Riley Moves

Eleven year old Riley Anderson (Kaitlyn Dias) is a happy little girl - she lives in Minnesota with her parents (Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan), plays soccer, and has many friends. But when her father gets a new job in San Francisco, Riley's life is up-ended. We see the changes in her Inside Out (2015), as the emotion that has always governed her life - Joy (Amy Poehler) - begins to lose control of Riley to Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and Fear (Bill Hader).

This film was part of our double feature afternoon at the Shakespeare Theatre Company and it is an absolute delight. The conceit - that we have a console manipulated by five anthropomorphized emotions which color our memories - is fascinating.  The film looks at the need for sadness to create joy, the function of anger, disgust, and fear as protective devices, and the importance of long-term (and short term) memory to emotional development (Psychology Today).

Amy Poehler is endearing as Joy - her love for Riley and the life that her partner emotions have created for the child is true and deep. She understands the need for the protective emotions, but to her Sadness is a useless - and dangerous - addition to the group. It's only when Sadness begins to interact with Riley's long submerged memories - symbolized by Riley's imaginary friend Bing-Bong (Richard Kind) that Joy begins to appreciate the need for Sadness in Riley's life.

The idea of the memory console is one that the filmmaker play with successfully - we see the emotions of Riley's mother and father; of her school teacher, and of the pizza store clerk. It's equally beguiling to see how the emotions combine in adults (and eventually, even in animals!)

The movie is also really funny - Riley's dreams, for example (and Joy's pleasure at meeting Rainbow Unicorn, the star of the dreams who MUST be treated with respect), and the morose Sadness's need to be towed (she's too depressed to walk) are just two examples. There are more, and all add up to the create a film that is interesting on many levels - and for many ages.

 

Roger Ebert's review of the film was enthusiastic, as was the review from Rolling Stone, calling it "a flat-out masterpiece". One of the strengths of Inside Out is that you forget that you are watching animated characters; there are moments that bring tears as the viewer realizes that growing up is the ability to balance emotions. Emotionally, (like Joy) we want Riley to have a life without Sadness, but there is the realization that there can BE no Joy if Sadness is gone.  

We'll leave you with a trailer of this remarkable film.