A few weeks
ago, I talked about my relationship with movies dating back to age 15. The greatest friendship I have (other than
the one with the girl I wake up next to every morning) is one with the glowing
image that flies over my head in the dark.
As I sit there, it is my hope that every movie I see is special. And the most consistently special movies are
the ones made by the guys with the overexcited desk lamp, Pixar.
I remember
Woody & Buzz learning to not just co-exist but become best buds at age
10. A young fish went missing at
16. At 19, I fought alongside a family
of superheroes. I saw a rat’s culinary dreams
come true at age 21. I sat in awe as two
robots fell in love at 22, an old man live out his dreams at 23, and cried like
a baby seeing Woody & Buzz live on in a kid’s imagination at 24.
Simply put,
Pixar had a track record of creating animated masterpieces on a fairly
consistent basis. Their last three
movies, CARS 2, BRAVE and MONSTERS U, left much to be desired. After those two sub-par sequels and a disastrous
original idea, Pixar needed a needed a shot in the arm. It appeared that they found one in INSIDE
OUT, a story about our emotions with Amy Poehler in the lead & Pete Docter
in the director’s chair. All is well
& good now, right? Right…?
INSIDE OUT
follows Riley, a happy little girl who finds Joy in everything, especially ice hockey. But after a move from Minnesota to San Francisco,
her other emotions, Sadness, Fear, Disgust & Anger, start getting a work
out. Can Joy straighten things out?
As I sat
there watching the 94 minute movie, I had each one of these emotions come over
me, most at inopportune times. First,
there was the unrelenting joy that came over me during the pre-show commercials. Every single one of those memories above
washed over me as I looked over the crowd and saw the audience members of all
ages, evenly divided among those older & younger than I as we eagerly
awaited for that moment when we were placed under Pixar’s spell. And for 20 minutes or so, I felt that as I
watched the opening montage and the setup of the first act.
Then,
something strange happened. When the
movie kicks into its second act, Disgust took over. Disgust at the direction the main plot was
taking. Why in the world would you make
the centerpiece of the movie about feelings & memories a mostly physical endeavor? Disgust slowly moved over as Anger sat at the
controls as the movie kept in the same director. Why have movie about the mind that continues
to stay outside it and get more & more needlessly complicated?
I thought
all hope was lost until…the heroic Sadness tries to save the day, with a little
help from Joy. INSIDE OUT ends with a
final five minutes so perfect that it feels like it was stolen from another
movie. An ending that mixes sorrow &
hope perfectly, like Pixar has done before.
As the
credits rolled and the credit cookies had played, Sadness & Fear began
piloting my state of mind and continues to this very moment. I fear, with the current movie landscape, that
movies have passed me by. With all the
negative or mixed reviews I’ve been giving lately, I wonder if it’s time to
stop caring so much. Stop trying to get
my hopes up. Stop trying to get others
to listen.
But I can’t. Why?
Because of the little moments that Joy takes over, sometimes accompanies
by Sadness. Where would I be without
seeing WALL-E & Eve dance in space with the help of a fire hydrant? Or having not flipped through Elle
Fredrickson’s scrapbook? And what would
I do without having seen Riley grow up in 4 minutes?
To put it
simply, to be human is to feel. And, for
me, the best place I can feel anything is in a darkened theatre with those
beautiful images projected on screen.
And while Pixar didn’t fully do it this time, I’ll keep going back. Why?
Because of the Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust & Anger I feel with every
movie I see. I love it.
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