The Music of Silence
The Music of Silence
If You Could Smell What I Hear
March 19, 2022
Coda (2021)
“You know why God made farts smell? So deaf people could enjoy them too.”
This is one of the funniest lines in the film Coda, and it might also be my favorite. And it sums up this award-winning, Oscar-buzzing film quite sharply. Because while Coda is a beautiful story, (I cried more times than I’m comfortable with sharing) an original film, and an inspiring, inclusive offering that is much needed in these desperate, vitriolic times, it also extremely funny.
Fart jokes, fuck jokes, all kinds of jokes, Sian Heder’s film keeps them coming all day long. This movie is about very serious stuff – a high school girl who is the only hearing person in a deaf family - but it also refuses to take itself too seriously. Or maybe we just really like fart jokes.
Coda inserts us into the world of Ruby Rossi (Emelia Jones) who has spent her entire young life acting as interpreter, ambassador, negotiator, savior, etc., for her father, mother, and older brother who are deaf and operate a fishing boat in New England. Ruby also possesses an angelic singing voice, something she apparently has always known but has not dared to share, the fact that her family obviously cannot appreciate her talent being just one of the reasons. Then, in her senior of high school, she joins the choir and beauty, drama, heartache, and well-timed occasional hilarity, ensue.
Touching can be funny. Almost everything can be funny. Humor is beautiful.
We have spent two years smiling beneath our masks. Our eyes have conveyed what we’re feeling. We’ve learned we don’t need to see smiles to know joy. And we certainly don’t need to hear voices to feel love.
Coda teaches us a lot but it never feels like it’s trying to teach us anything. It’s too busy smiling. And farting. --TK
Wednesday, March 23, 2022