SOUL — Movie Review. By John Argote Rodriguez
By: John Argote Rodriguez
Tags: Disney Plus, Disney, Soul, Pixar, Jamie Foxx

Image via Disney+

By John Argote Rodriguez

“Soul” premiered on December 25, 2020 on Disney+ and stars Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Questlove, Phylicia Rashad, and Thomas Jeff- I mean Daveed Diggs with Angela Bassett, directed by Pete Docter and basically tells the story of a man who dies and is trying to return to Earth…

WHY WAS THIS MOVIE RELEASED ON CHRISTMAS?! SERIOUSLY OF ALL DAYS THEY CHOSE CHRISTMAS?!

Image via Disney+

Guys “Soul” is a good movie, a really good movie, which shouldn’t be surprising coming from Pixar; the studio responsible for making critically acclaimed films such as “Toy Story”, “Finding Nemo”, “Up”, and “Coco”, though well count “Cars” as a hiccup.

With that said and done “Soul” is a depressing movie. Not that “Soul” is made with the intention to depress the audience I think they wanted to uplift us, but this movie deals with death and the existence of your life and if you lived a meaningful life and no matter how hard Pixar tried in the end to lift our spirits by showing us life is beautiful and something not to be taken for granted and live life to the fullest and live each moment, but nope they failed because as soon as the credits rolled I was left depressed.

Image via Disney+

Jamie Foxx voicing Joe Gardner was great, I loved Foxx’s voice acting here, he’s a talented actor and watching Joe struggle with his death and recapping through his life and see his journey.

The film hit close to home because of the career disapproval. Joe is an aspiring musician and I’m an aspiring filmmaker, but it doesn’t matter if you’re someone who is following a career in art then you’re automatically gonna get people discouraging you from following that career because of how unlikely you are to make it and that part really hit deep and the portrayal of his inner conflict yet determination to push forward because music is his life it’s not just a hobby it’s what he thinks about from the moment he wakes up in the morning till he goes to sleep at night and I praised that aspect of the film. It culminated to a great story arc for the character of Joe Gardner.

Image via Disney+

Tina Fey is also in the film as 22 a soul who doesn’t want it go to Earth and has a very sarcastic attitude about everything. Fey was funny in the role, though sometimes she was a tad bit annoying, but that was overshadowed by her back and forth dialogue with Foxx. Their chemistry is what made this movie because of their chemistry didn’t work then this whole movie fails apart, but they fed off each other brilliantly and they excelled at comedy.

“Soul” in the end was a great and enjoyable movie that hits really deep and goes deep which shouldn’t be surprising given the subject matter of the film that has to do with I don’t know death and the existential crisis of our purpose in life and if it has a meaning…

Image via Disney+

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, but that’s something you expected to see because Pixar loves making you cry and after 2017’s venture into the land of the dead and potentially being forgotten and erased from existence in “Coco” you knew it was a matter of time before Pixar went all in and straight up dealt with death and I’d say they executed the concept and story well, perhaps a little to good because while “Soul” is a good movie I’m probably NEVER gonna watch this film again because instead of feeling uplifted I’m depressed as shit.

So I urge you this holiday season to watch “Soul” first then watch “Wonder Woman 1984” that was the depressing stuff is over and you have something uplifting.

Grade: A-