Best Supporting Actor 2021: Troy Kotsur in CODA

Troy Kotsur won his Oscar from his first Oscar nomination for portraying Frank Rossi in CODA.

CODA tells the story of the child of deaf parents as she deals with that whole thing while trying to pursue singing. 

Here's a film I was I feel pretty diplomatic with my feelings the first time I watched it given its praise and how many people were moved by it, I thought "I must be missing something" so I didn't jump down its throat. Well after watching it again, I hate this stupid movie. I was immediately reminded of such the first ten minutes into this cesspool of goodish intentions by examining the film mostly to focus on this performance. Kotsur has kind of stoic energy in the first scene as we see him, his son and the titular character Ruby (Emilia Jones) working on their family fishing boat and then frustrated by the costs local administration. It feels real, and the attention to giving a deaf actor the ability to perform through ASL is great casting. Then we get his next scene where his character of Frank Rossi, a relatively realistic seeming dad, becomes a cartoon. Frank picks his daughter up at school while loud rap music plays which he feels he needs to explain his love for it as coarsely as possible. This is immediately followed by him needing to explain his testicles burning at the doctors also as coarsely as possible. This is immediately followed by him farting and explaining why it is a good thing as coarsely as possible. I mean is this movie serious with this? Couldn't this deaf person be an actual person, not some ridiculous notion of a human. I have no idea what the intention of this is but creates a feeling insincerity, like a deaf person to seem real needs to be a ridiculous caricature to be accepted as a main character. 

Now what about Kotsur's portrayal of the cartoon? Well I'm torn, because the material is clearly so bad but obviously it is the material he's stuck with. Kotsur throws himself into the supposed comedy of the scene, and well, it's not funny even remotely, and it does come off as ridiculous. It is one that is difficult to judge for me because the material is so atrocious, but I can't say I don't think it infects Kotsur's work. He too is a bit ridiculous in these scenes, going for the over the top laugh, because that is what the scene is going for. Neither works however. And one can fairly say "but it's the directing" and it is, but every performance is a combination of both, so I have to criticize both just as both deserve the praise when they work in tandem to create something special. But hey, maybe there are better scenes between him and seasoned performer Marlee Matlin as his wife. Maybe their relationship is in-depth and complicated. Maybe you really get a sense of who these two people are as people and as life partners. No, they're just really really horny for one another. They are so horny for one another, so horny that their horniness is basically the only thing they seem to share with one another. This leading to a scene of them having sex followed by Frank instructing Ruby's potential boyfriend how to proceed by using a condom and proceeding to visually portray this. Again Frank becomes this complete cartoon, and there's no reality in Kotsur's performance. I guess if it was hilarious it would be fine, but it's not, it's incredibly stupid. 

Thankfully Kotsur isn't always the "comedic" cartoon though, he sadly begins so strongly as such. There are the scenes where we see Frank dealing with the fishing boat and the economic hardships. Kotsur's performance is so much more internalized and subdued, it frankly feels like a different character at these times. Kotsur is genuinely very good in these scenes. In his performance you really get a sense of the deep rooted frustration of the system. When he communicates with his kids these frustrations and difficulties, there is such a sense of the weight of his responsibility in his eyes, and this subtle sadness recognizing a certain kind of defeat with how many things are against him. Even the bigger moments, such as signing his outrage to yet another cost Kotsur portrays in each moment an earnest intensity that clearly stems from just having had enough. In these scenes we get a real sense of the hardships of this life, but we also get an actual sense of a real person. They're bigger emotions by Kotsur, but bigger in a way that feels natural in his performance. Even if they do apparently live in a reality where the American With Disabilities Act doesn't exist, but I digress. Kotsur's work wears the weight of the life but also within it that sense of responsibility towards trying to hold it together for his family. Eventually this leads to the main conflict of the film which is Ruby being pulled between the responsibility she feels to help her family, and her own dreams. 

 

Kotsur is genuinely terrific in these scenes he shares with Jones. Although they don't move me per se, as I'm far too checked out when the film eventually gets to them and even then they are very obvious in their manipulation at times, Kotsur's performance embodies the conflict and sense of love in the situation. His eyes speak towards the heartbreak at his daughter moving on, yet in the same sense it is filled with this ever supportive love. He is affecting in these moments where he is convincing in creating the sense of this relationship, the challenge of being the dad, by being the dad who has to let his daughter go. When portraying this aspect the reality is there, and the conflict is given a sense of depth in his performance. He does earn his one big line of English with "Go" that Kotsur puts his all into, and it doesn't fall onto deaf ears. I remain conflicted over this performance however. In all those comedy scenes, that are bad, Kotsur is also bad in them. He is very good though whenever he's not trying to be funny. It's a weird situation because in a way him being good makes the bad scenes even worse because they do feel like two different characters with the far more reserved and complicated man we see in the dramatic moments against the over the top cartoon we see in comedic scenes. This is a weird situation as usually an inconsistent performance is inconsistent throughout a film, or it is more in waves. Here it is separated entirely by tone, if there's comedy Kotsur is bad, if its drama he's very good. There is far more drama here than comedy, and additionally the best drama in the film is when Kotsur is the one being dramatic. It also helps the comedic scenes stop being a thing about half way through the film, so this becomes more so a performance that starts rough but gets better the longer the film goes on. Kotsur does successfully go from being just an absurd depiction of a man to a genuine one.