Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (November 11, 2025)
If someone asks you to name the Oscar Best Picture winner that made the least money at the box office, the answer should come back as 2021’s CODA. The film brought in only about $2 million worldwide.
However, that comes with a caveat, as CODA existed mainly as a project to run on the AppleTV+ streaming channel. It received only minimal theatrical release, though I can’t imagine it would’ve become a blockbuster even with wide distribution, as the story involved doesn’t lean toward “big old crowd-pleaser”.
The child of deaf adults (CODA) Frank (Troy Katsur) and Jackie (Marlee Matlin) and sibling of similarly impaired brother Leo (Daniel Durant), high school senior Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) exists as the only hearing member of her family. The Rossis run a fishing business where Ruby plans to work after graduation.
However, when Ruby joins the school choir to get closer to her crush Miles Patterson (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), teacher Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez) notices her skill as a singer. This creates conflict as Ruby needs to choose between her musical aspirations and her duty to help her family.
Since I’ve seen a movie or two, I suspect I can figure out where Ruby’s journey will lead. Despite some predictable moments, CODA manages to offer an intriguing twist on the standard “teen coming of age” narrative.
Most of these relate to Ruby’s unusual home circumstances. On the surface, “only hearing person in a deaf family” sounds like a gimmick more than a necessary plot point.
And to some degree that seems true. The basic story of a girl who must select whether to obey her duty or her heart remains the core and the involvement of the hearing impaired relatives largely seems irrelevant.
Still, that side of CODA adds a twist that works reasonably well. Although the movie doesn’t need deaf characters, at least this means a different slant.
I do like the interesting perspective on life we get, as Ruby’s situation allows the hearing-enabled viewer to get a take on the “deaf experience”. Again, the movie doesn’t need any of this for its basic story, but at least it adds spin to the less-than-original plot.
Some of this does occasionally make CODA feel like an attempt to educate the average person on the world of hearing impaired folks, though. This feels slightly patronizing.
That said, I don’t think CODA ever becomes too pedantic, though I think it fails to humanize the deaf characters well. It wants us to accept them as Just Like Everybody Else but it depicts them as unusual enough to seem like a mismatch with “regular society”.
Boy, this review finds itself walking down a path that implies I didn’t like CODA, doesn’t it? I do find charm here, but I also see concerns along the lines of what I mentioned above.
CODA offers solid enough execution to largely overcome these, though, and it also manages to turn into a better than average “coming of age” tale. Again, it doesn’t do anything to stand out as remarkable, but it gives us a well-executed project.
The actors help, as they offer solid portrayals. Kotsur won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and does fine, though I don’t think he deserved to be singled out. None of the other performers even got nominated, which feels like an odd oversight given I don’t believe Kotsur’s performance rises above the rest.
In any case, we get quality work across the board. Jones manages to give Ruby layers that help embellish the role, even if the movie itself remains pretty standard fare.
In an objective sense, did CODA deserve the Best Picture Oscar? No, and I suspect it benefited from weak competition, as none of the other nine nominees stands out as a classic.
While that Academy Award implies a level of greatness CODA doesn’t achieve, it works fine for what it needs to do. We find a slight but fairly enjoyable character piece.
