Soul

It's been a very very long time since a film has done this to me.

I can't hesitate in not only calling Soul the best Pixar film ever made, but the best Disney film ever made. In 1962 after viewing To Kill A Mockingbird Walt Disney said, "I wish I could make a picture like that." because by that point his company was built on a foundation of entertainment not entirely for children but certainly children centric. And I must admit I think this is the only Pixar film I have seen without really knowing what it was about, I never saw a trailer, I knew the briefest of basic plot synopsis, so I truly went into the film blind and upon hearing Soul was much more of a Pixar film aimed at adults my interest was peaked. He would be proud to have his name on this picture. Further proving why animation is a limitless, genre breaking, and outstanding medium for storytelling. Soul follows middle school music teacher Joe Gardner as he has the break of his life and is about to perform with a big star but his life is cruelly cut short and must traverse the worlds after death to return to his body. I have so much to say and yet am finding it hard to find the words. The animation is the best I have seen from this film studio, the lighting, color palette, and movement is beyond incredible and truly transcends animation at points and looks all too real. The story is thought provoking, funny, life affirming, and near the end an overwhelming emotional cascade. It takes a light and humorous view of some of life's biggest questions and defining moments. It brings to attention what makes life worth living and what drives an individual's passions, with surprising simplicity and heart. It is the only film in my memory to truly capture a moment of serenity of which I have experienced several times in my lifetime, and the appreciation it has for the beauty of life must not be taken lightly. When a film brings just a very brief but unrelentingly powerful visual of a person in their home, to the city they live in, to the world they inhabit, to the expanse of the universe, and brings uncontrollable amounts of tears down my face clearly it has done an incredible job immersing myself in this world, with such enjoyable characters, fascinating concepts, and fun environments. Inside Out was the rough sketch, Soul was the finished painting, and you can tell the writers and directors took notes on it to improve and innovate for this movie. My love and admiration for it will never end. 4 stars, 10/10.

Django Unchained

Yeah boy.

Full disclosure, I've seen parts of this movie on television before, mostly towards the tail end of it so this has been my first full watch through, and I thought the last 25 minutes was wild! Boy howdy lemme tell you something now, this is a great movie! I've come to know what to expect from seeing several of Quentin Tarantino's films, and yet he does something similar but still unique to each of his films. The man was born to make grindhouse-esque movies, you can tell real quick from just the opening credits but then you get the absurd zooms that never failed to make me laugh because it's that over the top, and the ridiculous amounts of blood. I've seen gory films in my time, I've seen bloody shootouts in my day, but not quite like this. And the story hardly took any time before I was fully invested, it being centered around a slave named Django who is quickly teamed up with a Dr. Schultz and collects bounties with him before the true meat of the story comes about when Django sets out to save his wife from a plantation. It's a movie where they ain't afraid to use the ugliest word in the human language, it makes almost 3 hours go by like 90 minutes, and every racist person gets a bullet in them. I am on board with that last part. They don't pull any punches, they keep it real to the times, they tell it how it is and do something with it. I heard that Jamie Foxx wasn't the first initial choice for Django, but honest to God I can't imagine the movie without him. His prescence, his wit, his physicality, it's pretty damn perfect in my eyes. But you really can't talk about one main character without talking about the other, and Christoph Waltz is giving his best performance to my knowledge (still haven't seen Inglorious Basterds just yet), and what a powerful duo these two are on screen. It is a joy to see them converse, blast fools, and have a really good friendship dynamic. And the supporting cast is just as strong, with Kerry Washington who is just a lovely lady and I'd pump people full of lead too to make sure she's safe and well, Leo is f***ing out there as usual and always fun to watch, Sam Jackson made me feel bad making me laugh so much at such blatant racism I mean sweet Jesus when the man starts calling people motherfrakkers you got to laugh. I just, I ain't mad at Tarantino for even a second for the dialogue, it's how they talked back then, but damn I still felt bad. But in reality, if you feel bad about seeing people be talked to that way and treated that way then you're not the problem, you got the better sense to know it's wrong. Even he said he despised Leo's character because he was such a hateful sack of shit (my words not his), so I ain't gonna give the man good grief for that. There isn't much action beyond the climax, they treat the gunplay seriously and with restraint mostly, but every damn time someone gets shot it's like if they had a overfilled blood bag under their clothes, it's ridiculous how much blood goes gushing after a gunshot. I guess high blood pressure will do that. It's a pretty spectacular movie, I was having a party during it and got big reactions out of me, I loved the cast, I loved the story, I wouldn't honestly complain if we got a sequel, it's just a great time at the movies. 4 stars, 8/10! I'm gonna buy it, watch it time and time again, and never get tired of seeing asshats get dead, D-E-D, dead! We'll shift gears a bit tomorrow which will lead into next week's reviews, and I'll give you a dollar if you can guess what it is.