YMMV / CODA (2021)

• Adaptation Displacement: Many people aren't aware that CODA is actually a remake of a 2014 French film called La Famille Bélier, due to its obscurity outside France.
• Award Snub: It only received three Academy Award nominations, and there were many predictions that it would get lost in the shuffle of bigger films, but it slowly built up momentum during awards season, surpassing the early frontrunner The Power of the Dog. It won in all three categories it was nominated in: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (for Troy Kotsur). That was the fewest total wins for a Best Picture winner since Spotlight (which only won two), and the third fewest total nominations for a Best Picture winner. In the aftermath there was a lot of headscratching over why it didn't have more nominations. Emilia Jones in particular seemed like she should have been nominated for Best Actress for an acclaimed performance in with a large portion of her lines in a language she had not previously known, as well as showing off a stellar singing voice despite not taking lessons before the film, and pulling off an extremely convincing American accent. There's also Sian Heder becoming the sixth director of a Best Picture winner to not have been nominated for Best Director—not to mention the third time after the field was expanded in Best Picture nominations that the winner wasn't even nominated at all for Best Director (same as Argo and Green Book). Given the film's buzz surged late in the season, many pundits and predictors theorized that if voting for the nominees had taken place later, the film would've had a larger haul of nominations.
• Fridge Horror: Ruby goes to school for vocal performance to form her own life away from her family. Considering how many performance majors end up giving up on their dreams and living with their parents long after graduation, she could end up back where she was, only now with absurd student debt.
• Funny Moments: ASL can be a very funny language, and this movie is no exception. The scene where Frank emphasizes the importance of condoms, for example.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Leo, Ruby's deaf brother, starting a sweet romance with the hearing Gertie is this after Daniel Durant (Leo's actor) became engaged to Britt Stewart, his hearing partner from Dancing with the Stars.
• Heartwarming Moments: Leo and Gertie's romance while not a big part of the movie is still notably sweet. He manages to find a healthy partner who can hear and fully accepts him being deaf; the two are able to find their own ways to communicate and she's often willing to help him and his parents too, especially during Ruby's show when none of them can hear her. That the two's relationship is definitely not defined by him being Ruby's brother and her being Ruby's friend—and that they each made their own way to each other—is also very important too.
• Signature Scene: Either Frank feeling the vibrations of Ruby's singing or the family sneaking into her Berklee audition.
• Wheelchair Woobie: The Rossis already score sympathy points for the realistic difficulties of being Deaf. But this trope truly comes into play when Frank has to settle for feeling the vibrations of Ruby's singing, coming close to tears knowing he can't ever hear his daughter's gorgeous voice, yet still beaming with pride for her anyway.

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