I watch movies every week and then write down my thoughts. Read my previous reviews!
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it.
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| Inside Out - Incredible story, incredible world building. |
Watch Inside Out
Written by: Pete Docter & Ronnie Del Carmen (Original Story); Pete Docter & Meg LeFauve & Josh Cooley (Screenplay); Michael Arndt & Simon Rich (Additional Story Material); Bob Peterson & Bill Hader & Amy Poehler (Additional Dialog)
Directed by: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen (Co-director)
Starring: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Diane Lane
Rated: PG
Plot:
When Riley and her family move to San Francisco, her emotions are in for wild ride as they deal with the change.
Review:
Inside Out depicts emotions as physical beings, Joy, Fear, Sadness, Envy, and Anger, positing that we are controlled by these emotions from a control room in our minds. Riley's family moving across the country is the catalyst for the story as the emotions try to deal with and then fully realize grief.
The first five minutes is incredible. With ingenious world building and an eye for detail, I was mesmerized. The movie includes so many easily missable visual details explaining how the mind works.
When Riley is born, the control room for her mind is a console with just a single button, but when we see her as a teen the console contains multiple dials, buttons, and joysticks. The console is even more complicated for adults, yet the movie never explicitly points that out, simultaneously engaging children and adults. I don't consider this movie a 'kids' movie, though kids certainly will enjoy it. Incredibly deep concepts are explored and explained provoking discussion. Do consoles become more complicated because are minds are more complex or do adults purposefully complicate the world? Throughout the movie I was surprised at the concepts the movie not only tackled, but explained succinctly.
The movie creates a fantastical narrative explaining how memories are formed, saved, and even tinged by emotion. Memories are glowing orbs, and core memories provide a foundation for our disposition. Emotions are the overseers of the process. Another detail is that Joy is the main spokesperson for Riley, sitting at the 'head of the table', whereas Sadness occupies that seat for her mom, and anger for her dad.
From start to finish Inside Out creates an incredible and clever world that's a fun and heartfelt journey
Near the beginning, Joy can't understand how Sadness is tinging emotions. While no exposition is provided, the movies indicates at the end that sometimes you have to mourn. You have to confront the grief of moving away in order to resolve those feelings and create new memories. It's an emotional ascension the movie assumes we'll realize. It doesn't spoon feed us concepts through exposition, and that's what impressed me. The movie assumes I'm smart enough to pick up on it. While the movie allows me to complicate the concepts, that never hinders a child's surface elvel enjoyment.
As Riley matures emotionally, the memories became more complex, containing multiple emotions. The movie continually provides clever explanations for human's emotional makeup.
It did a great job of providing a reason for the bad decision process. Envy, Anger, and Fear, Joy being absent, made a bad decision, but they had a reason for it, even if the reason was misplaced. Each emotion is self serving, in turn serving Riley. The movie provides insight into these emotional hierarchies, and that's half the fun. The main story is secondary to the concepts explored.
Verdict:
Inside Out offers an ingenious insight into how the human mind works told in the form of a children's story. The mind is incredibly complex, and this movie does a great job of simplifying without making it dumb. It's a really touching movie that conveys the emotional impact of childhood moments on our formative years. This movie will forever change how we animate the mind, from a series of file cabinets or endless hallways linking storage rooms to a vibrant control room and stacks of glowing memory orbs.
Watch it.
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| The Rules of the Game - One must always maintain appearances. |
Watch The Rules of the Game
Written by: Jean Renoir (Scenario & Dialogue); Carl Koch (Collaborator)
Directed by: Jean Renoir
Starring: Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost
Rated:-
Plot:
The lives of the rich and the servants collide at a French chateau. Andre and Octave fancy Christine who is married to Robert. Christine's maid Lisette is married to Schumacher but is flirting with Marceau. Passions and tempers flare.
Review:
This is regarded as a masterpiece of film, ranking very high on many critics' list. I can't disagree, to be a film from thirty-nine, it's incredibly impressive. A film I watched from that time period, The Adventures of Robin Hood, I found theatrical, like a state production had been recorded. The Rules of the Game feels modern despite it's age. If other films from the time were like Robin Hood, then this is innovative. The problem with innovative films this old is that by this time the creative queues have been incorporated into film at large. Regardless of this films innovations, I really enjoyed it.
Christine is the object of desire for three different men, and even her confidant, her maid Lisette, is involved in her own love triangle. It has humorous moments, but it's funny because of the truth it presents. Robert, Christine's husband wants to keep up appearances, undeterred by her past and potential relationships. He has a mistress after all. Robert accepts infidelity as a way of life, but this is contrasted with Schumacher who is upset that his wife Lisette is flirting with another man. Schumacher runs through the party firing a pistol wildly, trying to catch him. The crowd isn't concerned, a deft blend of drama and comedy.
Christine is hesitant to runaway with Andre because she would forgo her position of prestige. Octave confesses his lover to her, though he is fully planted in the friend zone.
The movie concludes in tragedy when the worlds of the rich and the poor collide.
The rules of the game depend on the game you're playing. The rich seek to retain position, where Andre and Schumacher believe one should stick to his/her word.
At the end, Robert covers up the tragedy as one must always keep up appearances.
Verdict:
If it wasn't for the grainy film stock and black & white image, I would have a hard time believing the movie is so old. It's intriguing and entertaining, blending comedy with drama. If you're a film buff, it's required watching.
It depends.
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