Cinemazlowski Double movie review: 'Inside Out' and 'Love & Mercy'

Jun 18, 2015

The life of the mind - that inner voice that guides us all, that either perks our days up or drags us down into doubt and despair – is an intriguing one that movies have rarely managed to fully explore. "A Beautiful Mind" won a Best Picture Oscar for providing a tragic depiction of genius gone awry, and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" also took home top honors for its surreal portrait of life in an insane asylum.

But neither of those put their entire focus on what goes on in the highly sensitive tissues and nerves that steer every aspect of our existence. But two new movies – "Inside Out", which opens Friday, and "Love and Mercy," which is slowly expanding nationwide – take distinctly different looks at what goes on between our ears, and each has its own rewards.
"Inside Out" is the more inventive of the pair, the latest creation to come out of the magic Disney Pixar movie factory. The problem is that, despite its frequently funny moments and a heart-tugging finale, most of this animated wonder feels like it was factory-assembled rather than sprung from creative passion.

The story follows the life of Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias), an 11 year old girl whose parents (Diane Lane and Kyle McLachlan) relocate from middle America to San Francisco. What originally was an exciting trip for the young girl quickly turns sour, when she finds that her new house is tiny and has no yard to play in, that the furniture has been mis-routed by the moving trucks and won't arrive for several days, and that she cries while introducing herself to new classmates, seemingly dooming her to a life of social failure.

But inside her mind, a storm of feelings is constantly brewing with the glowing Joy (Amy Poehler) trying to keep her as happy as possible for as long as she can. Competing with Joy for emotional control of Riley are Anger (Lewis Black), Sadness (Phyllis Smith) and Fear (Bill Hader): in other words, perfect casting on all fronts.  

At first, the struggle for control is relatively normal, as Joy prevails enough to keep Riley generally smiling, and the other emotions are kept in check enough to emerge only sporadically. But when glowing orbs representing Riley's core memories – the biggest moments of her life so far, which influence her entire future actions – go missing, Joy has to break free and search through the treacherous outer landscape inside Riley's mind but beyond her usually used terrain in order to get the memories back and put her life back in balance.

This may sound complex and cool, offering an entirely fresh and mostly funny take on how the human mind works. But the long middle portion of the film in which Joy has to endure and overcome one bad break after another is so extended that it often feels exhausting and might prove too smart for young children.

Thus, "Inside Out" doesn't have the universal, undeniable magic that cast a spell on audiences worldwide in the "Toy Story" films and some of their other creations, but it's still worth a viewing for those intrigued by its premise and lured by Pixar's always inventive visuals.  Being a Disney Pixar movie, it's obviously fine for kids, with no moral improprieties to be found, but it is a bit scary in places for young ones.

A decidedly different, and more adult, take on mental issues comes from "Love & Mercy", which uses the unique tactic of having two different acclaimed actors portray legendary pop songwriter Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame at two distinct stages of his life. Paul Dano of "There Will Be Blood" fame plays Wilson as a young man descending into drug addiction and madness even as he's creating some of the most gorgeous music the rock era has ever had to offer, while John Cusack plays him as the older, borderline insane man he became in his 40s before the love of a good woman (Elizabeth Banks in a career-best role) helped set him free from manipulative psychotherapist Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti).

Writers Oren Moverman and Michael A. Lerner use the dual time-frame approach to brilliant effect, showing us both the highs and lows of Wilson's rollercoaster life and career in stirring fashion. Director Bill Pohlad masterfully finds a way to guide the performances of each of his leads, Dano and Cusack, into one indelible portrait of a man for whom both his genius and his madness stemmed from the sound and voices in his head.

"Love & Mercy" is a mostly gentle film, with nothing that any  older teen or adult can't handle morally. The film does feature the fact that Wilson experimented with illegal drugs in an attempt to heighten his creativity, but also shows the fact that he had profound negative consequences as a result. Wilson's psychotherapist also screams at and threatens him in in several scenes, and the film cuts away from an implied shot of Wilson and his girlfriend/eventual wife starting to kiss in a shower (strictly showing their heads) and then lying in bed together under sheets.

As a near-documentary look at the creative process behind "Pet Sounds," one of the most magical albums of the past 50 years, combined with a frightening yet ultimately exhilarating look at a deeply wronged man getting his life back together, "Love & Mercy" is two movies in one. And both work in perfect harmony to give viewers an experience they won't easily forget – just like Brian Wilson's music.