A refreshingly imaginative, funny and intelligent sci-fi drama boasting a superb performance by Paul Giamatti.
Comment
08/07/09
Cold Souls (2009)
75
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:100
Fresh:75
Rotten:25
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: Straddling existential drama and surrealist comedy, Sophie Barthes debut feature is beautifully shot and full of inventive quandaries.
Theatrical Release:Aug 7, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $700,980
Synopsis: In response to shiny, bigger, better American consumerism comes COLD SOULS, first-time feature director Sophie Barthes' surreal comedy in which souls can be extracted and traded as commodities.... [More]
Starring: Paul Giamatti, David Strathairn, Dina Korzun, Katheryn Winnick
Director: Sophie Barthes
Reviews for Cold Souls
It shows plenty of promise at the beginning, and even though that promise isn't kept, Giamatti's performance will keep your interest.
08/07/09
Giamatti is one of the few guys who could take a joke about a chickpea-sized soul and make a meal of it.
08/07/09
For all its quirks and laughs, there's something in this film you haven't seen in many others during this long summer. A soul.
08/07/09
Top CriticThis quaintly goofy premise makes for pointedly neurotic Sleeper-ish fun, not to mention nifty digs at our culture of self-reinvention.
08/07/09
Top CriticCold Souls works precisely because its ambitions are somewhat mellow; this isn't a relentlessly high-strung picture.
08/07/09
Top CriticA sombre slice of surrealism, Cold Souls is a welcome opportunity for America's most agony-prone actor to do what he does best: suffer.
08/07/09
Top Critic[Giamatti is] terrific throughout, although the movie, which is more clever than funny, sometimes resembles second-tier Charlie Kaufman stuff.
08/07/09
While Cold Souls doesn't answer any of the questions it raises, it does provide a thought-provoking narrative framework from which to begin.
08/07/09
An ambitious, elegantly shot, tonally cool first feature written and directed by Sophie Barthes.
08/07/09
Giamatti gives one of his best performances, and writer-director Sophie Barthes intriguingly turns his loss of soul into a clinical, observable event. But each fertile idea gets only a few shallow iterations.
08/07/09
...plays like "The Golden Compass" without the depth crossed with "Being John Malkovich" with far less wit.
08/07/09
The easiest, and laziest, way to describe the new movie "Cold Souls" is to compare it to "Being John Malkovich."
08/06/09
Barthes gives the film a nice chilly, deadpan tone so that it easily wanders from black comedy to moments of genuine reflection.
08/06/09
The film is superbly shot by Andrij Parekh and edited by Andrew Mondshein, but it's the hilarious and heartbreaking Giamatti who provides it with, well, soul.
08/06/09
Top CriticThe low-key satire would have benefited from more of a back story to Giamatti's character and a clearer sense of his relationship with his wife. But what we do get is compelling in the way of an indelible, dreamy short story.
08/06/09
The premise seems profound, but the claustrophobically inert execution lacks reach or imagination.
08/06/09
The more elaborate the plot becomes, the sillier it gets.
08/06/09
Top Criticinarguably Kaufman Lite, but I'm not sure if that's something to bemoan
08/06/09
The inventiveness of Barthes' story is matched by a sense of visual fluidity that's especially striking in a first feature.
08/05/09
Top CriticLatest News for Cold Souls
November 22, 2009:
Win Double Passes to Cold Souls
In the tradition of Charlie Kaufman and Woody Allen comes writer-director Sophie Bathes' debut Cold Souls an existential comedy about an actor (Paul Giamatti, playing himself)... More...
August 06, 2009:
Critics Consensus: It's Quiet For G.I. Joe. Too Quiet.
This week at the movies, we got real American heroes (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, starring Dennis Quaid and Sienna Miller); kitchen chronicles (Julie & Julia, starring Meryl... More...
June 21, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review 
More...
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