BORN TO SPARK // A FILM REVIEW OF "SOUL"

BY MATEO MORENO

Pixar is unlike any animation studio in every single way. No other studio that has come before or since has changed each of their film looks, the feel, even the animation style so uniquely different. They push the boundaries of what constitutes as a "kids movie" and because the stories are so damn good, they invite the parents, and any other adults around them, to embrace the movie just as much as the small ones do. The young will enjoy the films on one level while the adults will pick up on something else entirely. From Toy Story to Onward, each Pixar film has both celebrated the silly and the sophisticated. Their latest is SOUL, making its premiere on Disney+ due to the Pandemic. The film once again embraces a world where children will enjoy it thoroughly while adults pick up on even more. And I must say, this masterpiece of a film is already one of my favorites.

Wearing shades of an animated Defending Your Life, SOUL tells the story of Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a music teacher who has dreams of a jazz career all of his life. Instead, he teaches music in a public school. He's so well liked by the school that they offer him a full time position, one that is met with a whole lot of reservation. Does this mean his dreams are over? That he should resign himself as a teacher and not a full time musician? As fate would have it, he gets a phone call that day from an ex-student who's now playing with a famous jazz quartet led by Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett), a favorite of Joe's. The fourth member of the quartet bailed and they need a last minute replacement for their evening show. So Joe sprints over to them and the audition goes great, great enough for him to book the gig that evening. Joe is thrilled, so much in fact that he doesn't see an open manhole and plummets below to his death.

Joe wakes us looking much different. He's now a soul on a stairway to heaven of sorts. But he has no intention of dying the day that his dreams are finally coming true. So he heads in the other direction, only to fall off the stairs and land in a dreamy landscape called "The Great Before." Here, souls are assigned personalities and then sent off to earth. Joe ends up disguising himself as a different soul and gets paired up with 22 (Tiny Fey), a difficult soul who refuses to go to earth. She's been paired up with countless others, including Mother Teresa and proudly states that she made her cry. She hasn't found her "spark" but does love staying in The Great Before, messing around. Since Joe desperately needs to get back to Earth, he aims at helping 22 find her spark and get them both to earth.

I won't spoil anything else that happens, and I promise that it's a magical journey worth taking. Co-Directors Pete Docter and Kemp Powers have crafted a brilliant and stunningly animated feature that delves into the meaning of life, the meaning of death and everything in between. Each area the film explores is animated differently and each is stunningly beautiful. When on earth, the animated is almost life-like clear and immediately becomes a new classic "set in New York film (every frame BREATHES New York)." The afterlife sequences are also stunning in different ways and took my breath away several times. Jamie Foxx, playing the first lead Black character in a Pixar film, is wonderfully charming and funny. Tina Fey, as the mischievous 22, is marvelously playful and full of life, much like the film itself. The soundtrack is full of joy as well, with a great score by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross and wonderful jazz selections by Jon Batiste. SOUL will make you laugh, will most likely make you cry and by the end will fill you with such a magical, joyful view of life that you'll almost forget that you're stuck in the real world. And that's a magic trick indeed. 

GRADE: A

WRITTEN BY Pete Docter, Kemp Powers, Mike Jones DIRECTED BY Pete Docter, Kemp Powers FEATURING THE VOICES OF Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Questlove, Angela Bassett, Daveed Diggs. NOW PLAYING EXCLUSIVELY ON DISNEY +

SAY IT LOUD // A FILM REVIEW OF "MR. SOUL!"

BY MATEO MORENO

If you've never heard of the groundbreaking television show "SOUL!," broadcast from 1968 to 1973, then your life is a little less bright. Equally, if you've never seen or heard the pure joy and exuberance of Ellis Haizlip, who produced and hosted (or co-hosted) almost all of the episodes, then you are in for a wonderful experience by watching MR. SOUL!, the new documentary chronicling the innovative program, as well as the life of Ellis Haizlip. Created at a time when the world was seeing the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, Ellis Haizlip crafted a beautiful and powerful show. Once that showcased Black and POC talent - Singers, Actors, Musicians, Dancers, Poets. Black Artists, brought to live in living color. Other networks advertised color programing, but it was filled with white stars. Here, Ellis truly showed color, from the artists they celebrated to the colorful set to the vibrant and psychedellic backdrops. It pulled both from up and coming acts to more experimental offerings. If you were a minority and had a vibrant story to tell, in whatever art form, Ellis wanted you.

This was a program that floated underneath the censors of the 60's and 70's. It was on Public Television, live and almost always uncensored (in fact, some of the acts would still not make the censors, even now in 2020). It was appointment television for the Black Arts Movement and stood out as a true original program. The guests were as varied as the Ellis's own taste: Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, Ashford & Simpson, The Last Poets, Toni Morrison, Al Green, James Baldwin, Earth, Wind & Fire. Even Louis Farrakhan came on as a guest and Ellis, one of the only openly Black Men at the time, questioned him point blank about homosexuality. It was a stirring show and, as many of the talking heads throughout the film tell you, an incredibly exciting show to be a part of. The audience laughed and cheered, often unable to sit in their chairs and danced along with the musical acts. The power of "SOUL!" cannot be denied. Yet even with its resounding success, it was ultimately cancelled due to pressure from the Nixon Administration.

Co-Directed by Ellis' niece Melissa Haizlip and Sam Pollard and narrated by Blair Underwood, MR. SOUL! is bursting with joy, and truly feels like a love letter to a time where Black culture was celebrated weekly on national television. It's filled with incredible footage, directed and edited beautifully and truly lets you feel a bit of the excitement that the show created. It's so exciting that you'll want it to go on. And on. And on. May we be so lucky someday to be blessed again with such a luminous program.

GRADE: A

DIRECTED BY Melissa Haizlip, Sam Pollard NARRATED BY Blair Underwood Now Playing at Virtual Cinemas.