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January 30, 2025
Sundance Review: ‘André is an Idiot’ is a Marvelous Tale of Relentless Positivity
January 30, 2025Those with even a passing interest in the Oscars are likely aware that CODA was named Best Picture several years ago, with supporting actor Troy Kotsur becoming the second-ever Deaf actor to win an Academy Award. The first was his CODA costar Marlee Matlin, who took home the Best Actress prize for Children of a Lesser God in 1986. The documentary Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore looks at the accomplished actress’ unlikely path to that major breakout at the age of twenty-one and the places her career and her life have taken since then
This film starts with Matlin on the red carpet at the Oscars, expressing how excited she would be to have her costar join her as an Oscar winner. She doesn’t express the same confidence and comfort three decades earlier when she accepts the prize from her then-boyfriend and costar, WIlliam Hurt, and is thrust into an unanticipated and unofficial role of spokesperson for the Deaf community. That isn’t something she ever applied for, wanted, or was necessarily even qualified for, as she soon sees severe backlash to her decision to speak when presenting an award at the next year’s Oscars ceremony. She continues, however, to blaze a trail based on what she thinks is right and to ensure that her voice is heard even and especially without words.
Matlin’s childhood is in the spotlight here, with her expressing things she would have loved to speak to her parents about, and how they seemed to blame themselves for the unexplained loss of her hearing at eighteen months old. She describes growing up in a house where her family didn’t sign fluently, and her adult brothers are interviewed and share their own recollections and regrets about how they engaged with her. She doesn’t carry ill will towards them, but also recognizes that she wasn’t always set up for success, like when she met Henry Winkler and her mother asked him to convince her it would be too hard to be an actress, something he couldn’t do and which ultimately led to a warm and lasting friendship between the two of them.
This is a very intimate film, one that really speaks to who Matlin is. Her visibility in the wake of her Oscar win helped her to push for advances in widespread accommodations for Deaf audiences, including the use of closed captioning. It should come as little surprise that she also exerted her influence over the making of this film after it was pitched to her, insisting that she work with a Deaf woman as director. Actress Shoshannah Stern is a formidable choice for the job, sitting comfortably on a couch with Matlin in many of the film’s scenes as they sign back and forth to each other, probing the formative moments of Matlin’s life and how she responded to them.
It’s wonderful and fitting that this film is meant to be equally accessible to Deaf and hearing audiences. Colorful subtitles accompany every scene, and some people, like Matlin’s decades-long interpreter, Jack Jason, only sign even though they’re seen speaking in archive footage. The notion of Deaf as not being “less than” is frequently emphasized, especially when accompanied by condescending news segment introductions and news headlines that suggest that Matlin’s career options should be limited or that her Oscar win is based on sympathy. That’s an attitude she squarely rejects, and she and this film are living proof that it couldn’t be further from the truth.
This film is much more than just a highlight reel of Matlin’s accomplishments, but those are still sufficiently worth celebrating. The interviewees selected to shed light on their interactions with her feel carefully and deliberately chosen, with just a few of them, namely Winkler and Aaron Sorkin, big names that audiences will immediately recognize. This is a much more personal journey that involves those who have been influenced by her, and chief among them is Stern, who has a fantastic vision that guides this story in a way that underscores how much Matlin means to her. While this is a film about her life and what she’s done, it also includes much education that all audiences could and should use to help improve the way they interact with people in the Deaf community.
Movie Rating: 8/10