Movie Review: SOUL (2020)

 

SOUL
Disney / Pixar
Writer: Peter Docter, Mike Jones
Director: Peter Docter, Kemp Powers
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton 
100 Minutes
Animation
Adventure / Comedy

Streaming: Disney Plus / Disney+

In your pursuit of happiness, don't forget to be happy!

I have to start my review by saying, I am not sure this movie will be a big hit with kids. The premise is complex, intricate, and deep. With that said, this was a wonderful movie for adults. Up top with some of my other Disney favorites.

Writer / Director, Peter Docter (UP, INSIDE OUT, MONSTERS INC. WALL-E, TOY STORY, TOY STORY 2), is clearly talented. He knows how to craft stories that impact the heart and demand emotional responses from the viewer. SOUL is no different.

Jamie Foxx portrays Joe. Joe's father was a jazz musician. They shared a love for music. Joe knows his purpose in life is to be a crowd sell-out jazz pianist. Unfortunately, the timing is never right. To pay bills, Joe teaches. Just as he lands a break to perform at a club with a saxophone legend, Joe is badly injured in a freak accident.

Joe resists going to Heaven. He isn't ready to die. Not when his earthly dreams are so close to realization. He finds a way to escape his path. He winds up in a place where souls are being prepped for birth, and their life on earth.

Slated as a Mentor, Joe is assigned 22 (Tina Fey). She has not found her spark. A soul needs a spark before it can be sent to earth as an infant human. Joe knows all about purpose. His purpose is to be a famous jazz pianist. However, purpose and spark are two different things.

As Joe and 22 take off on an unsanctioned adventure, both of them learn something about life. The question is will they discover the truth about sparks and purpose in time to make a difference, or will they be lost souls for all eternity?

22 tells Joe at one time, "Don't worry, they're fine. You can't crush a soul here. That's what life on earth is for."

The movie would have broke records at the box office if the pandemic wasn't interfering so much with fun. The colors, the animation, and the music kill! At times I forgot I was even watching a cartoon. Joe was as real as Jamie Foxx.

SOUL is about life, about Today. It is about stopping and smelling the roses. It is about perspective. It is about selflessness (and not getting so caught up in your own goals that you forget about the more important things in life).

The dialogue is peppered with a liberal amount of Live For Today. You Never Know What Tomorrow May Bring. It is far from subtle, but neither is it preachy. Docter knows how to deliver a purposeful message in a way that will resonate with viewers. It forces one to reflect. I know I did.

An absolutely fantastic film. Fantastic.

Phillip Tomasso
Author of the young adult fantasy novel, Wizards Rise 

Movie Review: SOUND OF METAL

 

Sound of Metal

Amazon Prime
Directer: Darius Marder
Writer: Darius Marder (Screenplay), Derek Cianfrance (Story by), Darius Marder / Abraham Marder (Written by)
1 Hour 41 Minutes / Drama

Riz Ahmed portrays Ruben -a recovering addict, and the drummer of a two-person metal band. His girlfriend, Lou (Olivia Cooke - Bates Motel), is the singer and guitar player in the band. Moments into the movie, Ruben discovers that his hearing is going.

The realization something is wrong with his hearing has him freaking out. He seeks medical advice. The doctor tells him regardless of how the issue started, the thing he needed to realize was that he would not be getting his hearing back.

In denial, Ruben searches for a solution. However, his old cravings begin returning. He has been clean four years. This news could be a major setback. Thankfully Lou makes some calls. She gets him into a program for deaf addicts. The treatment center is an old farm house in rural America, set away from the city. In this program, Joe (Paul Raci -Goliath) tells Ruben:

"As you know, everybody here shares in the belief that being deaf is not a handicap. Not something to fix."

The programs has Ruben in class with children. They are all learning sign language. At first he is embarrassed, and frustrated. He appears isolated, and in need of doing something more.

The progression of dinner scenes in the program are heartwarming, as Ruben slowly accepts his deafness and works at learning more about sign language and Deaf Culture.

One of the teachers, Diane (Lauren Ridloff -We Are the Walking Dead)  

Just as Ruben begins moving forward, connecting with the kids, the others in the program, he finds himself still faced with a very different future from the one he'd planned. The only person who can decide the road he can now go down is ... Ruben.

The movie was suggested to me by a friend. He knows I study American Sign Language and thought it would be a movie I would like. He was absolutely right. It pulled me right in. You immediately connect with Ruben. He is a flawed character forced to face readjusting dreams, relationships, and his future. You find yourself both annoyed with him, but also rooting for him. When Ruben realizes the outside world is moving ahead without him, Ruben disappoints me. Although I fully understand the WHY behind his decisions, it made the movie more  . . . real, but parts still left me feeling somewhat empty. Like Ruben says, "It's life. It's just life."

The movie tackles serious society issues when it comes to Deaf Culture, the deaf, the hearing, and the idea of Cochlear implants. Implants are a widely controversial procedure within the Deaf Community. Ruben missed the point of the treatment center, of the program. His expectations were too great. His hopes too strong. His disappointment too real. 

The very end of the film was what made it go from a good movie, to a Great movie. Ruben has to hit his own rock bottom before he can truly begin his climb. I suspect the path won't be easy. He will be faced with constant challenges. I like to believe Joe DID reach him, that his connection with the kids at the center did impact him. Fantastic film!

With 7 award nominations, and 5 winning Sunset Film Circle  awards, SOUND OF METAL is an emotionally complex film! The acting is authentic. (There is no actual music playing throughout the film, which made me think of Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (2008). 

Phillip Tomasso
Author of the YA deaf sports novel, SOUNDS OF SILENCE

Poetry Review: FOREVER WORDS: The Unknown Poems

Johnny Cash
FOREVER WORDS: The Unknown Poems
Blue Rider Press / Canongate Books, 2016
144 pages
Poetry

Johnny cash was much more than he seemed, as the “Man in Black” he acquired a reputation. Such a label does nothing but reduce his personality down to a dark and sombre state, which is drastically unfair. Indeed, as indicated by John Carter Cash’s forward, none of us really knew his farther. Most of all Cash was human; he had many layers, some of which his words began to reveal and some of which will never be known.

Whilst working my way through this collection, I couldn’t help but hear Cash’s voice in my head. I’m a big fan of his music, and I’m familiar with a large number of his tracks. Perhaps because of this it came through when reading in a similar metre. Some of the longer poems were eerily familiar. I could hear him singing with his strong pronunciation of certain words. It was a wonderful experience.

Of particular note for me was a poe

m called “Forever.” The title of this edition was clearly named after it, and it is the strongest one in here:

“You tell me that I must perish

Like the flowers that I cherish

Nothing remaining of my name

Nothing remembered of my fame

But the trees that I planted

Still are young

The Songs I sang

Will still be sung”

It was written just a few months before his death in 2003. And for me it says a great deal. He speaks to his creator; he questions his fate. Death is coming for him, as it does for all of us, and he spits in the face of his end. He may perish, but his songs will be sung. His name may diminish, his notoriety forgotten, but his songs will still be sung. At the day of his death he is still young. His body is old, and his heart heavy, but his songs are young. They will always be remembered. In a sense, he cheats death as his words enter the realms of immortality: the realms of forever.

To relate back to my original point of layers, as strong as this poem is, it stands in direct contrast to the track “Hurt.” The lyrics of this speak a different tale, of a man who would gladly put aside his “empire of dirt” and do things a little differently if given a second chance. This was released in 2002, and the point is he clearly felt conflicted things about his name and legacy. Just a year later his words sounded more accepting and resigned. Cash was a complex man; these poems do show a glimpse him no matter how brief or how fleeting it may be.

Due to the nature of the writing here, I only recommend this to those who are already familiar with the artist himself. If you are not a fan, this won’t be for you.

_______

Bookworm Sean is a book obsessed English student who can usually be found over on Goodreads, raving about his latest read. Recently poetry has become one of his favorite literary forms of expression; thus he has started to read more and more of it.