CODA (2021)
All I knew going in was that it won best picture and that it was filmed in Gloucester.
For me right off the bat this movie has one major thing going for it and one major thing going against it.
On the positive side, I have an extra affinity for movies set or made in Massachusetts. I'm a big fan of movies like The Town, The Departed, Good Will Hunting, and many more. Gloucester is about 45 minutes north of Boston. I'm there twice a week for work and have been many times on personal time. The bar in the movie is Prattys; I've delivered there and I've drank there. What's really strange to me is that I never knew they were filming in Gloucester, but it's probably because these days I'm usually done and out of there by 9am. Berklee School of Music is a couple of blocks from Fenway Park and I lived at a hostel around the corner for a short time when I first moved to the area.
On the negative side, movies with characters who can't or don't talk frustrate me. I understand the characters are usually deaf, but it's all about the time it takes to communicate. I'm not sure why this is, but even when there's a character who doesn't have a disability, but refuses to talk even for a short period of time, it drives me bananas. On the other hand I'm a big fan of stutterers so go figure. I ended up not being bothered by it in this movie, and I think a big reason why is that they didn't feel the need to translate everything. That was an interesting and smart decision.
For the first 5 or 10 minutes I thought I was going to dislike this movie. I now believe it was all about perception. Even for much longer it felt like I was looking for negatives. I was thinking it seemed more like a made for TV after school special than a best picture Oscar winner. I still kind of think that, but that doesn't mean it can't be great. I was thinking that it's not much of a story and that they just threw in some people who were deaf, but I certainly changed my mind with that. People that know me here know that I'm really just a softy, and what can I say, it completely won me over. Every single character is just so damn likable and it ended up being the 3rd movie in 2 days to bring tears to my eyes. There was one moment that particularly blew me away. It was when the family was watching her sing, and suddenly we got to know what it felt like from the father's perspective when everything went silent. Wow, I loved it.
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All I knew going in was that it won best picture and that it was filmed in Gloucester.
For me right off the bat this movie has one major thing going for it and one major thing going against it.
On the positive side, I have an extra affinity for movies set or made in Massachusetts. I'm a big fan of movies like The Town, The Departed, Good Will Hunting, and many more. Gloucester is about 45 minutes north of Boston. I'm there twice a week for work and have been many times on personal time. The bar in the movie is Prattys; I've delivered there and I've drank there. What's really strange to me is that I never knew they were filming in Gloucester, but it's probably because these days I'm usually done and out of there by 9am. Berklee School of Music is a couple of blocks from Fenway Park and I lived at a hostel around the corner for a short time when I first moved to the area.
On the negative side, movies with characters who can't or don't talk frustrate me. I understand the characters are usually deaf, but it's all about the time it takes to communicate. I'm not sure why this is, but even when there's a character who doesn't have a disability, but refuses to talk even for a short period of time, it drives me bananas. On the other hand I'm a big fan of stutterers so go figure. I ended up not being bothered by it in this movie, and I think a big reason why is that they didn't feel the need to translate everything. That was an interesting and smart decision.
For the first 5 or 10 minutes I thought I was going to dislike this movie. I now believe it was all about perception. Even for much longer it felt like I was looking for negatives. I was thinking it seemed more like a made for TV after school special than a best picture Oscar winner. I still kind of think that, but that doesn't mean it can't be great. I was thinking that it's not much of a story and that they just threw in some people who were deaf, but I certainly changed my mind with that. People that know me here know that I'm really just a softy, and what can I say, it completely won me over. Every single character is just so damn likable and it ended up being the 3rd movie in 2 days to bring tears to my eyes. There was one moment that particularly blew me away. It was when the family was watching her sing, and suddenly we got to know what it felt like from the father's perspective when everything went silent. Wow, I loved it.
+