Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a middle school music teacher, has long dreamed of performing jazz music onstage, and finally gets a chance after impressing other jazz musicians during an opening act at the Half Note Club. However, an untimely accident causes Gardner’s soul to be separated from his body and begin to proceed to The Great Beyond, and Gardner escapes to The Great Before, a world where souls develop personalities, quirks, and traits before being sent off to Earth. There, Gardner must work with souls in training at The Great Before, such as 22, a soul with a dim view on the concept of life, in order to return to Earth before his body dies and also avoid a soul-counter named Terry, who goes to earth to find Joe and bring him back to the afterlife to meet her quota.

In their history, Pixar have brought to life many powerful ideas to the big screen. From the power of family to the importance of friendship, to the call for adventure and the necessity to love. But in Soul, director Pete Docter and his creative team focus in on the very nature of existence of itself. Using animation to look in on and decipher what the possibilities of life actually hold is something very unique in the studio’s history and is an important discussion point, especially in keeping with what we have all been through in 2020. Life, death, re-birth and purpose all find their way into this broad story and are presented with a deep level of sincerity that makes the messages of this film that much more powerful.

On the creative level, Soul is a film that once again stretches its artist’s resources and leads them to craft some breathtaking visuals. Courtesy of the film’s three unique settings: modern-day New York City, The Great Beyond and The Great Before, we are treated to some gorgeous images. Each location gets its own look. With New York having a pallette of warm earth tones that captures its energy and bristling lifefoce, and which gives the city a unique modernist look. This is juxtaposed with a staccato style of clean lines and bold shapes, and a palette of pastel and aqua colours, that make up The Great Beyond and The Great Before. Every visual element throughout Soul is highly thought-out and in service of the film’s narrative and the story Docter is telling.

Assisting the visuals is an amazing jazz score, which gives Soul its energy and heart. Soul jives thanks to bandleader and composer Jon Batiste, who incorporates a classic jazz style that one associates with Herbie Hancock, and which gives the film’s New York setting its energy and groove. This organic jazz soundtrack is then mixed together with an ethereal-synth style sound of famed artist’s Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and mixed together, these sounds clarify the narrative and help establish the world’s in which Soul takes place in.

Taking on the role of Soul’s lead character in jazz musician Joe Gardener is Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx. And it’s evident from the enthusiasm that he delivers in the part that both this character and narrative meant a lot to him. Initially introduced to us as a part-time music teacher and enthusiastic Jazz musician, Joe is a man with many unfulfilled dreams who finds himself on a trip to the afterlife and is suddenly ready to do anything to accomplish his dream one last time. But along the way, new ideas and discoveries concerning the very existence of life call out to Joe, and his voyage to understand what the calling of his life is takes an unexpected, but ultimately heartwarming turn.

Pixar has a history of matching opposites in their movies, and they don’t get more opposite than Joe and his new friend from The Great Before, 22, who is played by the delightful Tina Fey. As 22, Fey is sharp, bombastic and completely uninterested with what the possibilities of Earth hold for her, and this makes her interaction with Joe all the more hilarious. Both Fey and Foxx play-off of each other in the most perfect manner and their polar opposite ambitions, Joe’s desperate desire to return to Earth, and 22’s unwillingness to leave The Great Before, makes the comedy and narrative of Soul all that more enjoyable. While not giving too much away, 22 is a very complex character and her persona fits inside the narrative of Soul in a very interesting way that is sure to challenge audience expectations and this keeps you from guessing as to where the narrative of Soul is ultimately going to go.

For those who are looking for some depth in their animation, Soul absolutely delivers it with the quality, creativity and heart that we’ve come to expect from Disney-Pixar. It’s a beautiful film with a lot of meaning behind it, and audiences, both young and old, will deeply appreciate its narrative and the journey of purpose that its characters take.

Image: Walt Disney Pictures

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Attorney Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) takes the case of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), an African-American man wrongfully imprisoned for the 1986 murder of a white woman in Alabama and sentenced to death.

One whizz kid director who is rapidly climbing the Hollywood ladder is Destin Daniel Cretton and his work on Just Mercy announces him as a filmmaker with incredible promise. With Just Mercy he crafts a film that reaches into his audience’s soul and examines the cost at which we must pay to obtain justice. Cretton shows a terrific command of narrative and character and builds out a story that his audience invest in and ultimately feel connected to. Alongside his commitment to the film’s narrative, Cretton also does an amazing job in capturing Just Mercy. Working alongside cinematographer Brett Pawlak, the two capture it with a palette of heavy browns and drab greens that put the audience into the muddy, and distressed area of the film’s Southern setting and highlights the uphill battle that Stevenson faces.

For some time now actor Michael B. Jordan has been making waves in Hollywood for his committed performances and ability to handle a range of diverse narratives and characters. Now he steps up in a big way and cements himself as one of the bright lights of his generation with his performance as Bryan Stevenson, a criminal defence lawyer who has devoted his life to fighting for those who can’t fight for themselves. Jordan’s performance as Stevenson is led by a commitment to the truth and to what is right as he takes up the fight against the State of Alabama’s right to execution, and tries to save the condemned men on its death row. A strong sense of idealism and a commitment to the law are what feed Jordan’s performance and he is steadfast in his convictions. While he strives for the acquittal of the innocent, in the case of Walter McMillian, he is a strict follower of the law and understands that there are men on the row who have committed murder and other heinous crimes. However his equal devotion to both human rights and justice is what shapes his performance here and he only wants what is just for his clients, whether they be innocent or guilty.

The setting of Just Mercy is what helps to shape Jordan’s turn as Stevenson as much of his actions takes place in the town of Monroeville, Alabama, the very place where Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird and where her hero Atticus Finch made his plea for justice. In Stevenson, we see a man who is a real-life Atticus, a man who is fighting to re-do wrongs and trying to put the world back to a just place. There’s so much that tests Jordan as an actor, from the film’s focus on a heightened sense of racial tension to having to bear witness to the horrors of the electric chair, Jordan wrestles with some very heavy drama and it shows through in his performance. Just Mercy is Jordan’s finest hour as an actor and he gives a performance that lingers in the minds of all those who watch it.

Sitting across from Jordan’s Stevenson is the always remarkable Jamie Foxx as Walter McMillian, also known as John D, who is awaiting execution for a crime he didn’t commit and his performance here is haunting. We’ve come to know Foxx as an exceptionally gifted performer and here he plays a character who has been beaten down by the system and who seemingly has lost all hope and who, in essence, has no way out. Foxx’s performance as Walter McMillian is his rawest to date and his most revelatory at the same time. This burning sense of suffering in the darkness and a call to hope in the light plagues Walter at every turn and as the film reaches its third act and all eyes are focused on whether Walter will be acquitted and be allowed to live, or whether he’ll be sent back to the row and his death, you’re on the edge of your seat. Foxx’s performance feeds all of this and Just Mercy is his finest hour as a performer to date.

Just Mercy is joined by many themes with its central one being justice. This is a film that analyzes and makes a statement about America’s criminal justice system, and how it is fed many times by a lingering racism and a refusal to acknowledge the evidence and therefore the truth. Cretton focuses on his characters actions and the reactions that occur from said actions to study and point out the flaws in this system, but he also focuses on the good of justice and those who work to honour it and fulfil its duties. This exploration of justice is also joined by the possibility and promise of hope and it is here that Just Mercy truly gets your emotions going and pulls you inside the film’s narrative.

Just Mercy is an incredible piece of cinema that will imprint itself on your soul. It’s heartfelt, raw, and emotionally dense and audiences who watch it will feel a profound sense of emotion thanks to its unforgettable story and message.

Image: Roadshow Films

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