A POLITE REVIEW: SOUL
SPOILERS BELOW
Soul is a film about a black man named Joe in his 40’s going through a mid life crisis and pondering his purpose in life. After an accident that would only happen to the likes of Eugene in Hey Arnold Joe is sent on a spiritual journey with a young spirit named 22 and they both go through the enlightenment that is known as self discovery.
I found out about this film on a message board and decided to check it out and the first thing that stood out to me was how crisp the animation was. I had to give the film a chance after seeing the animation. This might be Pixar’s best animated film. The humans were well defined, the way the animation captured New York City was nothing short of amazing. I was really in awe.
Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey did a great job with their voice overs also.
The theme of the film was purpose and my first takeaway was that it felt sort of corny mainly because I was looking at it from a perspective of reality where a man his age was thinking like a college student and had zero practicality and wondering why he was in the position he was in. I was overthinking like I usually do. I just wanted to know why he felt he was a failure and what part did he play in his own failure? Why was his purpose evading him?
When I usually hear people talk about finding their purpose they usually go in the opposite direction of what they feel their purpose is and usually one of two things happen they pin them not knowing their purpose the source of their laziness or they just scary as fuck and never really tried. The belief of opportunities just appearing without any movement is a regular thing. It happens too often.
As the film went on the theme of purpose didn’t bother me as much because it was presented in the frame of purpose does not replace living. Not to make this about myself but a few weeks ago I was on the app clubhouse. Nobody talking bout shit on there usually but my bro Mycol Vynn had a room and it was about 6-7 people in it and those are the best rooms but I remembered being asked what inspired me at the time and I just replied living and stillness inspires me. Stillness is one of the pipelines to desire. The fact I can move my hands, have all my senses blows my mind everyday. Real life is what inspires me. I stopped writing for a while to live and understand what living is. One night I just stared at a tree for 20 minutes. Stared at the structure of clouds. I understood that we’re thoughts in a thinking universe. I thought I was bugged out but I was just really understanding the truth. None of the shit we think matters, matters and we waste time convincing ourselves that it does. Living is what matters.
No ones gonna admit this but at the beginning of this film 22 had it right. Earth is where you go to have your soul crushed. Not trying to be on some emo shit I’m actually laughing writing this. All the people who believe that authority is bullshit and who look at fear as an emotion that cannot dictate how they’re living life the people on Earth kills those people. They want you afraid and obedient and that’s when you’re the most valuable to them. 22 was right to stay in the “Great Before” for as long as it could. It was the only soul smart enough to stay the fuck away from Earth and humanity. Later in the film 22 was convinced it was wrong when it was right the whole time. All those defeatist things it was telling itself after feeling it was worthless that it didn’t find a purpose when it already had it’s purpose the whole time was very sad.
The theme of the movie is very clear but since we take living for granted we will think it’s super deep. Nah fam we just conditioned our lives with bullshit that’s why it feels deep.
Pixar usually makes films that both kids and adults can enjoy. Soul is a movie for adults. Kids will not give a fuck about this film. They might get a kick out of Joe being the talking cat but purpose is something children don’t think about nor care about. Children just live already because children are better at life shit than adults.
I will say my favorite part was Joe actually playing the jazz gig of his life and when it happened he felt nothing. The character Dorothea told Joe a cool fish and ocean analogy where the moral of the analogy was that when you have it all you will always want more. It’s human nature. It also presented the argument of possibly destroying your passion by turning it into a career. We know Joe loves Jazz music and cannot stop talking about it but how would Joe feel playing the same gig night after night? The same solos. Hearing the same music. No spontaneity. How we look at our talents and our so called “callings” is something to think about.
Now I may be in the minority here but I thought Joe should’ve never came back. I think the impact would’ve hit harder if he died after he played the jazz gig and we saw 22 as a human. It’s not a huge deal just my opinion.
Overall this is a good film that will make anybody think. Not overly complex. Just a really well done film about appreciating life. A relevant human movie. Now we understand why the soul stone made Thanos cry. Souls are precious.
4 outta 5 fruit snacks.
Peace
