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CODA | 2021 | PG-13 | – 6.2.5
Why is “CODA” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong sexual content and language, and drug use.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes two sex scenes (and one implied) without nudity, several kissing scenes, a bar fight ending in a bruised eye, a Coast Guard boarding a fishing boat, many arguments, bullying, a man smokes marijuana, and at least 1 F-word and explicit language about sex. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.
As the only hearing person in her family, a teenage girl (Emilia Jones) grapples with the idea of making her own path and leaving the family fishing business. Also with Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant, John Fiore and Lonnie Farmer. Directed by Sian Heder. Much of the dialogue is in sign language with subtitles, translation or without translation. [Running Time: 1:51]
CODA SEX/NUDITY 6
– A husband and his wife have sex and their teen daughter hears rhythmic thumping from another room; she tries to make them stop by flashing the lights in the room and we see the woman straddling the man and thrusting (she is warring a camisole that reveals cleavage and her bare shoulders and he is wearing a robe that reveals his bare knees). A teen girl and a young man flirt by text message in a bar, they kiss passionately and go into a store room where the teen girl wraps her leg around the young man’s waist and they close the door (sex is implied).
► A teen boy and a teen girl kiss passionately. A teen boy and a teen girl kiss before jumping off a cliff together and into water (they are not harmed).
► A husband and his wife talk to their teen daughter and a teen boy about the adults having had sex earlier and that the teens overheard; the man signs that the teens should always use condoms and makes gestures and sounds that depict ejaculation. A husband talks about his attraction to his wife and that he is unable to control his passion for her. A teen girl gestures with her hands and thrusts her hips toward a young man thinking that she is signing about having sex, but we understand that she has said that she has herpes. A teen girl gestures with her hands and grunts sexually when teasing another teen girl and several other teens laugh at her. A teen boy and a teen girl sing love songs to each other. A teen girl talks about the size of a teen boy’s genitals. A man describes an ailment to his doctor with his teenage daughter translating; he talks about his genitals itching and that there is tenderness and swelling and the man is instructed to apply a medication and avoid intercourse for two weeks (the daughter translates that they can never have sex again and the man and his wife panic). A young man looks at a dating app and we see glimpses of photos of women; his mother looks over his shoulder and scoffs at his choices. A teen girl tells another teen girl that her brother “got hot,” and the second girl protests, “You cannot date my brother,” and “To you dating means sex,” and “Stick with teachers.” A teen girl asks another teen girl how to sign, “We should totally get it on.” Teenagers in a high school choir sing “Let’s Get It On.”
► A teen girl wears low-cut and cropped tops that reveal cleavage and bare abdomen in several scenes. A woman wears low-cut tops that reveal cleavage in several scenes. Teen girls wear low-cut tops that reveal cleavage in several scenes. A teen girl undresses to swimsuit bottoms and a tank top to swim and a teen boy takes off his shirt (we see his bare chest, abdomen and back and her legs to the hips).
CODA VIOLENCE/GORE 2
– A man spills a beer on another man’s back in a bar, the second man confronts him and uses sign language to confront him, the second man mocks him and tells him to “Get out of my face,” and the first man grabs him and they fight shoving and punching each other (we see one man with a bruised eye later).
► A Coast Guard boat speeds around and next to a fishing boat calling out for the captain to stop the vessel and answer their radio call; the captain does not hear the calls and the Coast Guard pulls alongside them, two officers jump onto the fishing boat and tell them to stop what they are doing and that they are in violation. A teen girl and a teen boy jump off a rock cliff into water below after the boy asks, “Haven’t kids died doing this”; they then jump from a much higher cliff (they are unharmed, but both complain of the impact hurting); they jump from the second cliff again later after the boy asks if they should leave a note in case it looks like they committed suicide together.
► People argue in several scenes about prices being paid for fish at the docks and quotas as well as the institution of at-sea monitoring. A teen girl argues with her brother and her father about people not paying them the same or fair prices for their fish and she says, “They’re ripping you off.” A teen girl sleeps in class and her teacher pounds on her desk to wake her with a start. A teen girl walks past another teen girl in a school hallway and asks, “Do you smell fish?” (it is implied that the girl did not clean up after working on a fishing boat). A teen girl yells at her mother about wanting to do something else with her life. A man says, “I’m in a mood.” A teen girl runs out of a choir room when she freezes and cannot sing in front of other students. A man describes a teen girl’s voice as “sand and glue” and retracts that later. A man tells a teen girl, “Be a monster,” when he tries to get her to sing with feeling. A teen girl says, “I’m not good at school.” A woman scoffs at her teen daughter’s wish to go to college and sing. A teen boy says that his parents hate each other. A man tells a teen girl, “Don’t waste my time.” A man yells that overseers are “regulating us to death.” A teen girl screams in frustration. A woman tells her teen daughter that when she was born she prayed that the child would be deaf because she was afraid that she would fail her as a mother. A teen boy and a teen girl walk through woods toward a cliff and the boy asks the girl, “You gonna murder me now? A young man yells at his teenage sister and tells her to go. A teen boy says, “I choked,” during an audition. A man asks his teenage daughter, “Do you know why God made [scatological term deleted] smell? So deaf people can enjoy them too.” A man tells a teen girl that a teen boy doesn’t have “piojos,” which translates to lice. A fishing boat pulls in a net filled with fish and people onboard hook them for weight and size before covering them with ice. A choir director instructs his students on how to do breathing exercises and they each breathe rapidly like panting dogs as he yells, “Push, push, push!”
CODA LANGUAGE 5
– At least 1 F-word, 2 obscene hand gestures, 4 sexual references, 16 scatological terms, 12 anatomical terms, 12 mild obscenities, name-calling (tiny baby hands, stink, rude, Harry Potter, [anatomical term deleted] monkey, psychotic, negligent, dangerous, crazy, awful, garbage, disgusting, my tiny mind, joke, shocker, freak, ridiculous, wrong, ugly, St. Ruby, helpless, weird, gross, ginger [anatomical term deleted]), exclamations (yikes, come on, shhh, ahh, yes, whoo, oh, shoo, really, wait, stop), 10 religious exclamations (e.g. For Christ’s Sake, Dios Mio, Oh My God, Thank God, Oh God). | profanity glossary |
CODA SUBSTANCE USE
– A man smokes a marijuana cigarette and when his teen daughter confronts him for doing so in public he says that it is medicinal, a teen girl asks another teen girl if she is high, and a teen girl says that a student organization is for people that want to “go smoke a bowl.” A teen boy describes watching a young girl order two beers for her parents in a restaurant, people drink beers in a couple of bar scenes, a woman drinks wine in several scenes and a man drinks beer, and a wife says to her husband that she chooses wine and he chooses weed. A man smokes a cigarette on a boat.
CODA DISCUSSION TOPICS
– Sacrifice, feelings, children of deaf adults, pressure, talent, pursuing dreams, bullying, discipline.
CODA MESSAGE
– Sacrificing for others is part of love.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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