Cold Souls
Directed by:
Sophie BarthesCinematography:
Andrij ParekhComposer:
Dickon HinchliffeCast:
Paul Giamatti, Emily Watson, David Strathairn, Lauren Ambrose, Katheryn Winnick, Oksana Lada, Дина Корзун, Michael Stuhlbarg, Laura Heisler, Anna Dyukova (more)VOD (3)
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‘Cold Souls’ is a surreal comedy in which souls can be extracted and traded as commodities. Balancing on a tightrope between deadpan humour and pathos, and reality and fantasy, the film presents Paul Giamatti as himself, agonizing over his interpretation of Uncle Vanya. Paralyzed by anxiety, he stumbles upon a solution via a New Yorker article about a high-tech company promising to alleviate suffering by extracting souls. (Works Film Group)
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Very superficial and shallow, stuck between big words and the paradox that the film tries to say something about which "no one knows anything", as David Strathairn admits. Barthes is thus in the grip of the same paradox as Dr. Flinstein, portrayed by Strathairn. He is able to abstract material, but he has no idea what to do with it. He is thus left with pseudo-intellectual sarcasm and the truly excellent Paul Giamatti. It's too bad. Perhaps if the film followed an excellent intimate storyline with Uncle Vani's rehearsal and didn't try to make an absurd caricature out of the contemporary world, it would all be more coherent and meaningful.
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