Inside Out (8/10): Pixar delivers another emotionally engaging wonder.

“Congratulations San Francisco, you've ruined Pizza! First the Hawaiians, and now YOU!”

Pixar has always raised the standards for animated films despite their latest weaker entries (Monster University and Cars 2), and fortunately Inside Out lives up to those expectations adding another emotional and moving entry to their long list of successes. Inside Out is inventive and imaginative in the way it portrays the emotional roller coaster that children go through growing up. In Inside Out the main character has to face moving to a new city and experiencing its new surrounding, and director Pete Docter manages to tell that story through the complexities of human emotions which we can all identify with. I did see many young kids get a bit bored and distracted by the emotional buildup of the story, but older kids and adults enjoyed the ride and got emotionally invested with the story (it got a bit dusty in the eye department). Younger kids might love louder films like Home which really don’t do anything inventive other than recycle simple gags, but thankfully Pixar goes beyond the easy appeal of those movies and makes intelligent and emotionally engaging animated films that will stick with you. For instance, in Inside Out the different emotions like Anger, Joy, Fear, Sadness, and Disgust are characters that Docter doesn’t simply introduce in a thoughtless or general manner to move the story along, instead he takes his time to create a carefully structured brain where these emotions try to guide the twelve year old girl named Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias). Docter has taken his time to introduce this world where the brain isn’t simply controlled by emotions, but there are other psychological elements involved such as memories, subconsciousness, and dreams. A lot of thought was put into the story and that is something rarely seen nowadays in animated films.

Riley is a twelve year old girl who has recently moved to a new city with her parents (voiced by Kyle MacLachlan and Diane Lane) after her father decides to start a new job in San Francisco. Leaving her friends and love for hockey behind in Minnesota she must learn to adapt to this new place. Her emotions guide her from within the headquarters of her mind, as Joy (Amy Poehler) is doing her best to keep things under control, but Sadness (Phyllis Smith) seems to get the best of her after a series of events seem to conspire against Riley. We are soon introduced to the other emotions in the control room: Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader), and Disgust (Mandy Kaling) who all try to help guide her through the day and forge lasting memories that will shape her. However things take an unexpected turn when both Joy and Sadness get lost somewhere in the deep corridors of Riley’s brain and can’t seem to find their way back to the control room.

To be honest there were some moments that felt a bit slow and tedious while I didn’t find some of the jokes actually funny. However the film has several strong moments that managed to bring me back to the story and by the time we were approaching the final act of the film I was emotionally invested in it. The dream sequence was hilarious and well worth the price of admission alone, but I also enjoyed the time Docter took to tell the story and imagine this world from inside the mind of a twelve year old from a psychological standpoint. It’s an inventive movie that doesn’t forget about the adventure. I wouldn’t rank this as high as some of my favorite work from Pixar (Up, Ratatouille, and Toy Story 3), but it is a huge improvement from the latest entries. It surprisingly doesn’t settle for an easy ending either and I was pleased with the resolution. The final act of the movie is perhaps one of the reasons why I’ll give Inside Out a higher rating despite not being blown away during most of the film. It will probably grow on me with a rewatch. It is so rare that I haven't even mentioned how great the animation looks since there is so much to say about the engaging and emotional story.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (5/10): Fantastic performances, but an incomplete film.

“All I want is a chance to just talk it out. After that you can disappear to wherever it is you disappear to.”

To be honest I had no idea what this film was about before going into it. All I knew is that it starred Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy, two of the most talented actors I’ve seen in the past few years. The title had me fooled because I was expecting this sort of suspenseful thriller similar to Gone Girl. During the first scenes I was lamenting that Chastain would probably only be in a few scenes since she would eventually disappear, but what a fool I was. This was actually a romantic drama (or should I say anti-romantic drama?) with two strong lead performances centering on a couple who have experimented a tragedy in their lives and aren’t capable of coping with it together. They’ve become distant and love seems to be only a far away memory. In a sense it has a similar style as Blue Valentine where you get flashbacks of the couple when they were in love contrasting with their present situation. While watching this film I had no idea that director Ned Benson had actually made two movies about The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby from the view point of each of the characters (His and Hers). The version I was watching was a compilation of both those films, summarized in two hours going back and forth from both their view points. It was no wonder I felt like something was missing in this story. If you were to watch both original versions of Benson’s film the running time would be over three hours long, but in Them the film is cut into a two hour film. I never felt like I got a sense of who these characters were in this version and I wonder how much it had to do with the fact that so much was cut out of the film. After experiencing Benson’s two hour joint film I have no intentions of watching the separate films because I was incredibly disappointed with how vague and void this character study felt. By the end of the film I couldn’t relate to either character and felt like they did around their parents  when they had no clue what they were talking about (they both use this same line towards their parents in at least a couple of occasions).

Despite the slow pace of the film (the two hours actually felt like three) I was still hooked with the story expecting it to head somewhere. Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy are such great actors that they held my interest in the film and they were a pleasure to watch. The story unfolds in such a way that you don’t get much of a sense as to what is happening. As we get some flashbacks we begin to understand what triggered the couple to grow apart from one another, but some things are missing. There are also very strange relationships that Chastain’s character has with her parents (Isabelle Huppert and William Hurt). She also shares a few scenes with a Professor she begins to take classes with played by Viola Davis, but those scenes also felt disconnected from the entire film. The same thing happened with McCoy’s character and the odd relationship he has with his father (Ciaran Hinds). He owns a restaurant/bar and works with his close friend played by Bill Hader with whom he also shares some strange and misplaced scenes together. Perhaps it was the way that both films were joined together, but I felt like something important was left out and I wasn’t able to engage with the characters despite enjoying the performances. Chastain is fantastic and continues to get better over time. She has had stellar roles this year in Interstellar, A Most Violent Year, and now this. Perhaps her breakout role came in 2011 with Take Shelter and The Tree of Life, but she had already collaborated with Ned Benson a year before for one of his short films, The Westerners. If you are a fan of Chastain’s work I’d recommend this film, but otherwise I’d suggest you to watch the two separate films because Them felt incoherent and incomplete at times.

The Skeleton Twins (8/10): Bill Hader delivers one of the best performances of the year.

“I see you're getting your sense of humor back.”

The Skeleton Twins was a pleasant surprise which surpassed all my expectations. I wasn’t familiar with director Craig Johnson’s previos film (True Adolescents), and despite having seen Kristen Wiig in some strong dramatic roles before, I didn’t expect Bill Hader to be able to deliver one. I’m glad I finally got around watching this small indie drama because it is one of the best of the year. Despite covering some familiar territory, the chemistry between the two leads is what makes this film stand out. We’ve seen films focus on sibling relationships in the past, but I can’t remember the last time I saw one that felt so authentic as The Skeleton Twins. Their relationship is the core of the film and without strong performances from Hader and Wiig this could have been a disaster considering the material covers some dark subject matters (suicide, adultery, pedophilia) and the characters are flawed. It is hard to pull off an engaging performance when you are given a  flawed character, but both Hader and Wiig deliver solid roles. Their off screen friendship was probably one of the reasons why these two hit it off so well in the film and you actually believed they were siblings. I usually tend to dislike depressive films, but The Skeleton Twins balances these depressing subject matters with some effective comedic moments. There is a perfect balance between the drama and the comedy which feels authentic and never manipulative. Without being overly explicit, the audience can assume that despite the fact that these two siblings have been estranged from each other, they are still very much connected. Their past continues to haunt them, but at the same time you know they belong with each other, and the only possible way to begin a healing process is by sticking together.

The dramatic scenes hit hard, but so does the comedy with some very memorable moments. There is a scene between the twins where the two lip-sync to an 80’s song that stands out. It is perhaps the greatest lip-syncing scene I’ve seen in the history of cinema. There are also many other memorable scenes, and the film is at its peak when it centers on the twins. All the highlights for me involved Wiig and Hader’s characters together: the dentist scene, the lip-synch scene, and the Halloween dress up scene. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like the subplots and supporting characters, but it just proves who strong Wiig and Hader were together. Haider gives the best performance of his career, and so far one of my favorites of the year. Luke Wilson and Ty Burell also deliver solid performances. Wilson’s character plays Wiig’s wife and he is perhaps the most likable character in the film. He may not be the perfect fit for Wiig, but the film never tries to portray him in a negative light in order for the audience to sympathize more with Wiig’s character. That is what made this film feel authentic, the lead characters are broken and damaged people who are trying to heal as they reconnect with each other. This isn’t a feel good comedy, it goes to dark places at times so some audiences might be put off by the depressive tone of the film, but I found it perfectly balanced with some great comedic moments which helped me enjoy the film. Fans of the Sons of Anarchy series might also enjoy Robert Boyd Holbrook’s secondary role in this film. He doesn’t get much screen time, but he does play a key role which helps us understand some of Wiig’s conflicts. The Skeleton Twins might be too honest for some, but I did enjoy this film quite a bit, which was wonderfully written by Johnson and Mark Heyman (Black Swan). The film does have some unnecessary scenes (like the flashbacks and the forced ending), but it is still a solid film where Bill Hader gets to shine and prove he can play dramatic roles as well. 

My Review: Paul (5/10)

¨This is America. Kidnapping a Christian is worse than harboring a fugitive.¨

British comedians, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, are back again with a new comedy following up their successful movies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. In Shaun of the Dead they satirized George A. Romero`s zombie films, while in Hot Fuzz they did the same thing with pretty much every Hollywood action film from Bad Boys to Terminator. Now with Paul they try to satirize pretty much every movie involving aliens and the Roswell incident. It`s also a buddy road trip comedy. I was a huge fan of Pegg and Frost`s first two films, but Paul really didn’t work for me since I was expecting more from this great duo. I also had huge expectations knowing Greg Mottola was going to direct their movie since I really loved his earlier films: Superbad and Adventureland. The movie was really disappointing and I found the comedy in it really cheap. Sorry critics but I had more fun with The Hangover sequel than I did with this. I didn’t find anything fresh about this comedy. It would have worked better as a skit for Saturday Night Live. It`s too bad because both Frost and Pegg are great actors, and there were also some interesting cameos from some great American actors. Seth Rogen is always funny, but his voice for the alien Paul never felt too connect with me since I kept on imagining him smoking pot while giving the alien a voice. There were really very few funny scenes that worked for me. I know these guys can write much better scripts because they`ve done it before. Paul is just another silly forgettable movie.

Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost) are two best friends who`ve decided to travel from England to San Diego for the Comic-Con Convention. They are having the time of their life, meeting some interesting people and doing what all sci-fi geeks do. After spending the evening at the Convention they decide to take a road trip across America´s UFO highway trying to reach New Mexico and the crash site of the supposed Roswell incident that took place over half a century ago. While they`re on their way they have an accident and nearly crash into another vehicle. The other vehicle spins out of the highway and when they stop to see if there`s anyone hurt they discover the alien. He isn’t harmed and tells them his name is Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) and he`s been working at a secret military base for the US government for the past 60 years after his spaceship crashed in Roswell. He has finally decided to escape after realizing he was being kept prisoner and asks Graeme and Clive to help him return to his space ship so he can finally leave this planet and return home. The duo accepts to help Paul in his mission and decide to take him along with them on their RV. They soon discover that they are being followed by Agent Zoil (Jason Bateman) and two other officers, Haggard (Bill Hader) and O`Reilly (Joe Lo Truglio). To make matters worse they also sort of accidently kidnap a young woman named Ruth (Kristen Wiig) so her father Moses (John Carroll Lynch) is also trying to track them down and so the chase begins.

The actors are pretty actually good in this film, but the screenplay was just far too silly and Paul didn’t really work as a smart alien satire film in the same way that their earlier movies had worked. There were a couple of funny scenes like when Paul revives a dead bird only to eat him afterwards because hey he wasn’t going to eat a dead bird. That was perhaps the highlight of the movie for me. There are also some supporting roles and cameos from the funny Jane Lynch, Sigourney Weaver who starred in the Aliens franchise, and Jeffrey Tambor. The rest of the movie consisted of gay and anal jokes which weren’t really funny and several anti-Christian remarks; nothing remarkably original at all. Paul was simply a very silly and forgettable movie and there isn’t really much more I can add to my review. I know that it is one of those movies that can’t be taken seriously, and I actually enjoy a lot of those movies, but this was just a poor attempt at comedy. I hope Pegg and Frost get on the right track for their next film and work a little harder on the screenplay. I also hope Greg Mottola goes on directing another Adventureland type of film: funny but smart and touching at the same time. I really wasn’t a huge fan of Paul, but perhaps it just wasn’t my type of film considering several other critics seemed to have a good time with it so you might want to check it out; just don’t expect another Shaun of the Dead kind of comedy this time.

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