Review of Soul (2020) by Screenplayhouse — 08 Feb 2021

When I used to be a screenwriter type -- I'd sometimes write a story that was full of great ideas and such -- but at the end of the story it didn't nail the landing.

For days I'd scratch my head and try to make parts of the story more spectacular. Which this film does to... no effect. Except that it makes matters worse.

What I would then do is step back from MY story and act like it was written by someone else. What I would then do is go thru the 'rule book' (best practices of all great movies) and -- VOILA -- I'd discover broken rules. Everywhere.

Listen. I'm not talking about formula. I hate formula too. I'm talking about best practices. Do tables work best with four legs? Yup. So did Soul include tables with four legs? Or did they get caught up in/very distracted by their 'wonderful' story and forget these best practices? That's a big YUP.

The most appalling practice they violated was, "Who's story is this?" Like it or not, Pixar, every great story has one lead that the story belongs to. Did the Good Witch take over the story from Dorothy? Nope. Did Leia take over Luke's story? Nope. Did Buffalo Bob take over Starling's story? NOPE.

So why does SOUL think 22's story is more interesting than Joe's? To the (painful) degree that 22 inserts herself inside of Joe? This is not a transgender story. It was a story about a black man and jazz and then SOUL throws that in the dumpster.

So when this movie takes a victory lap for featuring a first black protagonist, think again. The morons are blissfully unaware that they got bored of that story and thought whitey ping pong ball Tina Fey was a better idea. Like I said, PAINFUL.

Tina Fey's role was supposed to be 'the best friend'. That's the 'best practice'. The entity that helps Joe on his journey. SHE should have become the cat, not Joe. The other major misstep in this piece is what I call WRITERS WRITING ABOUT WRITING. Instead of telling a story for all of us -- they're telling their story. The obvious violation of this is when a story is about a writer writing a screenplay that gets produced and his girl decides to marry him because "you're such a great writer!".

In SOUL Writers Writing About Writing is much better hidden. But it's there. You see the audience was pitched this story about a jazz musician. So what we wanted to see was a musician who goes 'into the zone' and makes us feel all warm and jazzy.

Jazz, in this story, is really about being a Disney animator. Spending morning noon and night rendering crap on computers. This was hinted at in the scene where the stock broker is given a soul. Remember what he did the moment that happened? He pushed his PC and monitor off his desk and ran out of the room gleeful to be alive. In other words: "Don't be a tool like me and sit in front of a computer all day. Go outside, in the sunshine, watch a leaf fall, and enjoy a slice of pizza!!!!".

This 'universal truth' is more an accidental recommendation of the story instead of an inspired goal. And really -- this viewer would have rather watched a musician find JAZZ and by doing so somehow unlock the secret of the universe. And I don't love jazz that much, mind you. It's just that --.

-- yet another best practice is called 'If you put a gun on the stage -- use it." The gun, in SOUL, is jazz. Which they trashed for a slice of pizza.

This movie is being rated better than it should because black lives matter. But the cynical way this film blackspoited Joe to tell Tina's story is APPALLING.

5 stars is being generous.

I'm giving this film a 5 but frankly it's not worth recommending or seeing again.