Full disclosure: I’m not what you would call the biggest Pixar fan. To be clear it’s no fault of their own. It’s just that I’ve grown picky when it comes to animation meaning I may not be the best judge of their films or the “genre” in general. I’m not saying there aren’t animated features I love, but I tend to be a little more critical than most and I rarely go into an animated film with a ton of excitement.

Maybe that’s why Pixar’s latest “Soul” was such a welcomed surprise. I didn’t go in with especially high expectations yet it only took a few early scenes for the movie to get its hooks in me. That doesn’t mean there aren’t bumps in the road. Within ten minutes the story takes a less compelling detour, leaving earth for a more cartoony setting where we learn the basic rules of the film’s central story. But soon “Soul” regains its deeply human pulse, planting us back in the vivid, bustling, and character-rich New York City.

Image Courtesy of Disney/Pixar

Jamie Foxx voices Joe Gardner, a substitute middle school band teacher whose only dream is to become a jazz pianist. When he’s offered a full-time position at the school his cynical mother (Phylicia Rashad) is thrilled at the prospect of her son having a steady job. But Joe is reluctant, fearing it may hurt his stalled jazz musician aspirations. Then he gets what could be his big break.

Joe is asked to fill in on piano for popular jazz saxophonist Dorothea Williams (voiced by Angela Bassett). Just like that he believes his life finally has meaning. And just like that he loses it all. While walking home after a brilliant audition an impervious Joe unknowingly dodges all sorts of big city hazards only to plunge down an open manhole.

Image Courtesy of Disney/Pixar

He wakes up as a baby-blue ethereal blob caught in a dark void between life and death where souls are quietly ushered to the bright light glowing in the distance. Realizing the finality of entering the Great Beyond, a frantic Joe scurries away eventually falling into a place called the Great Before where unborn souls are given their personalities before being sent to earth. Following me so far? I hope so because “Soul” is just getting started.

Through a series of exhausting events Joe ends up mentoring a rebellious soul named 22 (Tina Fey) who has no desire to be born. The two form a fun yet combustible duo who (thankfully) find themselves back on earth, inescapably tethered via a comic mishap. It’s here that “Soul” really finds its rhythm and begins doing what Pixar films are know for – balancing spirited animated hijinks with thoughtful themes that can resonate with all ages.

Image Courtesy of Disney/Pixar

“Soul” comes from Peter Docter whose studio resume includes “Monsters, Inc.”, “Up”, and “Inside Out”. But he’s joined by co-director and second-in-command Kemp Powers who also wrote the script for Regina King’s upcoming directorial debut “One Night in Miami”. The impressive pair share writing credits with Mike Jones and together they create a story that hits its marks a lot more than it misses. Meanwhile Pixar’s team of animators turn in some of their best work, specifically during the New York scenes where their lighting, crisp motions, and stunning attention to detail really shines.

“Soul” is a heartfelt story about second chances and finding real purpose in your life. It’s about obsessions, mortality, and finding the true qualities that make each of us tick. The film also marks Pixar’s first feature led predominantly by black characters. “Soul” may not always reach it’s incredibly high ambitions, but I appreciate its willingness to reach high. And with its endearing characters, uplifting positivity, and snappy jazz tunes, it’s hard not to leave feeling warm and alive. “Soul” opens December 25th on Disney +.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

Director and co-writer Yuval Adler’s “The Secrets We Keep” is one-half period thriller and one-half domestic drama. Set in small-town America during the late 1950’s, the movie embraces the implausibility of its premise while touching on post-war anxiety, revenge, the fragility of the American Dream, and (as the movie’s title eludes to) keeping secrets from loved ones and then dealing with the consequences once they inevitably come to light.

The aptly titled “The Secrets We Keep” opens with a woman named Maja (Noomi Rapace) sitting in the grass at her neighborhood park watching her young son play. She’s rattled when she hears a distinct whistle coming from a man calling his dog. It’s a familiar whistle; one she’s convinced she has heard before; one that instantly triggers traumatic memories from her past. She follows the man as he gets into his car, never seeing his face but certain their paths have crossed.

Photo Courtesy of Bleeker Street

A day or so later Maja sees the man again (he’s played by Joel Kinneman), this time at a hardware store. Still unable to get a good look at him, she follows the man to his house where he is greeted by his wife and two young children. Maja sneaks across their yard, peers through a window and finally sees his face.

Her next move is far more calculated. As the man walks home from work he stops to help Maja who fakes car trouble. With his back turned she clubs him with a hammer, throws him in the trunk, and drives home. There she reveals to her stunned husband Lewis (Chris Messina) that she has abducted one of the Nazi soldiers who raped her and murdered her sister during the final days of World War II. How’s that for a revelation? And all of that happens in the first 15 minutes or so.

The fast setup and little buildup is a bit jarring, but you certainly can’t accuse Adler of dragging his feet. At least not in the first act. But once his pieces are in place the film slows down and lets the characters open up and take over. It still has the big (and small) genre moments you expect. But it’s at its best when it lets the triad of Rapace, Kinnaman, and Messina navigate the thorny psychology, volatile emotions, and the dubious morality that hangs over the film like a ominous cloud.

Rapace is terrific, giving a strong two-sided performance that requires both physicality and emotional heft. Her Maja is a woman full of repressed sorrow and painful secrets. Seeing this man again forces her to relive all of her past horrors. But the question lingers, does she have the right guy? There is no evidence and nothing to go on other than her feelings and flashes of old memories. He insists she’s mistaken and his name is Thomas. He says he is Swiss not German, and that he moved to America to start a family with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz). Kinnaman’s sincerity and restraint make a strong case.

Photo Courtesy of Bleeker Street

That leaves Messina’s Lewis, a man utterly in the dark who wants to believe his wife but understands the ramifications of her being wrong. He’s still processing the slew of secrets hidden by his wife for 15 years – her family’s Gypsy background, her time in a war camp, the rape, the murder of her sister. More urgently, he has the determine whether to go with Maja’s instincts or stop her from crossing a line and making a mistake she will come to regret. This ends up forming the central conflict of the entire film.

Shot mostly in Louisiana, Adler and his production designer Nate Jones nail the look and feel of the late 1950’s and of small-town America. It was a time when aftershocks from the second world war were still being felt all over the world. “The Secrets We Keep” taps into that yet on a more personal level. But it’s still very much a genre film albeit one that is well acted, consistently entertaining, and that dabbles in its themes more than explores them. Overall it’s not a bad way to spend 97 minutes. “The Secrets We Keep” is now showing in select theaters and on VOD.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

If there is ever a movie in 2020 with his heart in the right place it’s “Sno Babies”. This small budget indie aggressively and unflinchingly takes on the ravages of drug addiction and recovery. And the film doesn’t just talk about its subject. Portions of all profits from production to rentals to soundtrack sales goes to the Global Recovery Initiatives Foundation (GRI) to raise awareness and funds in an effort to help those recovering from opioid addiction.

Inspired by actual events, “Sno Babies” tells the story of 16-year-old Kristen (Katie Kelly), a bright and beautiful honor student with aspirations of attending Princeton. She comes from a good Catholic family and loves hanging out with her best friend and classmate Hannah (Paola Andino). The one kink in this otherwise perfect life is that she and Hannah are addicted to heroin. We see the genesis of Kristen’s addiction in a brief yet potent prologue where she’s given a lone OxyContin pill by her self-serving boyfriend. It begins her tragic decline which the film chronicles vividly and with a real sense of urgency.

Photo Courtesy of Better Noise Films

Skip ahead 15 months. Kristen has moved to the cheaper and more easily available heroin which she and Hannah shoot up on an increasingly regular basis. From there director Bridget Smith concentrates on showing Kristen’s downward spiral, pulling no punches and depicting the depths of her addiction in startling detail. It’s not an easy watch. It’s uncomfortable and heartbreaking. Yet when focused on Kristen the film feels rooted in realism. It forces you watch several grim and uneasy sequences which I’ll let you experience for yourself. They leave their mark in large part due to Katie Kelly. The 20-year-old Texas native gives a performance of intense commitment, one that viscerally sells Kristen’s descent while also capturing our empathy.

Unfortunately the story wanders away from Kristen far too often. There’s a perplexing side story about a guy named Matt (Michael Lombardi) who runs a cash-strapped nature preserve left to him by his father. His wife Anna (Jane Stiles) is desperate to start a family and has her eye on a new house, but selling the preserve would be the only way they could rustle up the funds. Matt’s story does intersect with Kristen’s but not in a necessary or meaningful way. It gets even stranger when he becomes obsessed with killing a wolf which eventually leads to a cringy bit of foreshadowing which the movie could have done without. I found myself spending most of his scenes eager to get back to Kristen.

Photo Courtesy of Better Noise Films

One of the film’s loudest and most effective warnings shows how easy the symptoms of a loved one’s addiction can be missed especially if you’re not looking. Kristen’s parents (played by Shannan Wilson and Ken Arnold) are career-obsessed workaholics and oblivious to their daughter’s life-threatening problem. They think themselves to be good parents because they only focus on the externals such as providing Kristen with a nice home, giving her an expensive private school education, taking her to church. Yet despite it all they never truly SEE their daughter which only exacerbates her problem. With practically no guidance or stable outlet of support, Kristen is left to her own devices – the absolute worst thing for an addict. It’s a powerful and needed message.

With “Sno Babies” not only will you get a gut-wrenching revelation of addiction’s devastating effects, but you’ll also be helping in immensely important cause. The movie itself hits hard when centered on Kristen. Smith and writer Mike Walsh never dull the edge of Kristen’s story and Katie Kelly’s performance firmly anchors it in reality. If only we didn’t spend so much time on a distracting side story that never feels needed or relevant. It steals a significant amount of running time away from the far more impactful plot line – the one that still makes this a film worth seeing. “Sno Babies” premieres September 29th on VOD. #LetsSaveLives

VERDICT – 3 STARS

Mere seconds into the trailer for the new film “Sputnik” I immediately felt strong “Alien” meets “The X-Files” vibes. That’s all I needed to be onboard with this Russian sci-fi horror picture from first-time feature film director Egor Abramenko. Originally slated to debut at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, “Sputnik” joined many other movies in seeing its big premiere postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully IFC Films is dropping it this Friday on VOD and it deserves an audience.

The story (co-written by Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev) opens with a prologue set in outer space. In 1983 two cosmonauts heading home from an orbital space station encounter something mysterious just outside the earth’s atmosphere. Their space capsule eventually lands but the retrieval team finds the mission commander Konstantin Veshnyakov (Pyotr Fyodorov) suffering from short-term amnesia and his co-pilot in a coma.

Photo Courtesy of IFC Films

The cosmonauts are taken to a secret research faculty in Kazakhstan ran by Colonel Semiradov (Fedor Bondarchuk). He is under pressure from Moscow to figure out what happened to the crew, specifically their “national hero” Konstantin. But it’s soon discovered that there is more at stake than just propaganda. Turns out Konstantin is host to an alien parasite that is using his body as an incubator of sorts. He doesn’t know it’s inside him, but Semiradov does and the potential benefits to the government could prove invaluable.

Semiradov recruits Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina), a neuropsychiatrist who is in hot water with the Health Ministry for using some controversial methods to save a young boy’s life. Semiradov needs someone willing to “take risks” to save a national hero for the government’s propaganda machine and save a potential weapon for the Soviet military. But to do so she’ll have to navigate through the facility’s numerous secrets in order to find out what’s really going on. And some of her discoveries have dramatic (and potentially fatal) implications.

“Sputnik” is built upon a surprisingly rich attention to character. It’s spends much of the first half uncoiling the people we meet almost exclusively through Tatyana’s point of view. Even as the action intensifies in the second half, the characters are always front and center. The performances are well-tuned for a Cold War era thriller. Akinshina brings a needed steely grit to Tatyana while Bondarchuk’s Colonel Semiradov is an enigma – cold, emotionless, and impossible to read.

Photo Courtesy of IFC Films

One of the film’s biggest strengths is found in the eerie atmosphere it maintains from start to finish. Abramenko makes great use of both visuals and sound to create a chilly and unwelcoming environment. Cinematographer Maxim Zhukov shoots in moody washed out color tones and with a slight grain to his images. It effectively looks cut from its time. Meanwhile the ominous score from Oleg Karpachev cuts in at the just the right moments, reenforcing the sense of dread.

I’m almost certain that “Sputnik” will be too much of a slow-burn for some. Yet at the same time Abramenko is constantly moving his story forward whether it’s through the chilling mystery or character growth. I love his patience in allowing his crafty genre brew to play out. And while the influences of “Alien” and “The X-Files” are all over it, “Sputnik” etches its own identity that feels fresh in this day of stale rehashes. “Sputnik” premieres this Friday on VOD.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

I still remember my first time seeing Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave classic “Breathless”. It was right after discovering Francois Truffaut’s sublime “The 400 Blows” (a movie that has remained an all-time favorite of mine). I instantly wanted to dig deeper into La Nouvelle Vague and “Breathless” was the logical next choice. Within seconds I was drawn to the enchanting presence of a young American woman selling newspapers on the Champs-Élysées. It was of course Jean Seberg.

For Seberg, what started as a Cinderella story ended in heartbreak and tragedy. As an 18-year-old from Marshalltown, Iowa she was discovered in a talent search for a lead role in an Otto Preminger picture. But it was Godard’s “Breathless” that made her an international sensation with a promising career ahead. She became a target of Hoover’s FBI for her large donations to civil rights groups and alleged affairs with black militants. The FBI began a vile smear campaign to “cheapen her in the eyes of the public.” Their relentless pressure pushed her over the edge. Only a few years later she would be dead of an apparent suicide, her body found decomposing in the back seat of a car. She was only 40-years-old.

As you can tell there is plenty of material for a thoughtful and compelling biopic about this troubled life. “Seberg” from director Benedict Andrews could have been that movie, but its vision ends up being too narrow and certain creative choices, specifically from Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse’s script, leaves the complex actress and fashion icon sadly short-changed.

Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios

It doesn’t take long to notice the film’s chief goal. “Seberg” is oddly focused on martyrdom over illumination. To accomplish that, Seberg’s artistry is tossed aside for politics making this a very one-dimensional look at her life. Her career work and creative talents are all but ignored, only occasionally referenced in passing comments. The film skips past the early details of her life, even her star-making work with Godard. There’s simply no interest in Seberg the actress.

Instead the filmmakers make their movie all about her activism. It settles in once Seberg (Kristen Stewart) meets a black revolutionary named Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie) on a flight from Paris to Los Angeles. She’s immediately attached to his cause but with no real burgeoning conviction. Seberg was certainly an activist, but here it comes across as spontaneous and out-of-the-blue. Her motivations are simplistic and often muddled making some of her later rhetoric toothless and hard to buy.

Jean and Hakim begin a torrid affair despite both of them being married. It’s one of several bad choices Jean makes that puts her in the crosshairs of a crooked and relentless FBI. At the time Hoover was looking to quell any possible black uprising either peaceful or militant. Jean’s financial support of such groups mixed with her celebrity platform leads to her being deemed “a threat to the protective organs of the body politic.” In response the Bureau begins a vicious and destructive campaign to turn the public against Jean Seberg.

Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios

From there the movie turns into a psychological thriller of sorts as paranoia sets in and Jean slowly comes unraveled. But through it all it seems like Seberg is competing for time in her own biopic. That’s because a lot of time is given to a young FBI agent played by Jack O’Connell. He’s a fictional concoction whose only purpose seems to be to add some semblance of humanity to the FBI. His struggles with his conscience and the strain his job puts on his marriage. It’s all handled well enough, but it pulls too much time away from Seberg and adds practically nothing to HER story.

As for Stewart, she definitely has the chic blonde pixie girl hair and stylish verve. But there’s only so much she can do when major qualities of her character are this thinly sketched. She gives a performance of commitment and compassion, but it’s hardly a fully realized portrayal. There are good supporting turns from Mackie, O’Connell, Yvan Attal, and Vince Vaughn. Meanwhile Margaret Qualley and Zazie Beetz get what amounts to throwaway roles, relegated to playing little more than jealous wives.

“Seberg” taps into the enigma that was Jean Seberg but doesn’t go much further than that. So much of what made her fascinating is either shortchanged or simply not addressed at all. What’s left is a well-meaning misfire that gets too caught up in its message, leaving the audience to still pose the question “Who is Jean Seberg?”

VERDICT – 2 STARS

The code 7500 is what pilots use to inform air traffic control that their plane is being hijacked. That should give you a good idea of what the new air-thriller from Amazon Studios is all about. The film marks the welcomed return of Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who took over the lead role after Paul Dano dropped out) and he’s asked to put the entire movie on his back.

“7500” is writer-director Patrick Vollrath’s feature film directorial debut. He puts together a tightly-wound and claustrophobic thriller that takes place almost entirely within the cockpit of a commercial airliner. Minus some opening airport security camera footage, the camera literally stays within the cockpit for the duration of the movie. It occasionally looks through the window or out the cabin door, but it always maintains the same close-quartered cockpit perspective.

Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios

The aforementioned airport cameras offer a brief tone-setting introduction to the film’s antagonists. They quietly and effectively show four men making their way through security, a gift shop, the bathroom, and then onboard the plane. We never get much in terms of motivation or purpose. Just a generic splash of Islamist terrorism with no real depth of cause whatsoever. Instead Vollrath seems far more interested in human psychology under extreme duress. How do we respond when pushed to our emotional edge? How do we react in high-anxiety situations? Do we submit to self-control or allow our emotions to drive our actions? “7500” is constantly asking the question “What would you do?”

Gordon-Levitt plays Tobias Ellis, an airman for 10 years who still looks like a college freshman. For this particular flight from Berlin to Paris he’ll be the American first officer for the German Captain Michael (Carlo Kitzlinger). I admit to being really into their pre-flight prep of flipping switches, sharing figures, checking manifests. It’s pretty convincing stuff as they ready the plane and their passengers. These scenes also introduce us to Gökce (Aylin Tezel), a flight attendant who is also Tobias’ fiancé.

Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Once in the air and at cruising altitude another flight attendant checks on the pilots before locking them in the cockpit. But before she can close the door two men armed with glass shanks knock her aside and rush the cabin. The pilots manage to fight them off and seal the door but not before Tobias is slashed on the arm and Michael is stabbed multiple times. With terrorists threatening passengers and the captain incapacitated, it’s up to Tobias to either follow protocol or give in to the terrorists’ demands.

As the tension ratchets up the choices people make become more of the focus. It’s surprising how much the movie digs into the psychology especially in the third act. That’s also where the drama begins to sputter on its way to an inevitable finish that’s tipped off a few scenes to soon. Still, Vollrath keeps his audience involved and Gordon-Levitt is a solid lead. It all makes for a taut, immersive thriller that may be simple in concept but is crafty in its execution.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS