CODA (2021) **1/2

A coda is a musical term, referring to a section at the end of a piece that brings the song to a close. A literary piece can also have a coda, which performs the same function. In the deaf community, CODA is an acronym, meaning Child Of Deaf Adults. CODAs occupy a unique space, bridging the worlds of the hearing and the deaf.

The movie “CODA” is the story of Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), a high-schooler whose parents and brother are deaf. Fluent in American Sign Language, Ruby helps her family communicate with the hearing world, and she also helps out on the family's fishing boat. Her real passion, though, is singing. Her family obviously cannot appreciate what a talent she has, but her school choir teacher (Eugenio Derbez) does, and he helps her get an audition for the Berklee College of Music. With her family's business growing, Ruby's dreams butt up against her family obligations.

“CODA” is a re-make of a French-Belgian film, “La Famille Belier.” It is notable for using deaf actors to play the deaf characters, including Marlee Matlin (“Children of a Lesser God”). Star Emilia Jones not only had to take voice lessons for her role, she had to take a crash course in American Sign Language, as 40% of the film's dialogue is signed.

With such excellent acting talent to work with, and such an interesting setup, I wish writer/director Sian Heder had delivered a more interesting story. The film has deaf characters, but everyone in the movie can see, and everyone in the audience will be able to see “CODA”'s plot points coming from a mile away. It's a sweet, little movie, but too predictable and treacly.

2.5 stars out of 5

How It Ends (2021) ***

In this charming little movie, Zoe Lister-Jones plays Liza, who, accompanied by her younger self (Cailee Spaeny), wanders L.A. tying up loose ends on the day earth is set to be destroyed by an asteroid. Visiting her parents, old friends, and ex-lovers, the Lizas try to work through her final regrets before the end.

Written by Lister-Jones and her then-husband Daryl Wein, “How It Ends” was filmed in 2020, which was not exactly an easy time for film-making. The Pandemic was in full swing, with no vaccine yet, and so the movie is filmed in vignettes, with just 1 or 2 actors at a time playing against the Lizas. In many scenes, the Lizas are standing on a lawn or sidewalk, talking to someone on their porch, so there is plenty of physical separation between the actors, and I wonder in some scenes if they didn't film their lines separately. The movie is really a perfect, little time capsule of pandemic days, capturing in its apocalyptic theme and its film-making style so much of what that time felt like.

So, does the restrained filming make for a bad movie? Absolutely not! Resting on the charms of its costars (Lister-Jones and Spaeny), with some fun guest-star moments (Fred Armisen, Olivia Wilde, Paul W. Downs, Charlie Day, and many more), the movie is funny and heartfelt, even if Liza's regrets are all fairly garden-variety. There is not a lot of drama, and no action or plot twists. This isn't about trying to stop the asteroid or escape Earth or anything. The asteroid is just a device that prompts Liza and the people she meets to live more honestly for just one day.

3 stars out of 5