<PERSON> last, Inside Out, was a wonderful picture that sorted through the messiness of human emotion in a way broad enough that it could be approached from all ages. It does the typical Disney/Pixar thing of bifurcating its narrative so as to appeal to the main market - children - and their parents, obliged to tow along for the ride. But in its emotional complexity, it managed to appeal to everyone. I remember finding it enjoyable and smart, if a bit flat. It lacked the specificity needed to truly land its emotional punches.
Soul soars where that film falters. 352
It is the best 2020 release I've seen. Soul acquaints us with <PERSON>, a middle-school band teacher and jazz musician, whose life has soured on the vine. When he dies in a sudden accident after landing the gig of a lifetime, he works his way back to his body to pick up back where he left off.
The film's place is precise, its characters are distinct, its language exact, and its images, among the most evocative and transcendent I've seen all year. There's a clear <PERSON> influence here, something I doubted I'd find in a big-budget animated release on a platform owned by one of the largest corporations on the planet. But, it works and, better yet, the film manages to grapple with as heady questions as that artist has for the last 20 years. Obviously, the darker edges of his work are sanded down here, but the anxieties and preoccupations - death, purpose, bodily harm - are all here.
If this is how 2020, a year I've found generally lackluster cinematically (for my tastes), is going out, I can't complain. 217