OnScreen Review: "Soul"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
Soul is the latest feature from Pixar, and the return of director Peter Docter, the man who previously directed Monster’s Inc., Up, and Inside Out. Pixar movies come with high expectations because of the quality of their catalog over the years. Docter’s Pixar efforts have proven to be some of my personal favorites, and they have also been some of the most emotionally resonant and deeply moving. Soul is a fine addition to the Pixar library and fits right in alongside Docter’s other entries. Soul is also a Pixar first, as co-writer Kemp Powers is also co-director with Doctor, making him the first African-American director on a Pixar film.
Pixar’s movies are known for being accessible for kids but also having wide appeal for adults as well; Soul may be the first that is geared more toward the grownups than the kiddos. That is not to say that there is not plenty for the kids to enjoy, just that the balance is weighed a little differently this time around.
The main character is Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a man who loves jazz and has musical aspirations, but is a middle school music teacher to make ends meet. When it finally seems like he is about to get his big break in life by getting a chance to play for jazz legend Dorthea Williams (Angela Bassett), one wrong step sends Joe tumbling down a New York City manhole and into the afterlife as a soul on supernatural escalator of sorts leading souls toward a great white light that is the “Great Beyond.” Not ready to meet his maker or dissolve into oneness with the universe (which sounds an awful lot like a bug light), Joe runs the other way and eventually winding up in the “Great Before” where new souls are being sent to Earth. Desperate to return to Earth, he poses as a mentor for the new souls and is assigned 22 (Tina Fey), a soul that has no intention of ever going to Earth. They make a deal to try and find her “spark” to complete her badge which she can give to Joe to return to Earth and she can skip the whole Earth experience.
Of course, it is right up Pixar’s alley to make an animated movie that deals with existential questions like what a soul’s spark or purpose is and what this whole life thing is all about; much like how Inside Out deals with human emotion, it is handled deftly. I love the idea of their being a Great Before as a counterpoint to the Great Beyond.
The Great Before is managed by a group of beings known as Jerrys. They are voice by, among others, Alice Braga, Richard Ayode, and Wes Studi. The processing of souls into the Great Beyond is handled by an accountant named Terry, voiced by the wonderful Rachel House, a frequent collaborator with Taika Waititi. The Jerry’s and Terry have an abstract look to them, with Terry even bearing a striking resemblance to The Cheat from the Homestar Runner web series.
There iss also a place known as The Zone, which 22 takes Joe to as a means of seeking an alternative route back to Earth. This is the place that souls enter that is between the physical and the spiritual. Like when a musician gets lost in the music, which is shown earlier with Joe at the piano, or when actor is performing in a play, or a basketball player is performing on the court (which leads to a great joke about the New York Knicks). The Zone is also the place for lost souls, and it’s explained that ““The Zone is enjoyable, but when that joy becomes an obsession, one becomes disconnected from life.” The Zone is another example of Pixar’s incredible ability to contextualize high concept ideas with easily accessible visuals, like the Memory Dump in Inside Out.
The animation of Soul is nothing short of incredible and in several ways. Not being able to watch it on the big screen is an experience I am sad to be missing because of COVID but seeing it on my LG 4K OLED TV was an experience too. When Joe first appears on the escalator to the Great Beyond, the contrast between the infinite darkness and the great white light he is moving toward pops out. The depiction of New York City is beautifully rendered too. Some environments, like the sidewalks, looked lifelike, and the only thing that pulled me out of that was the animation of the characters not looking true to life.
Not only did environments stand out as lifelike, but objects and lighting too. The opening scene takes place in a classroom with students playing their instruments, and the instruments have a photorealism and texture to them. Joe’s apartment and the lighting and shading of it also looks photorealistic.
Lastly, properly lighting skin tone, particularly brown and black skin, in movies is something I was not aware of as a topic until Moonlight. There are several articles online about how the camera sees color and how to properly light black skin, and it looks like significant care and detail went into the making of this film not only avoid ugly racist caricatures that have been in animated films of the past, but also rendered characters like Joe in the best light possible. According to Wikipedia, cinematographer Bradford Young was a lighting consultant.
Strip away all of the amazing visuals, the clever laughs, and the unique take on the spiritual world, the heart of the story is about insecurity and wanting your life to mean something. Joe has spent his life trying to catch his big break, he realizes almost on death’s door that his life has not amounted to much. A curated hall of his memories is unmemorable moments. He determines, “My life was meaningless… I will not accept this.” At another point he says, “I’m not dying today, not when my life just started.” At one point, he and 22 both make it to Earth, but not as he planned, and with unexpected consequences that need to be undone, but his experience gives him a new perspective and better outlook on living life and making the most of it, because he spends most of the movie misguidedly trying to find a thing to be the “spark” for 22 like he thinks jazz is for him. Conveniently (and cleverly), there is a training seminar for mentors where they explain the “spark”, but Joe is so preoccupied with a plan to get back to Earth that he zones out and misses what is said.
Meanwhile, 22 masks her insecurity. It is easy to glide past the fact that the soul that is announced before 22 is soul numbered somewhere over 10 billion. That means that 22 has been hanging around the Great Before for a long, long time. She says Earth is unappealing, but when she gets a chance to actually experience it, there is a lot she likes. She has also gone through countless other mentors before Joe, including some epic historical figures like Mother Theresa, Abraham Lincoln, and Gandhi. What is holding her back is a feeling of inadequacy, that there is something wrong with her for not being ready to live life.
Finding your spark, feeling inadequate, needing to fill that last box, having no purpose, these are insecurities that so many people live with. At one point a discouraged supporting character mutters to himself that Julia Child didn’t succeed until she was 49. Sometimes we need to be reminded that there is no such thing as a normal life and that everybody is on their own unique path. At the end of the credits, the film is dedicated “to all the mentors in our lives.” Sometimes we need a mentor to let us walk a mile in their shoes, guide us, hold our hand, and help us make the big leap. Like the best Pixar movies, Soul delivers the broad, universal truths we can all relate to in a unique, specific story.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
(Soul is now streaming on Disney+.)