30 for 30 — 2015: "Inside Out"
"Do you ever look at someone and wonder, 'What is going on inside their head?'"
What’s this all about? I turned 30 on Sept. 26, 30 days from the start of this series. To celebrate, I’m watching one movie a day for 30 days and spending 30 minutes writing about each one. This post is about 2015. Click here for the original newsletter in the series. Other entries: 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
Animation gets slotted as its own, all-encompassing genre, despite the vast differences in animated films. It should be seen as a medium instead of a genre — there are just some things that animation is best suited for, just like there are stories that are best meant to be read and others that are best meant to be played, or seen.
“Inside Out” is a film that could have ever only worked as an animated film. How else would you personify actual emotions to the point where kids would think they’re fun and adults would immediately connect with them?
Increasingly, Pixar has made movies that look like they’re for kids but are really for adults — think the ending of “Soul,” the ending of “Coco,” the first 10 minutes of “Up.” The great trick Pixar pulls with “Inside Out” is that it uses a movie about how our emotions control us, to control our emotions. If it seems like each emotional beat is telegraphed, it’s because it is. And it works.
The plot is simple: 11-year-old Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) just moved with her mom (Diane Lane) and dad (Kyle MacLachlan) to San Fransisco from Minnesota. It’s the first big move she’s made in her life, and she’s having trouble dealing with it, as shown through her anthropomorphized emotions Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling). Joy has historically led the emotions in Riley’s brain, making happy memories that Riley can rely on whenever she needs them. But things go awry when Sadness accidentally turns a happy memory from Riley’s past into a sad one just as Riley starts her first day at a new school, throwing her emotions all out of whack. Sadness and Joy then have to work together to find a common middle ground to help Riley.
It’s all a little simplistic, as far as explaining just what goes on inside someone’s head. (An interesting thing I picked up on my third rewatch: Sadness is Mom’s primary emotion; Anger is Dad’s). But it gets at two simple, profound truths that took me until I was 24 to hear: Sadness is not a bad thing. Often, it’s necessary. And conversely, too much sadness is just as bad as too much joy, anger, fear and disgust.
The trailers for “Inside Out” never tip their hand that this movie is basically about how moving to a new place can really mess with your emotions. If I had known that, I probably would have avoided it; instead I went in blind, had a good cathartic cry at the end, and then brought my friends to go see it again the next day.
I moved a lot growing up- three countries, seven states, three high schools, 12 houses. I don’t recall ever being truly resentful at a move we made; my parents always made it seem like a big adventure that we were going on together. Looking back, I’m sure my parents weren’t thrilled about each move we made either, but I never really saw them express that. (Except when it was thunderstorming in Atlanta as we were boarding a double-decker plane for a nonstop flight to Seoul. Mom was not about that.)
There was the time we were supposed to go to Hawaii from Kansas that got diverted to Alaska when I was 8, which confused me more than anything else. But when we left Hawaii after five years, the longest I could remember living anywhere, to go to Korea, I didn’t want to go at all. I was angry. I was sad. And I hadn’t really sat and expressed a whole lot other than anger, sadness or shame at that point in my life. One side of my family is very emotional and the other side talks about emotions like they’re obstacles to be overcome, and squaring how I thought I was supposed to respond to things versus how I actually felt took (and still takes) a lot out of me.
But then, nine months into a planned three-year stay in Korea, we got diverted again, to Japan. Again, I really didn’t want to leave, especially so soon after the last move. I recall just waiting until we left Japan. By the time I left for college, I was raring to go. In hindsight, I don’t think I was as excited to be moving away from “home” as I was excited to be actively making a decision in where I would live for the first time in my life. And through that, I allowed myself to experience things a lot for the first time.
Anyway, I don’t think I fully processed all of that until, oddly enough, I saw “Inside Out” in a crowded Victoria, Texas multiplex and succumbed to the film’s cathartic ending where Riley finally admits how hard moving has been on her.
Like the ending of “Coco,” I know what’s coming every time I see the ending when I rewatch this movie, and I tear up every time. I know what it’s like to be her, and I’m not sad about it anymore— I appreciate it, and truly wouldn’t change my childhood for anything. I’ve seen a lot of amazing things and have had a lot of incredible experiences as a result of all that moving around.
But that doesn’t negate how I felt at the time, and, as “Inside Out” eventually concludes, all of that is valid. You have to learn to live with all of your joys, all of your sadnesses, or else you miss out on the full spectrum of human experience.
Up next: More aliens! We’re talking all about 2016’s “Arrival.”
Letter of Recommendation
Somewhat related to this series: If you like Roy Kent, the gruff footballer from “Ted Lasso,” you may enjoy a podcast from Brett Goldstein, the comedian who plays him. “Films to Be Buried With” asks guests to name some of the most influential films in their lives, but the central conceit is that these are the movies that they would theoretically take with them to the afterlife. Naturally, this leads to a lot of in-depth discussions about death and religion, the afterlife, and great films. The episode with Pete Holmes has been my favorite so far.
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