2020 needed no help from awful movies…here are the ones that helped anyway.
Dishonorable Mentions
The Rentalwas a great concept that somehow thought it was a good idea to be full of characters I wanted to see dead. No one remembers The Last Thing He Wanted, a once Oscar hopeful that Netflix dumped in February before dumping films on streaming was cool in 2020. There was Scoob!, which I may be a little too harsh on. I also may have only hated some of Antebellum…no I hated most of it. And finally there was Wonder Woman 1984, which ruined my Christmas. As always, click the title to see a full review.
I’ll save the “how bad 2020 was” stuff for hopefully never another time. The films overall definitely still had some good ones, ones that would be on my best of list in a normal year. However, the rest felt like scavenging the bargain bin at Walmart. That would explain why my normal “Top Twenty” will be reduced to a “Top Fifteen.”
Honorable Mentions
While these may not excite many, I’d be remiss to leave them unmentioned. I enjoyed the entertaining Emmaremake, something fans of Anya Taylor-Joy’s Queen’s Gambit may like to check out. The remake of The Invisible Manhad more meat on its bones than you’d expect from a thriller that could’ve been a cash grab. There was the TwilightZone-esq The Vast of Night, that should be celebrated for all of its skill in front of, and behind the camera. I also enjoyed the surprising Underwater, a theatrical January release that was a rare gem. Then there was the Netflix ensemble, The Devil All The Time, which used its great cast to carry its sprawling story. And finally there was A24’s First Cow, a quiet and gentle film that moves a t a quiet and gentle pace.
As always, all of my reviews can be found by clicking the titles of the film. Now on to the top 15 of 2020.
While it may be one of David Flincher’s weaker efforts, Mank brings another great performance from Gary Oldman. Oh, and “weak” Flincher is better than the best of most.
Almost like watching a documentary where you want to reach in and tell the main character that it’s going to be ok. The scene where the title of the film is spoken is one of the year’s best.
The underrated Haley Bennett gives her career best performance in a film that will make many turn away just be reading the synopsis. Please don’t, because there’s far more to take in.
Like an early Coen Brothers’ delight. This little crime story is filled with great performances and characters to root for. And it stays true to those characters with wonderful dark humor.
Technically a 2019 release, but oh well. This was a return to form for Terrance Malick, and a rare movie of his with an actual narrative. A really good one.
A film that made think of myself and everything I own…and everyone I care about. About the memories I’d want to think of while embracing the warmest of sunrises. Simply speaking, a beautiful movie.
One of the most unique and upsetting pictures I’ve seen in some time. Bone chillingly profound and bizarre. The originality combined with the emotion is everyting I want in a motion picture, and that’s why it’s number one.
Watching characters argue is the very essence of drama and goes back to the early days of theater. An argument that escalates and leads to a climax is sometimes the centerpiece of an entire story. Regina King’s One Night in Miami contains a group of friends (mostly) confined to a hotel room. And they argue, but not for the sake of doing so. They argue because they’re strong willed, and believe in their points of view. They argue because their points of view differ. And they argue because despite those differences, the wants of the four men are ultimately the same. The film is kind of like The Breakfast Club, but instead of it being about five white students who have a shared hatred/fear of the expectations of their parents and society, it’s about five famous black men who have a shared boiling rage/determination about their place in the world. The film takes a little while to get going, but once the debating begins, One Night in Miami is an excellent piece of good old fashioned drama.
While the majority of the film takes place on February 25, 1964, it opens a month prior to that. It does this to introduce the audience to the four main characters, despite them not really needing an introduction. Be that as it me, we watch each of them having a subpar night. There’s Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), who’s arrogance in the ring almost costs him a fight with Henry Cooper in London; soul singer Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), who suffers through a humiliating performance in front of a cold, all-white audience at the Copacabana in New York City; NFL player Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), who returns home to Georgia to be warmly received by family friend Mr. Carlton (Beau Bridges)…until he’s casually called…well, take a guess; and Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), who returns home and nervously discusses wife his wife his desires to leave the Nation of Islam. The main action of the film then takes place on the February night after Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston to become world heavyweight champion. Three of the four men want to party, but Malcolm X doesn’t partake in that anymore, so they quietly sit in a small hotel room until the quiet spills over into discussions about their differences on how they need to conduct themselves for the sake of black people in America. Discussions turned heated, and emotions eventually run high.
I’ll admit that I didn’t love what was nearly the first half of this movie. The extended prologue, outside of the scene with Jim Brown, wasn’t very engaging, and the film never really gathered much steam. Then the characters decided to head to the roof of the hotel, and the arguing between Sam Cooke and Malcolm X begins. I was almost instantly enthralled. Everything from this scene on – the dialogue, performances, blocking of the actors, direction, and editing made a small scale story loom incredibly large.
I’m not black, and I’ve learned over the course of my life that I’m never going to understand what it’s like to be black. I believe people mean well when they apply their own lives and experiences to others, but sometimes you have know when all you can do is listen. I think viewing this film may allow that idea to penetrate those who didn’t realize they were hearing without absorbing what’s being said. That alone is one hell of an achievement. Besides that, the film’s screenplay by Kemp Powers, based off of his own play, is able to shift focus and advantage to each of its players with grace. You always get the sense that no matter how far apart in their lives these characters may be, they have an absolute love for one another, and that seeps through even as their words cut. You may find yourself agreeing with one character, only to switch that allegiance moments later. That’s powerful arguing…and theater.
This is Regina King’s directorial debut, and she wisely chooses something that will play to her strengths…acting. The standouts are Leslie Odom Jr. and Kingsley Ben-Adir, who spend what feels like the majority of the runtime at each other’s throats. Odom Jr., who you can catch in his Tony winning work on Hamilton puts that voice to use as Sam Cooke. More than that though his presence absolutely steals the movie, as he shines brightest. Ben-Adir is much more reserved as Malcolm X, but his desperation almost burns through the film. I would say that his portrayal deserves to stand next to Denzel Washington’s, and I don’t say that lightly. Aldis Hodge, who’s building a nice little film career, seems to occupy the background of the four, but that isn’t really true When he’s called upon to be front and center, he too proves that he can carry this story. Eli Goree is probably the weakest of the three, but I think that comes with having to play Clay. It’s a larger than live person to fill the shoes of in a little hotel room.
More than just directing actors, King has to keep the situation they’re in fresh and engaging. A difficult task that she’s able to handle quite well. She even finds ways to not make this film look like it’s an adaptation of a play, which others filmmakers have struggled with. I also loved the visual humidity effect at times that caught me off guard. The ending is really well done too, with a final montage set to a picture perfect song. I’m sure some will find the film too preachy or too on the nose, especially for being based around these four guys who did spend the night in a Miami hotel room on February 25, 1964, where they could have discussed the weather for all we know. Even if that’s all they did, this is the kind of film I would have wanted to see. Arguments are art.
News of the World is one of those movies where you give it the benefit of the doubt, and are unrewarded. Because I love Tom Hanks, and respect Paul Greengrass as a filmmaker, and because their last collaboration was the excellent Captain Phillips…I trusted News of the World. I also enjoy me a good western, and the narrative of this film promised an emotional road trip across the open plain. So yes, I trusted it. And then once the film began, I allowed it to settle into its story so that it could eventually “wow” me, because that’s what Greengrass and Hanks are capable of. Unfortunately, while News of the World isn’t a bad film by any stretch, it simply did nothing for me.
News of the World takes place in 1870, and follows Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hanks),a former member of the Confederate Infantry who now makes a living traveling town to town reading newspapers for the populace for ten cents per person. Following one such evening of news reading, Kidd sets out for his next location when he encounters an overturned wagon on the road, the once driver is a lynched black man and his passenger is a young white girl named Johanna (Helena Zengel) who is dressed in Native American clothing. Kidd makes an attempt to pawn the child off to the military to take her to her people, but he eventually decides to do it himself. The remainder of the film follows the two of them on that trip, and the dangers they face while their relationship softens.
It’s difficult to place why this film didn’t connect with me. It’s well shot, outside of some bad CGI every now and then, and it’s very well acted by the two leads. I guess I wasn’t a fan of the perilous situations that Kidd and Johanna find themselves in. There’s a shootout that’s kind of lame considering Greengrass’ talent with action, and then they get caught at a racist community of former soldiers, only to get out of the situation way too easily. The denouement isn’t very special either though I respect the choice to not have another action scene. I just wasn’t emotionally invested enough to be affected.
Hanks is good because he always is, and Helena Zengel is very good in a role that could have been dull. Overall I liked the film’s idea that all it takes to bring people together is a good story. I agree, I just wish News of the World had one.
One cannot review Pieces of a Woman without separating the film’s opening 30 minutes with the rest. Not just because said opening contains a masterful 24 minute one shot, but because the overall feeling of the scene is different from the rest of the movie due to the rest of the film being about the grief as a result of the opening. It’s unfortunate too that the rest of the film never captures the heights of the beginning, though it’s very well acted and shot. Resulting in Pieces of a Woman feeling more like a film that could have been great, if it just didn’t get bogged down in melodrama.
The movie follows Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf), who are expecting their first child. Martha intends to have a home birth, so when she goes into labor, the midwife, Barbara is called. Barbara can’t make it so a replacement, Eva (Molly Parker), comes instead. The birth, at first difficult, turns tragic when the child dies roughly a minute after being born. The narrative then picks up a month later, revealing that Martha and Sean are still overcome with grief. Their attempts to find out what went wrong during the birth leads them to sue Eva for malpractice. As the proceedings begin, Martha and Dean’s relationship disintegrates while Martha must also contend with her overbearing mother, Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn), who seemingly wants Martha to deal with her grief only in the ways she sees fit.
The rest of the film does a strong job in relation to the character of Martha and the realistic way she deals with her grief. Vanessa Kirby has a luminous presence to begin with, and she seems to float through the rest of the movie like ghost of a human being. The melodrama that brings down the rest of the film does not hinder her work in any way, and she deserves any award recognition she’s going to get. The other two main characters in Sean and Elizabeth spent the majority of the film annoying me. The way they deal with grief is so toxic (which isn’t unrealistic) that I almost viewed them as threats to Martha’s grief. Sean’s attempt to have sex with Martha turns that threat into something a little more literal. Shia LaBeouf’s personal life will unfortunately influence many who view this film and cause them to hate the character even more. I simply didn’t find his grief to be very engrossing. Ellen Burstyn’s character is so overbearing that it didn’t seem real, and that is a detriment to the film, especially when you consider how real the opening 30 minutes are. Finally Molly Parker is excellent as the Midwife who drew more sympathy from me than anyone other than Martha.
The film is so beautifully shot that I almost wish it was a little colder due to the subject matter. Shots of characters’ necks during a climactic scene are more distracting than anything, and it screams of a movie that’s trying too hard to be profound when it probably didn’t have to. So if you want to see a harrowing short-film, watch the opening 30 minutes of Pieces of a Woman. If you want to see a decent if convoluted commentary on grief, then stick around for the rest.
Every time I’ve been to a Consignment Shop, I make a point to look at the strangest items. Things that I couldn’t imagine wanting to take up space on a shelf in my home. Sometimes they’re just the ugliest figurines; other times their only characteristic is being dull. That’s my initial reaction to them. But then I’ll take a closer look and see how a particular object’s paint has faded, something that could only happen as a result of time. Meaning that while the object would never parade the shelves in my home, it had clearly once held firm in another’s. Perhaps someone who passed away and whose relative no longer had use for it. Meaning that this seemingly insignificant item was once a favorite of another who once loved to look upon it day after day. Maybe it was given to them when they were a child and it stayed in a box in their closet without their knowing; maybe they rediscovered it in their adult years and displayed it with fondness because that’s what we do sometimes. So whenever I look upon these figurines or pictures or whatever it is, I see a life that’s no longer here…and I realize that I should be thankful for the insignificant things in my home simply because they belong to me…for the moment.
Nomadland takes place in 2011, and follows Fern (Francis McDormand), who lost her job after the US Gypsum plant in Empire, Nevada shut down; she worked there for years along with her husband who recently died. She then sold most of her belongings and purchased a van to live in and travel the country searching for work. She takes a seasonal job at an Amazon fulfillment center through the winter. A friend and co-worker named Linda May invites Fern to visit a desert winter gathering in Arizona organized by Bob Wells, which provides a support system and community for nomads. At the gathering, Fern meets fellow nomads and learns basic survival and self-sufficiency skills for the road.
The narrative of Nomadland basically, and expectedly, moves Fern around from place to place, asking the audience to settle in. I found that after the first twenty minutes or so I grew accustomed to the film’s overall pace and tone, and once that happened I was able to let it work its magic. There will be plenty of people who will find it a little too slow, or straight-up dull and boring, and that’s fine. But if you’re not one of those, then I think you’ll be in for something unique and very human.
The majority of the cast contains real-life nomads who don’t so much as give performances, but live on-screen. In my last review for Minari, I mentioned the film going a little too Terrance Malick at times; Nomadland ventures into the same territory successfully, with the camera following around the actors and capturing beauty in an existence that I couldn’t dream of living. Watching someone enjoy one of their last sunsets, or an embrace before a long separation, or especially watching a character speak about the death of their child moved me more than a “normal” film would have. And Francis McDormand anchors it all with a performance that’s able to bleed between the realistic improv with the Nomads and the more dramatic work in scenes where she visits her sister (my least favorite part of the film), or spends time with the family of a new friend, played by the excellent David Strathairn.
A late sequence where a character visits a long deserted place, full of memory, made me think of my own home as it is, and as it will be when someone else moves in, unaware of all the thoughts I had inside its walls. Those thoughts like the items I found in the Consignment Shop. Strange little creatures who look to me to remember them, and thanks to Nomadland, I’ll try a little bit more.
Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari is a simple and human story told with authentic sweetness. A story about how a family learns to adjust to their surroundings and make a better life for one another. While it combines Korean culture with the pride of living the self-made American dream, it finds a way to bridge the gap between the two in the give and take within a family. It isn’t so much about overcoming obstacles, as being able to find ways to bear them and still live. It was made with great care, and that love is in the film’s every moment.
Minari follows The Yi family, who have moved from California into their new plot of land in rural Arkansas, where Jacob (Steven Yeun) hopes to grow Korean produce to sell to vendors in Dallas. While he’s optimistic about their plans, his wife, Monica (Han Ye-ri) does not share the enthusiasm. She preferred the life they had in the city and fears for their son, David’s (Alan Kim) heart condition. The development of Jacob’s plan is slow going, and it leads to many arguments between him and Monica while David and their oldest, Anne (Noel Kate Cho) looks on. Monica’s mother, Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung) comes from Korea to watch the kids while Jacob and Monica work at a chicken hatchery. Her presence could be viewed as more of another issue than an element of reprieve. The family must contend with a lack of funds, lack of water, potential tornados, physical ailments, and one another’s wants and needs, all the while integrating themselves in an area of the country where they stand out.
Everything in this film feels natural, from the conversations to the performances to the humidity you can almost feel coming off the screen. Scenes don’t have a dramatic crescendo because things cannot be fixed so easily. Many aspects of the narrative seem to suggest a payoff, especially in the case of David’s heart condition, or in the character of Paul (Will Patton) who Jacob enlists for help on the land. But their is no real payoff, instead we’re just watching a family’s struggle as they try to live a singular existence. What did happen for me was my growing to care about the characters and my wanting for their happiness.
Performance wise the film is a home-run. To American audiences, Steven Yeun will be the most known Korean member of the cast, and he’s excellent. He clearly relishes in bringing a Korean story to life, and his very personal performance reflects that. Han Ye-ri is also wonderful in a role that could easily make her look like an unsupportive spouse despite her character being the one to sacrifice a way of life that she preferred. The married couple end up coming away as two flawed people who I wanted to find the middle ground, even if it isn’t really there. Of the two children, Noel Kate Cho as Anne gets less to do, but she’s still really good. However, it’s Alan Kim who steals the movie. Whether speaking in Korean or English, Kim is believable as an inquisitive little boy. He pulls a prank on the grandmother in the film, and it not only made me laugh, but I believed it was something that David would do. Not just any boy, but David. And speaking of the grandmother, Youn Yuh-jung, a well known Korean actress, gives the film a boost of energy every time she’s on the screen.
Writer/director Lee Isaac Chung gets a little too Terrance Malick with his visuals, but otherwise has made an unassuming film that will make people fall in love with a family. And he has done this without obvious pulling on the heart strings. If there is a real flaw for me, it came at the ending. It contains a scene that doesn’t feel as authentic as what came before, and it allows the film to wrap things up too abruptly and easily. Though I suppose the point is that all it takes it to bring a family together is to make them realize how much they care about one another. It doesn’t mean the problems are fixed, it just gives them the greatest reason to face them.
Promising Young Woman is a refreshing revenge fantasy, because it does not relish in it. If there’s a comeuppance in the film, however deserved, it doesn’t feel like a win because it doesn’t change the past. Its protagonist is a broken person despite dealing out her justice with a sly smile. In truth, she deals it out because she’s consumed by the idea that she wasn’t there the night her best friend needed her. In a social world that says it cares about rape culture, Promising Young Woman suggests that in order to win such a battle you must douse yourself in gasoline, and fight with fire. The film is uncomfortable, sobering, darkly funny and unique. One of the best releases of 2020.
Cassie Thomas (Cary Mulligan), med-school drop-out, lives with her parents and works at a coffee shop. She has a weekend ritual, where she goes to bars and pretends to be extremely intoxicated. Then every time a man takes her home and tries to take advantage of her, she confronts them about their behavior, and writes their names down in a notebook. Cassie does this as a sort of penance for her late best-friend, Nina, who was sexually assaulted while drunk, and called a liar when she reported it. Nina eventually took her own life, leaving Cassie an angry shell of her former self. One day while at work, a former classmate of Cassie’s, Ryan Cooper (Bo Burnham), sees her at the coffee shop and asks her out. Though reluctant to get close to him, she eventually sees him as a possible way to be whole again. There’s also the catch that he still knows the contact information of those most responsible for Nina’s assault.
The Narrative then follows the structure of Cassie going through the four steps of her plan to get justice/revenge for Nina, all the while she tries to hide that rage from Ryan/fights against the humanity he’s bringing back to her. What you then get as a viewer is a strange balance between the satisfaction of revenge, and the hope that Cassie won’t need to see it through. This isn’t John Wick where you really want to see that final showdown, because you get glimpses of the kind of person Cassie could return to being. If she could only embrace a future, she’d have peace That balance affords the film further layers as it plays around with its tone from scene to scene. Yet somehow it’s able to be consistent in its identity.
As far as its commentary on rape…well, the word is notably avoided, as is “sexual assault,” much like it can be in those situations when individuals are unwilling to acknowledge it. The narrative is able to cover all of those bases as Cassie moves through her list. Each individual she confronts represents an obstacle that victims still face these days. There’s the women who turn their backs on other women, because it’s easy to look away, dismiss and then make excuses. There are the institutions, who don’t investigate deep enough because they don’t want to be in the headlines. There’s the justice system that fights by blaming the victim. And eventually, there’s those truly responsible. The approach Cassie takes to dealing with each of these individuals on her list is sinister and uncomfortable. She intends to hurt, maim, and leave her targets with little chance to look at themselves in the mirror again. Suggesting that they never should’ve been able to do so in the first place. It allows for a fascinating discussion about punishment, even in the cases of her side-targets on her trips to the bars and clubs on the weekends. Of course with each one of those she takes an absurd risk to her safety, and the overall film is a little ridiculous, but it’s also a fantasy. The way every scene is approached and executed is at the very least, entertaining, and at its best, fiendishly creative.
Promising Young Woman also deserves points for its inspired casting. So many of its actors are playing against type, especially the men, who are mostly known for playing good characters, and are here used as wolves in sheep’s clothing. It’s easy to see how a girl could take them home, let them get close, and lose the battle after the damage is done. There’s great work here in brief scenes from Alison Brie, Alfred Molina, Molly Shannon, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Adam Brody and many more. Bo Burnham, mostly a stage performer, and director of the excellent Eighth Grade (which has its own brilliant moment that deals with a potential assault), is a believable ray of light for Cassie, and nails the performance. Finally there’s Carey Mulligan, who for once gets to play something other than the combination of sweet and dour. First time writer/director Emerald Fennell really turns her loose, only to reign her in for a moment here and there. It’s a performance that deserves attention come awards season, and may be Mulligan’s best.
There are a few twists in the film’s final act that will divide some audience members. One is a predictable twist, but it becomes one of those that you hope you’re wrong about, and the longer the film goes, the more doubt creeps in. When the the twist finally lands, it’s well done and painful. There’s another twist that I didn’t see coming at all, and gives the film another jolt that will either push it over the top for some, while damning it for others. I though it fit the overall tone perfectly. The actual ending was the only part that didn’t sit right with me, not because I didn’t like what happened, or the perfect song choice on the soundtrack, but because it felt very rushed. Otherwise Promising Young Woman was one the most surprising films I’ve seen in a while.
George Clooney’s The Midnight Sky contains two separate storylines, linked by a pretentious third act twist that Stevie Wonder could see coming. Otherwise there’s almost no reason for one of these storylines to even acknowledge the other. The film is full of long and pointless scenes that have no bearing on the outcome of the story. It’s as though Clooney was trying to combine his buddy, Brad Pitt’s space odyssey film, Ad Astra with two of the actor/director’s previous space movies in Solaris and Gravity. And it doesn’t work despite the movie being very pretty to look at.
Taking place in 2049, an unidentified catastrophic event wipes out most of the Earth’s population with radiation. Augustine Lofthouse (George Clooney) an ambitious scientist who worked towards finding habitable planets where humanity could expand, is currently working in the Arctic and refuses to evacuate his base, knowing he hasn’t got long to live due to a serious illness that requires transfusions. Alone, he tries to contact any space mission hoping to warn them about the situation on Earth but finds that all but one have been decommissioned. That one is the space craft Æther, currently returning from Jupiter after having explored a habitable moon, K-23, which had first been discovered by Augustine. On board, the crew is unaware of the events on Earth. Augustine attempts to contact them, but the antenna is too weak for his signal to reach the ship. He decides to travel to a weather station, despite the conditions. He also discovers a young girl that has stowed away at his base. She doesn’t say much, but Augustine takes her with him. Meanwhile, we also follow the crew of the Æther – Commander Adewole (David Oyelowo); his second and pregnant girlfriend, Sullivan (Felicity Jones); pilot, Mitchell (Kyle Chandler); Maya (Tiffany Boone) and Sanchez (Demián Bichir).
The majority of the first half of the narrative revolves around Augustine, his solitary and his eventually trek across the Arctic. Not a great deal happens in these scenes, but I enjoyed whatever I thought it was building to. Clooney is a good actor, impressively lost weight and looks the part of a dying man with little to hope for. His rapport with the little girl is nice as well. But then the film contains its first of many useless scenes – a stop at a crashed plane, and a ridiculous sequence where Augustine ends up almost drowning in the freezing water. Then the whole movie oddly shifts to the Æther, who deal with multiple run-ins with asteroids because there’s nothing else to do on the way home to Earth. We also get a space walk accompanied by a “Sweet Caroline” sing-a-long. The actors are all very good and the design of the spaceship is so gorgeous that it held my interest, but it all results in a nothing Deep Impact ending that pretends it has something to say about humanity.
Again, all of the technical aspects of this film are first-rate, and they deserve a better story to be wrapped around. Same goes for the actors. Otherwise there’s nothing here but Oscar window dressing. And come awards season, it’ll be on the outside of those windows, looking in.
Soul was released right at the end of 2020, a year where something as mundane as going to the movies and grabbing some lunch afterwards became a routine many of us would miss. How striking is it that so many seemingly insignificant aspects of our lives feed us the fuel we didn’t know were needed to keep going. When the time comes where we’ll get those events back, hopefully they’ll be looked upon with appreciative eyes. Without these things, many of us were left to our own devices; the ability to find life in simply living if we were lucky enough to not be hit as hard by the pandemic as some. Pixar’s new film strikes at the chords of unappreciative moments, suggesting to seize them as a reminder that we’re alive, because that is what should ultimately be cherished.
Soul continues the Pixar tradition of creating an entire universe from asking the question of what if? What if toys, monsters, rats, bugs or cars had feelings? Inside/Out asked how feelings in general worked. Soul, directed by Pete Docter, explores ambitious ideas with the help of gorgeous animation and the simplest of insights, creating an imaginative and moving picture about how a person is hardwired to love something, and what that means in respect to living one’s life. I didn’t think it was as great as Docter’s last two outings (Up, Inside/Out), and it certainly isn’t inclusive for all ages, but Soul made me smile in the way you do when the beauty of a sunset makes you forget your troubles, however so briefly.
Soul follows Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a middle school music teacher from New York City who dreams of a career in jazz, even though he’s never been able to catch a big break. One day, Joe learns of an opening in the band of jazz legend Dorothea Williams and auditions for it. Impressed with Joe’s piano playing, Dorothea offers him a chance to perform later that night. As Joe happily heads off to prepare for the show, he falls down a manhole and dies. He finds himself as a soul heading into the “Great Beyond”. Unwilling to die before his big break, Joe tries to escape but ends up in the “Great Before”, where soul counselors—all named Jerry—prepare unborn souls for life. Each soul has a badge which, once filled out with traits, grants passage to Earth. Mistaken for an instructor, Joe is assigned to train 22 (Tina Fey), a cynical soul who has remained in the Great Before for millennia and sees no point in living on Earth. She needs to find her “spark” to complete her badge and agrees to give it to Joe so that he can return home.
How all of this is presented by Docter and his team at Pixar is part of the film’s many joys. Pixar has this remarkable ability to think outside the box, all the while making their execution plausible. The visuals in the afterlife are a combination of vast and humorous. The ideas of how souls and personalities are formed before being sent to Earth provides answers while wisely avoiding questions about God. The afterlife is seen as a factory with rules and loopholes. A more upsetting area where lost souls wander offers grim suggestions as to how they may have got there, but the film leaves those ideas for more adult conversations. Perhaps even more impressive is the recreation of New York City, not just in look, but personality. As a New Yorker, Soul hit a little harder when asking me to appreciate what’s around me.
The narrative is a typical Pixar-buddy quest to solve an insane problem, all the while the characters learn to accept and embrace aspects of their existence they’ve been avoiding. Some may find the film’s second act, which mostly takes place in New York, to be too simple and a wasted opportunity of the film’s possible reach. That may be the difference in my preference of something like Inside/Out over Soul, but I was still awed a great deal, and found small moments between a mother and son, student and teacher, or barber and customer to be handled with genuine heart. Kids will absolutely find the film boring though. 22 may garner a few laughs with her hyper behavior, and a cartoon cat is always fun to look at, but this may be the first Pixar film where the audience needs to be grown to appreciate it. At least it’s without corporate influence, with no hint of wanting to use the film to sell merchandise.
The ending is a little abrupt, and I think Docter and his team wrote themselves into a corner, but I was still satisfied. If there’s a standout moment, it’s a late montage accompanied by the excellent score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross that made me well-up. Pixar has made better films, ones that actually generated tears, and Soul got close to that. There’s a quick moment of the number seven train leaving the Queens-Borough Plaza station, heading to Manhattan and passing the “Silvercup” studio sign with the sunset in the background. I find myself standing at that exact spot in my commute from work, and to see it in this film as an image to be appreciated, it gave me great pause. Soul is the kind of movie that provides you with a much needed reminder that we all have better living to do.
Motionswee77 