Film
Cold Souls
A metaphysical comedy about an anxious actor who sells his soul to cure his existential misery, only to discover that life without it is worse in unexpected ways. Cerebral, melancholic, visually austere, with flights of absurdist humour. For people who enjoy watching Paul Giamatti suffer in increasingly conceptual ways.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy deadpan absurdist comedy that treats a crisis of nerves with a straight face, where the bizarre premise is played as ordinary office business.
Skip it if you want a fast plot or big set pieces, since this is a quiet, talky film where the ideas arrive through conversation and long stretches of stillness.
What it asks of you: Its rhythm is slow and low-key, with a melancholy undertow; at about an hour and forty minutes it rewards attention to small faces and pauses over jokes landing on cue.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Being John Malkovich1999
A portal into another person's consciousness becomes a meditation on identity, desire, and the self. Equally clever and emotionally devastating, with practical magic and no wasted moments.
But The sexual transgression and body-horror elements can be queasy. It rewards patience over immediate satisfaction.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind2004
Memory, loss, and the decision to erase someone you loved. Jim Carrey in full dramatic register, Michel Gondry's visual innovation, a script that thinks and feels simultaneously.
But Non-linear storytelling can feel frustrating on first viewing. Some find the romance undercut by melancholy rather than deepened by it.
The Truman Show1998
A man realizes his entire reality is a constructed performance, but leaving it isn't the triumphant escape you'd expect. Funny and unsettling, asking real questions about the shape of a life.
But The ending divides people. Some want more ambivalence; others find the sentimentality saccharine.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Cold Souls
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Ikiru1952
Both use the extraction or loss of self as the engine to ask: what makes a life worth living? Both conclude that connection to others is the answer.
An aging Tokyo bureaucrat discovers he is dying and begins to ask whether his life has meant anything. Kurosawa's quietest film, devastatingly humane. It asks the same question Cold Souls is asking, with forty years more weight.
But Black and white, subtitled, and almost entirely interior. The pacing is deliberate and demands surrender.
More like this (8)
Synecdoche, New York2008
Philip Seymour Hoffman directs and stars in a recursive nightmare about art, failure, and whether you can ever really know yourself. Baroque, ambitious, genuinely disturbing in ways that stick.
But Deliberately opaque and punishing. If you want clarity or conventional narrative, this film will exhaust you rather than reward you.
The Double2014
Dostoevsky via Ayoade: a meek man encounters his confident double and descends into paranoia and jealousy. Formally inventive, suffocatingly claustrophobic, darkly comic.
But The aesthetic—monochrome, cramped, Soviet—is deliberately ugly. Momentum matters more than warmth, which won't suit everyone.
A Ghost Story2017
A man returns as a ghost to haunt the house he died in, watching time and memory erode everything. Quieter and stranger than its premise, genuinely mournful without being sentimental.
But It's slow and demands patience. One famous scene is almost entirely static. Some viewers find it more beautiful than moving.
The Fountain2006
Three timelines—medieval, contemporary, far future—follow the same man trying to save the woman he loves across centuries. Visually stunning, ambitious beyond reason, reaching for something transcendent.
But Darren Aronofsky's earnestness can tip into pretension. The narrative is elliptical to the point of bafflement for some.
Under the Skin2014
An alien in human form (Scarlett Johansson) hunts men in Scotland, rendered as pure mood and dread. Hypnotic, uncanny, uses long takes and silence to unsettle rather than explain.
But Narrative and dialogue are sparse. If you need plot momentum and context, this film will frustrate you.
Arrival2016
A linguist communicates with an alien species and discovers that learning their language fundamentally changes how you perceive time itself. Cerebral, moving, science fiction that operates as philosophy.
But The emotional reveal depends on a concept that some viewers find manipulative rather than earned.
The Adam Project2022
Both explore whether the self is fixed or fluid, whether you can change who you are, what you lose and gain in the attempt. Both are interested in the science-fiction premise as an emotional truth-telling device.
A man from the future meets his younger self and tries to prevent a catastrophe. Time-travel mechanics serve a genuine story about fathers, sons, and the person you thought you'd become. Genuinely moving underneath the action.
But It's a Netflix action film. Some will dismiss it as a time-waster before it begins. It's polished where Cold Souls is conceptual.
The Seventh Seal1957
Both films use metaphysical bargains and fantastic premises to ask whether you should accept what you are, or whether accepting yourself is the real trap. Both find wisdom in the question itself.
A knight plays chess with Death himself. Bergman's masterpiece about faith, meaninglessness, and whether any defiance against oblivion matters. Visually stark, philosophically uncompromising, utterly human.
But It's famous for being heavy. The dialogue can feel mannered. It demands you meet it on its own terms.
People
Cast
Paul GiamattiPaul
Emily WatsonClaire
Dina KorzunNina
David StrathairnDr. Flintstein
Katheryn WinnickSveta
Lauren AmbroseStephanie
Michael StuhlbargHedge Fund Consultant
Michael TuckerTheatre Director
Armand SchultzAstrov
Ted KochINS Officer
Oksana LadaSasha- Natalia ZverevaBlonde Mule
Directing
- Sophie BarthesDirector
Writing
- Sophie BarthesWriter
Production
- Daniel SweeCasting
- Alexandre Mallet-GuyCo-Producer
- D.J. MartinExecutive Producer
- James ShifrenExecutive Producer
- John HynanskyExecutive Producer
- Natalya SmirnovaLine Producer
- Andrij ParekhProducer
- Daniel CareyProducer
- Elizabeth GiamattiProducer
- Jeremy Kipp WalkerProducer
- Paul S. MezeyProducer
- Maxim VolodinProduction Manager
- Louise LovegroveUnit Production Manager
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