Hello, and welcome to this week’s film roundup – taking you through the new cinema releases and some of the reasons you should get excited about them. There’s a definite psychiatric theme this week as we get to know our emotions in Inside Out, listen in on Freud’s Last Session, let our base instincts take over in Sasquatch Sunset, and ponder what it must be like inside Nic Cage’s head with Arcadian…
Usual disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, I haven’t seen these films. All of my opinions are based on trailers, early reviews and other rumours and buzz.
Inside Out 2
The first Inside Out film still stands as one of the best in Pixar’s phenomenal back catalogue. It told the story of the emotions living inside the head of a young girl named Riley and guiding her through her family’s move to California. Appropriately for a film set in someone’s brain, the thought and detail that went into the world-building, on both the physical and thematic level, was magnificent. Unusual concepts such as the decorative islands representing Riley’s core beliefs, or the huge desolate memory dump, were expertly explained for its young audience. It had one of the best representations of depression ever shown in cinema (treating it as an absence of emotion that is cured, rather than exacerbated, by accepting sadness), and made us cry over a weird pink dolphin-elephant hybrid with a trumpet nose called Bing Bong.
Given the brilliance of the first film I have very high hopes for this sequel, which sees Riley and her emotions face puberty and all the confusing new feelings that come with it. As it’s Inside Out, those new feelings come in the form of some brilliantly-cast new emotion characters – Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser). Describing themselves as “more sophisticated emotions”, the new gang take over the controls to help Riley survive high school, while her childhood emotions (Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale) and Disgust (Liza Lapira)) are literally bottled up and suppressed.
As most adults will know, suppressing your emotions is rarely a healthy way forward, so I suspect the film will explore how Riley comes to learn that lesson. I am also expecting this to have all the originality, creativity and humour of the original. My only slight disappointment is that Michael Giacchino isn’t returning to do the score – there was a gorgeously childlike quality to his soundtrack in the first film, which was at once light and playful but also wistful and sad, like the memory of a childhood that you can’t return to. Andrea Datzman, composing a feature length film for the first time, has a lot to live up to.
- Inside Out 2 on IMDB
- Inside Out 2 on Rotten Tomatoes
Freud’s Last Session
In 1939, having escaped from the Nazis with his daughter, Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins) meets with C S Lewis (Matthew Goode) to debate the nature of mankind and the existence of God. This is based on a stage play, which in turn is based on a non-fiction book comparing Freud and Lewis’s world-views – the conversation depicted in the play and the film is imagined. Like many films adapted from the stage, this appears to take place in a very localised setting, with the dialogue and performances doing most of the plot’s heavy lifting. It’s an exploration of two great minds, rather than a full biopic – a sub-plot involving Freud’s relationship with his daughter should flesh the drama out a little but the debate at the centre is the big draw. That said, it’s a compelling idea and if they can get the script right, should make for a fascinating watch.
Anthony Hopkins is always excellent, and makes a pretty convincing Freud (despite, probably for the best, not really trying too hard with the accent). Matthew Goode generally lives up to his name acting-wise but is not quite at the same level as Hopkins, so it may be interesting to see whether he can hold his own here. I last saw Hopkins (not counting his voice role in the Rebel Moon films) in One Life, where he played a real-world figure who rescued hundreds of Polish refugees from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia – a touching and subtle role about a man looking back at a life well-lived that has certain obvious parallels to this movie. I last saw Goode in Abigail, where he played a vampire crime boss. Hopefully this debate won’t feel too one-sided…
- Freud’s Last Session on IMDB
- Freud’s Last Session on Rotten Tomatoes
Arcadian
Nicolas Cage plays Paul, a father of twin teenage boys (Jaeden Martell and Maxwell Jenkins), trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where monstrous creatures lay siege to their farmhouse every night. Films about the end of the world are usually pretty compelling, either as action movies in which humanity tries to stave off the destruction, or as dramas as the last few survivors try to continue surviving. This looks like it has a bit of both elements, with the family eking out a peaceful existence during the day before bolting the doors against the horrors of the night. Nicolas Cage isn’t always the most dependable actor (the moment in the trailer where he asks “Are we not men?” before slamming a small knife into the table offers a glimpse of Cage in crazy mode), but when he’s on form he can be great. Martell is also very good – you may remember him as Bill Denbrough from the It films. And the little we see of the monsters in the trailer is enough to suggest that they are an effectively scary threat – lots of claws and mangy hair. This looks like it could be a lot of fun.
- Arcadian on IMDB
- Arcadian on Rotten Tomatoes
Sasquatch Sunset
Finishing off with what has to be one of the strangest films I’ve looked at since I started writing these roundups, Sasquatch Sunset is a largely dialogue-free movie about a family of yetis (including, believe it or not, Jesse Eisenberg) living out in the American forests. The trailer sets its tone pretty early on – these sasquatches have developed their little society without needing to worry about offending anyone’s sensitivities, so their animalistic side is on full display, and from some of the reviews it sounds like that’s just the tip of the iceberg. But those reviews have also been quite positive – if you can get past the crudeness, there is some real charm and pathos to be found here in the story of a wild creature on the verge of extinction. There are hints of that in the trailer too, from their interactions with the natural world around them. This had a limited release in the States back in April, and judging by the scores on Rotten Tomatoes, it doesn’t look like the public took to it quite as positively as the critics (at the time of writing it has a 72% positive critics score and an audience score of 31%). Perhaps it’s the sort of film where you either get it or you don’t. But it’s great to see something this original and quirky coming to the cinemas, and (as with any film) I would encourage anyone to see it and make up their own mind.
- Sasquatch Sunset on IMDB
- Sasquatch Sunset on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
My inner Joy is excitedly pulling my levers at the thought of a sequel to one of Pixar’s most imaginative, poignant and surreal masterpieces – my film of the week is Inside Out 2.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- The Watched
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Trailer of the week
There were a few exciting trailers to choose from this week – special mention goes to season 2 of the brilliant Arcane, charming ursine threequel Paddington in Peru, and the return of the world’s most devious penguin in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. But for its gorgeous visuals, original concept, and excellent swimming lessons, the film I’m most excited for is Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot. This was teased a little while back, but the first full trailer came out a few days ago and it looks stunning.
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