Both Pixar’s new feature SOUL and Powell and Pressburger’s 1946 fantasy-romance A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH center on a soul gone missing from heaven’s ledger because he’s anxious to get back to his life on earth, but the journeys each of them takes to get there end up drawing different conclusions about the meaning of life. This week we’re joined again by critic and 812FilmReviews founder Robert Daniels to dig into SOUL and debate whether it manages to strike the delicate tonal balance it’s reaching for, how it carries its status as the first Pixar film with a Black protagonist, and how it fits into director Pete Doctor’s filmography, before bringing MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH into the discussion to compare the two films’ depictions of afterlife bureaucracy.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, SOUL, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. 

Your Next Picture Show:

Tasha: Hirokazu Koreeda’s AFTER LIFE  and Goran Dukic’s WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY

Robert: Regina King’s ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI

Keith: Alexander Hall’s HERE COMES MR. JORDAN

Scott: Benjamin Ree’s THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF

Outro Music: Jon Batiste, “Collard Greens and Cornbread Strut”

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