’s not often that deaf stories get this type of special treatment. It’s so easy, and so common, for these types of stories to be mishandled. And because there are so few movies like this in the first place, it came as a massive relief that this one wasn’t.The movie manages to accurately depict deaf culture in a positive light. It is authentic and gives strong deaf characters the chance to shine.

Coda, is in large part a heartwarming comfort film. The movie has great humor but also has its more sentimental moments and it was still raw and honest in its storytelling. It shows both the good and bad that comes with being a part of a deaf family, but is careful to never portray the characters as needing pity. The casting and scriptwriting make it apparent that there was genuine care and thought that was going into telling this story rather than it simply being a money-grab. A majority of the main cast are deaf themselves, stars like Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant offering up their best performances and ensuring that the signing (ASL) in the movie is accurate while also further adding depth to the characters and the movie as a whole.