I have a friend who never watches sequels, he says that they are never as good as the original film*. He’s not wrong. But he’s not right either. I’ve seen Inside Out 2 twice now, and although it didn’t sweep me off my feet the way that Inside Out did, it didn’t let me go.
Three years have gone by since Riley and her family moved from Minnesota to San Francisco, and Riley (Kensington Tallman) is literally at the top of her game – best in her class, close to her parents, and on the same hockey team as her two best friends Grace and Bree. The film opens with an action-packed scene at the final hockey game of the season, where, when Riley conveniently sits in the penalty box, her internal captain, Joy (Amy Poehler), catches the viewer up with Riley, who has grown very tall, very fast, and now has braces. Wisely, as the film follows two narratives at once – Riley’s external experiences and the adventures of her internal emotions, the basic plot is a simple one. About to start high school in the fall, Riley and her friends attend a three-day hockey skills camp led by the high school Coach Roberts (Yvette Nicole Brown). Riley hopes that if they make a good impression, they’ll be chosen for the school team in the fall. But on the way to camp, she’s sidelined by the news that Grace and Bree will be going to a different high school. So once again, Riley has a lot to figure out, and while contending with the horrors of puberty and its whirlwind of extreme emotions.
Here’s what excited and disappointed me about Inside Out 2. Amy Poehler infuses Joy with vibrant energy, and her emotional trajectory over the course of the film is as compelling as that of Riley. Although the internal mechanism of Riley’s memories becoming beliefs and building a sense of self feels a bit simplistic and didactic, its visual expression is beautiful, with the colorful memory balls floating (I guess on the stream of consciousness?), and strings rising up from them towards the sense of self, that can be plucked to release their sound: “I am a good person.” With the onset of puberty, a wrecking crew demolishes the emotion’s headquarters and rewires the console, which is rather an apt description for the neurological changes that take place in adolescence. New emotions appear, not all are fully realized characters, but even the one-dimensional gags are fun. Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) doesn’t say much, but he doesn’t need to, his huge form flung on the console in despair when Riley overhears the older kids talking about her, is hilarious and ever so relatable. Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), draped over a couch and languidly working the console from an app on her phone, captures the exact tone of teen disdain in her French accent. Envy (Ayo Edebiri) felt like a missed opportunity to me. Although Edebiri voices her with vivacious energy, the characterization felt a bit fuzzy, not quite envious, she was competitive, but not actually jealous. Gray-haired Nostalgia (June Squibb) pops in a couple of times. Waxing emotionally over events that happened just a few moments ago, she was a favorite of mine. The star of Riley’s new repertoire of emotions is Anxiety (Maya Hawke), whose orange, wide-eyed, tremulous toothy grin and feathery hair all scream tension. Eager to anticipate anything that may go wrong and fix it, Anxiety takes over – and the ensuing chaos is at once precise, and very, very, funny.
While I enthusiastically support the world view expressed in the Inside Out films, that even someone who has everything going for her – brains, physical prowess, loving family and friends – must deal with emotional turmoil, it was a bit much for me that Riley was best in her class. It’s a minor point, yet because it came up in the first moments of the film, it distanced me and made it harder for me to connect. Soon enough, however, I was caught up in Riley’s anxious attempts to make friends with the cool, older, girls, and in particular the hockey team captain Valentina (Lilimar), and the parallel adventures of Joy and crew, as they try to retrieve Riley’s sense of self from the back of the mind. But I wasn’t as spellbound as I was while watching Inside Out. Then, in a moment of crisis on their quest to save Riley’s sense of self, Joy said, “I guess this is what happens when you grow up, you feel less joy.” Those words kept bouncing around in my head, and I’m still wondering whether I think that’s true. I don’t want it to be true.
A child’s world is full of firsts, full of wonder. From the moment an infant discovers her hands, to the first view of the ocean, life is full of discoveries, and so many of them are joyful. One inevitable aspect about growing older is that there are fewer firsts. But consider that infant fascinated by her hands. At one time, we all felt that way, then soon enough, we began taking those limbs pretty much for granted, even though by then, they were doing far more elaborate stuff, and they are, still, incredibly amazing.
Inside Out 2, perhaps inevitably, did not evoke the sense of wonder, the emotional thrill of recognition I felt when watching Inside Out, because it is familiar. In terms of plot, the narrative trajectory of Joy and crew traveling to the “back of the mind” to retrieve Riley’s sense of self, is similar to the adventurous journey to save Riley’s core memories in the first film. And yet, in so many ways – Joy’s moment of doubt, Anxiety’s nervous, twitchy, non-stop action, the pink blush of Embarrassment, and Ennui’s strategic blasé approach to life – the film touches the complexity and confusion that marks the beginning of adolescence. To the extent that Inside Out 2 evoked my criticism as well as my pleasure, it somehow also mirrored the experience of growing up and growing older, and that is something to ponder.
Inside Out 2
Director: Kelsey Mann; Screenplay: Dave Holstein, Meg LeFauve; Cinematography: Adam Habib, Jonathan Pytko; Editor: Maruissa Horwitz; Music: Andrea Datzman; Cast (voice): Amy Poehler, Kensington Tallman, Maya Hawke, Lilimar, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Tony Hale, Liza Lapira, Ayo Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, Diane Lane, Kyle McLachlan, Yvette Nicole Brown, Dave Goetz, Frank Oz, Bobby Moynihan, Paula Poundstone, John Ratzenberger, Paula Pell, Flea, June Squibb
*He says Back to the Future Part II is the exception
