I’ve always wanted to write these words:
RUN DON’T WALK TO THE NEAREST MOVIE HOUSE SHOWING “INSIDE OUT”
Or
YOU’LL LAUGH, YOU’LL CRY
I am not the movie fan I was in my 20s, when I discovered Renoir, Truffaut and Godard could be as great as the Beatles, the Stones and the Clash, but I still catch the biggies, not bothering with much of the indies. And “Inside Outside” caught my attention from the get go, and not just the eleven year old girl inside all of us, but the visualization of the little girls mind, is much like the way I imagine my mind, and the conscious, unconscious and especially the imagination (a giant movie studio) is very close.
Add Pixar’s stunning animation of the conscious, subconscious and important memories, this is a very honest and powerful movie about how people deal with life psychological. The five emotions Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) guide an eleven year old girl through a whirlwind of change as her parents move her from Minnesota to San Francisco. The resulting move leads Sadness and Joy on a journey back from Riley’s deep subconscious and leaves Anger, Fear and Disgust in control.
This is a new type of a movie, I can’t remember another like it and it delves so deeply into Riley’s mind and how she says what she does and does what she does -the entire lightbulb in a console when her brain come up with a bad idea, is astonishingly insightful. It gets to the girl, it is like Riley’s life mechanism are shown for all of us (“Puberty?” Probably nothing” says Joy about a big button at the end!), and what we get is a very true portrait of a little girls inner life.
Most fun, as the movie moves on it also takes you inside other character’s minds, and explains why they are doing, and as Riley gets more and more unhappy, the lands she has created for herself crumble, Friendship, Family, Skating (She’s a skater) and memories change from happy to sad.
This is very moving stuff and the ending may have you in tears.
The brains behind it is Robert Docter, the director. He co-wrote the screenplay to Toy Story 1 & 2 and directed “Up” and co-director Ronnie del Carmen, who also worked on the screenplay for “Up”. “Inside Out” is one of the greaest animated movies I’ve ever seem, run don’t walk etc.
Grade: A