“Inside Out 2” Triumphs! : At The Movies With Kasey
In the streaming era, there are plenty of reasons to skip the theater and introduce movies to children at home where they can move around, talk, and hide behind the couch if something (like the Beetlejuice trailer) scares them. But watching a movie in the theater is a magical experience. We decided that our preschool-aged daughter might be ready for her first movie theater trip, so we took her to see Inside Out 2. While the plot may have been a little mature for her, we still enjoyed another moving depiction of how emotions interact with our memories, personalities, and each other.
In Inside Out 2, Riley (Kensington Tallman) is a thriving 13-year-old, ready to go to hockey camp when puberty hits. Her primary emotions, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), and Disgust (Liza Lapira) are joined by new feelings: Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser). As Anxiety threatens to destroy Riley’s sense of self, Joy and her crew must find a way to rebalance Riley’s mind and help her navigate more complicated situations.
We live in anxious times and Inside Out 2 does a beautiful job of depicting how anxiety can crowd out other emotions and start to impact a person’s sense of self, perhaps especially for a young person. The metaphor is complicated but does not lay it on too thick, instead building a nuanced portrait of the interplay between feelings. As far as sequels go, this one felt necessary, building on the lesson about joy and sadness from the first film to work in a new layer of emotions as Riley grows older. Although there are some fun callbacks to the first film (TripleDent Gum, anyone?) Inside Out 2 focuses on moving forward.
Although the story was over my little one’s head, for parents of older children, Inside Out 2 provides a meaningful jumping-off point for talking about our feelings and how we build a sense of self that can ground us in our values. The movie does all that while still giving plenty of jokes, bright colors, and general silliness. It’s impressive.
Inside Out 2 was written by Meg LeFauve, Dave Holstein, and Kelsey Mann, who directed. It runs 96 minutes and is rated PG.
In A Family Affair, now streaming on Netflix, Zara (Joey King) works as an assistant to a movie star, Chris Cole (Zac Efron), who headlines a franchise of superhero movies and has been saying for two years that he will help her move into an associate producer role at his company. Zara quits when she cannot take his diva behavior and empty promises anymore, but then Chris starts dating her mother, the elegant writer Brooke Harwood (Nicole Kidman).
My husband went to bed about twenty minutes into this movie and as he left, he said, “Enjoy your first Hallmark Christmas movie of the year.” I started to protest, but he pointed out the Christmas tree in the background. This film is set around the holidays, which is easy to miss at first because it takes place in perpetually sunny Hollywood. That contrast exemplifies how this movie does not seem to know what it wants to be. Is it a coming-of-age story? A romantic comedy? Is Chris Cole an irredeemably bad boss? Or does he have a heart of gold beneath the womanizing? The story has a lot of good elements, but it shifts around so much that, aside from Zara’s emotional growth, the character arcs do not feel organic or earned.
There are some good laughs, mostly coming from Zac Efron’s line deliveries. The performances work hard to overcome the uneven writing but still highlight how much A Family Affair feels like two movies sewn together. As Leila, Brooke’s mother-in-law, Kathy Bates provides a character grounded in wisdom and love. She has amazing chemistry with Nicole Kidman, better chemistry than Kidman has with Efron. The scenes these two share sparkle. Meanwhile, Joey King and Efron work together well comedically, especially as she gets more flustered with him. I would like a workplace comedy of the two of them at the production office more than I care about his romance with her mother.
A Family Affair tries to tell valuable emotional stories. Brooke delivers heartfelt monologues about grief and starting over. Zara has to realize that she’s a diva too and show up in her relationships. Chris has to get over his angst about paparazzi seeing him grocery shop. The meaningful collides with the cliched in tonal mismatches that drag down an otherwise watchable, middle-grade romantic comedy. I would not tell you not to watch it, but there is no rush. Maybe pop it on while wrapping Christmas presents.
A Family Affair was written by Carrie Solomon and directed by Richard LaGravenese. It runs 111 minutes and is rated PG-13.
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