Projects #019 - "Who's your friend who likes to play?"
Inside Out, plus Hawke updates!
Project Updates 5/12-5/18/25
Good morning everyone! We’ve got some Hawke updates! His Tulsa crime show with Sterlin Harjo got a new title and a release date - The Lowdown starts September 23rd! That’s in addition to his next Linklater film Blue Moon and horror sequel Black Phone 2 dropping the same day - October 17th! Ethan Hawke Autumn!
Don’t forget to vote in today’s Monster May matchup - Terry Gilliam vs. Victor Salva!
Watching
2025 Films
Final Destination: Bloodlines
Beautiful film. See it in IMAX and cry laughing. My review.
52 Films by 52 Women
Compensation (1999) dir. Zeinabu irene Davis
Totally unique experience - so glad this is seeing the light of day! Loved the blend of archival photos and sound design.
Sleepwalk (1986) dir. Sara Driver
Strange little thing but a good vibe regardless - plus an early performance from Tony Todd!
TV
Andor Season 2 (2025) (Final Season)
Though Star Wars died with Carrie Fisher, I did enjoy what Andor was doing. There’s something to be said about taking a story seriously in a world where a species of alien has stereotypical Chinese accents. It’s a very well done show, but attempting to rewatch Rogue One right after was a really bad idea… I was just like, “why isn’t my friend Mon Mothma talking more?”
Doctor Odyssey Season 1 (2024-2025) (The only season?)
If this is the end, that’s okay. I’ll miss these crazy kids, and the path this show put me on regarding medical dramas - truly was having withdrawal so I started The Pitt day one, then started ER between episodes, which I am still watching through. The second half of the season was mostly dull, coasting on Don Johnson looking incredibly hot in his striped shirt. They never even had another threesome! Cowards! If it does pull off a renewal, I’d love if it got even stupider.
Reading
Manga
Dai Dark
Caught up with the English volume releases last week - as a follow up to Dorohedoro it’s very fun, maybe has a little more going on story-wise. It’s still early days, but there was a thrilling first act climax that seems to be setting up fun stuff for the future!
Videos Game
God of War: Ragnarök (2022)
After killing Heimdall, things happened pretty fast. It felt a bit like two games smooshed into one, but that’s preferable to the alternative. After RE4, the movement felt soooo slow and I grew to hate that you could not skip battles. There is a lot of artificial slowdown for no reason. But I did like this ending for Kratos, as his death would have been too depressing and obvious.
This may the last PS5 update for a couple weeks - I’m not feeling drawn to any games right now, might need to recharge. Plus, the Switch 2 is almost here…
Hank Happenings
I need to buy him a humidifier before summer really kicks in - he melts like a puddle!
Pixar Project #015 - INSIDE OUT (2015) dir. Pete Docter
This feels like the last Pixar a lot of people my age saw organically. I had just graduated college and ended up seeing it twice - after the sting of Monsters University and no Pixar in 2014 (The Good Dinosaur had been delayed… more on that next week) - I was ready for an original film. Inside Out is solid enough, but the older I get the less I can get behind the film’s central concept. My brain just doesn’t work like this and the people who think it does are driving this country into the ground. But let’s back up a bit.
Inside Out starts with the birth of Riley (Kaitlyn Dias), and with the dawn of her consciousness, the emotion Joy (Amy Poehler)1. Joy takes control of the inner workings of Riley’s mind, granting her happiness. Until, of course, the baby starts crying. This brings about Sadness (Phyllis Smith), who Joy tolerates but tries to control at every moment. In short order, Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) manifest, taking control of Riley when the moment calls for it. For the purpose of this film, and to avoid going insane, we have to treat these emotions as real. Not like, feelings, but the little sprites we’re following around. But does Riley influence her emotions or are the emotions influencing her? What does this say about free will? Again we’re not going to think about that. Let’s focus on the problem at hand.
Riley and her family are moving! The family packs up their life in Minnesota and head to San Francisco where dad (Kyle MacLachlan)2 has some kind of tech start-up job. I wonder how evil it is! We’re not privy to details because Riley doesn’t care. Mom (Diane Lane) has a sad flat ponytail and tries to make the best of things. Obviously, Riley is in emotional turmoil - things are going haywire in her mind. Sadness touches a core memory that Joy intended to cheer Riley up, which turns blue and melancholy. Joy is horrified - how could a happy memory be sad? One thing leads to another, and Joy and Sadness are ejected from HQ, along with Riley’s core memories. Fear, Anger, and Disgust are left in charge of the preteen, with predictable results.
Let’s talk about ‘core memories’. For the purpose of this film, core memories are what make Riley Riley. They are the foundation of her personality, her likes and dislikes. At some point in the past few years, ‘core memories’ has become one of the main pieces of vocabulary for TikTok people. What does that mean? Mostly parents posting videos of their kids like, meeting Goofy while the main theme from Inside Out plays. I’ve found this trend quite presumptuous… you think you get to decide what these kids’ core memories are? Maybe they don’t give a fuck about Goofy! Like all TikTok trends, this has become perverted beyond recognition, and sometimes the Inside Out theme is put on videos of kids seeing their dying grandparents for the last time. Why did you record that? Why did I, a childless 32 year old gay guy, see it? I don’t think the Inside Out score was meant for this, same goes for Up!
Anyway, Joy and Sadness now find themselves on a standard Pixar buddy road trip, trying to cross the chasm between Riley’s long term memory storage and headquarters while coming to better understand each other. They also team up with Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong, voiced ably by Richard Kind. They pass through abstract thought, dream production studios, and Riley’s fantasies. The balance of the story’s metaphor ironically turns Riley into more of a concept than a person, but that’s more of an issue with the sequel. Like any 11-year-old, Riley is overwhelmed by all this change, here represented by Anger deciding Riley should hop on a bus by herself back to Minnesota, where she was happiest. She is piloted by her emotions, as many of us were.
Bing Bong’s sacrifice to help Joy escape the Memory Dump is often cited as one of Pixar’s saddest moments. I admit being affected at the time, but I’m a little confused about what it means. Is Riley never going to remember Bing Bong after he disappears? If her parents bring him up, will she just shrug? Again, I can’t think too hard about the story mechanics or I’ll get dizzy. Joy rescues Sadness, using the overproduction of Riley’s imaginary boyfriends to bridge the gap and return to headquarters. Instead of forcing Riley to feel happy, she allows Sadness to take the wheel and help Riley express her depression to her parents, who of course listen. It’s very nice that this gigantic summer blockbuster’s climax is just a family crying together.
Inside Out gave Pixar a nice original film success, the first in ages. I like Amy Poehler’s work a lot, and it’s frustrating that Joy, not exactly the most dynamic character, is flattened further in the sequel. I like that the emotions are made of light particles, which you can see floating around their corporeal forms if you look close enough. They’re fairly basic characters otherwise, which makes sense for the story. Again, things have to be pretty basic or we face total metaphor collapse. This brings me to Richard Brody’s iconic review, which I suggest you read right away.3 He writes, “For all the cleverness of “Inside Out,” I was jolted from the start by its deformation of children and of mental life. I saw a feature-length sales pitch—or, worse, an indoctrination—to mold kids into beings as artificial and uniform as those created, by computer graphics, in the movie.” Brody is so offended by the simplification of human emotion in the film, and I can’t blame him! There’s no way my mind is an orderly bureaucracy with definable characters and islands of personality. It’s a mess up there! I’d like to give Pixar more credit for their grasp on human sentimentality, but they *are* a Silicon Valley boys club, so there’s only so much that can be done. We’ll revisit these themes with Soul and, of course, Inside Out 2.
Inside Out: Three out of five bouncing lamps!
From the archives
No pictures that I can find, but there were Inside Out adorned trash cans at my first post-graduation temp job where I barely did anything besides read Reddit and flirt with a certain Halifax-based writer on Facebook Chat. It was a different time!
Mary Fran Corner
I haven’t seen Inside Out in a while, and I like it better than I remember. It’s colorful and creative and there’s something about it that still—ten years later—feels new and original. It doesn’t really follow a typical animated movie formula. I respect that a ton and wonder if that’s why it’s stuck with so many people.
Even though I’ve never disliked the film, what I didn’t connect with at first is I didn’t really feel like I got to know Riley, the main character whose brain the other main characters live inside of. I still don’t feel that way but I’m more okay with that now.
The leading emotions in Riley’s brain are Joy and Sadness. Riley is 11 which is already rough. But she is also starting a new school , which makes being that age all the rougher. And I would know because I did just that at 11, not a fun time. But what’s cool is Joy and Sadness are fritzing out because every time Riley thinks of a happy memory from her prior life she feels sad. She’s feeling nostalgic!! I so relate to this, time makes me emotional.
Riley’s core memories are at risk of getting permanently deleted and Joy and Sadness are tasked with keeping that from happening. Along the way, they happen upon Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong, who ends up sacrificing himself for their efforts. That is my core memory of this movie, perhaps because I had my fair share of imaginary friends as a youth. I remember them but not in the way they felt so real when I used to “interact” with them. They can serve such an important purpose until they don’t anymore. Bing Bong was lovable albeit annoying and was able to spend his final moments helping someone he loves, Riley. I won’t forget you, Bing Bong.
By the end of the film, Inside Out addresses that emotions aren’t as straightforward as Joy (queen of toxic positivity) might’ve thought. Emotions work together and can be a combination of good and bad. Joy and Sadness not only keep Riley’s core memories from being deleted but they create a new one, causing new aspects of Riley’s personality to bloom.
I honestly think a movie about emotions is so good for any viewer. Luckily some adults have become more understanding of children and their “Big Feelings” but not all and when you think about it, being a kid is stressful and emotional! You’re learning things for the first time which, as an adult, seem fine and known. But a kid is going to be like what do you mean?? I let go of my balloon and it’s just going to fly into the sky and I’m never going to see it ever again?? It might seem dumb but these are overwhelming lessons to learn! And adults are allowed to have intense emotions, too. It’s not childish, it’s human.
We all have emotions and sometimes they don’t immediately—or ever—make sense. Sometimes they serve a “purpose” and sometimes they’re just plain unfair. But honestly cool of Disney to make a movie about them and even cooler of them to end said movie with a red alarm marked puberty.
Links and Recommendations
HEADS UP! We are off next week due to Memorial Day and work stuff, though we will crown the Monster May winner - Projects will return June 3rd with The Good Dinosaur and plenty of project updates. Stay busy!
There was such a to-do about Merida being Pixar’s first female protagonist, and by the time Inside Out happened no one cared. Maybe because the emotions are… kind of genderless? Not really?
The online obsession with the day from this movie is completely fucking insane btw… there are WAY hotter Pixar men!!! And it’s devolved into gay guys saying they look like the dad from Inside Out just because they have a mustache. Enough is enough!!!
Internet Archive link keeps crapping out, but I believe in my readers’ ability to get past paywalls.
Wait I literally didn't know core memories came from Inside Out lol ... all timer Hank pic also