Soul To Squeeze

Cast View all

	Michael Thomas Santos	Jacob Stafford
	Danielle Meyer	Shirlene Morris
	Ken Belsky	Game Show Host
	Greg Baldwin	The Unconscious Man
	Roberta De Santis	The Woman in the Blue Dress
	Brianne Buishas	The Mermaid
	Jaden Hoff	The Man in the Hat
	Victor Amaya	Older Man
	Haley Hoffmeister	The Nurse
	Ryan Addison	The Chef
	J.A. Ruiz	TV Monster
	Adam Critchlow	Wild Man
	Richmond Keeling	High School Guy One
	Ryan Gaiser	High School Guy Two
	Jane Greene	Whispering Face #1
	Katie Hagaman	Corner of Your Eye
	Asheesh Mehta	Whispering Face #2
	Joanne Svendsen	Whispering Face #3
	Joshua Forrest	Whispering Face #4
	Layla Alston	Whispering Face #5
	Sofía Barrera	Whispering Face #6
	Angel Kerns	Young Jacob's Mom
	Paul Warren	Jacob's Other Eye
	Cora Morgan	Young Shirlene
	Christine Boos	Young Shirlene's Mom

Crew View all

Director	W.M. Weikart
Writer	Andrew Rivas, W.M. Weikart
Producer	Matt Conant, Keida Mascaro, Danielle Meyer, Jason Piette, Andrew Rivas
Musician	Sonny Newman
Photography	Pierce Cook

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Notes

My quick rating - 4.1/10. Jacob’s got problems, serious, deep-rooted mental ones, and in his desperation for relief, he volunteers for a radical new treatment that promises peace of mind. Instead, what he gets is a claustrophobic nightmare. Trapped in a house with a tunnel into his subconscious, Jacob’s journey toward healing becomes a fractured maze of distorted time, splintered memory, and bending reality. On paper, it sounds like a trippy character study. In practice, Soul to Squeeze is more like watching a high-concept student project that forgot to bring a story along for the ride.

The movie immediately sets itself up as “visionary” by starting in a boxy 4:3 aspect ratio and slowly widening to 2.35:1 by the final frame. The idea is that we’re supposed to feel Jacob’s expanding perception as he claws toward redemption. In execution, though, it feels more like a gimmick—one of those things that only really lands if this is the first movie you’ve ever seen. Visually daring? Sure. Emotionally raw? Only because the press notes keep telling us it is.

Michael Thomas Santos takes the lead as Jacob, and all I could think throughout was: Yeah, living on your own without your parents can be tough, huh? His performance never sells the torment or the supposed breakthroughs; instead, it plays like a guy struggling through an endless ASMR session about how he misses his sister (at least I think that’s the intended subtext). The dialogue is sparse, the sounds are aggressively heightened, and the surreal imagery piles on without ever forming something meaningful. It’s less a descent into the psyche and more a retread of a junior high educational video about how the eye works.

Where Soul to Squeeze truly stumbles is in its attempt at a grand “Aha!” moment. The finale tries to deliver a revelation, but unless you’ve barely seen any films before, it’s impossible to be surprised. Instead of leaving me shaken or reflective, I just shrugged and thought, That’s it? It’s hard to be emotionally invested when the movie doesn’t bother to ground its experimentation in a narrative worth following.

That said, there are glimmers of promise. Director W.M. Weikart, making his debut here, clearly has an inventive streak. The ambition is undeniable, and the willingness to play with form and sensory tricks is admirable for a low-budget entry. If he can pair that same creative energy with an actual story next time, he might really have something.

As it stands, though, Soul to Squeeze feels like being trapped in someone else’s therapy session. It may be short (86 minutes), but it is indulgent, and nowhere near as profound as it thinks it is.

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