Making new memories for Riley

INSIDE OUT (2015) [One of the 10 best films of the 2010 era]

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

There are few films in life that are so spirited, so joyous and so embraceable that they want to make you hug them. They are not cuddly exactly but they inspire because of their zippiness, their absolute sense of assuredness in their storytelling. Animated films don't always do that for me, with the exception of the "Toy Story" trilogy and "Up" (possibly Pixar's best film), but this latest Pixar feature, "Inside Out," is a glorious, resonant, inventively dazzling, colorful and emotional beauty of a film. It is so damn inspired that you kinda wonder why nobody thought of it before.

Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger are five of the emotions that are bottled up inside of Riley's conscious mind. Riley is a Minnesotan girl (Kaitlyn Dias) who is not too sure about moving to San Francisco when her dad gets a new job. Riley makes the best of it yet one of the emotions, Sadness (Phyllis Smith), wants to turn her very being as blue as possible because Sadness, well, she just can’t help it. Let’s backtrack: Sadness is an actual being inside Riley’s mind, one of five personifications. There is the ebullient Joy (Amy Poehler) who wants to make sure Riley is always in an up mood, and who tries her best to keep Sadness at bay. Anger (Lewis Black) burns with rage, literally, especially when flames shoot out of his head and Fear (Bill Hader) hops away from all possible entanglements that Riley may get into (like her first day of school, always trying to keep her safe). Disgust (Mindy Kaling) expresses as much at the new house that is in desperate need of repair.

The emotions are living in Headquarters, Riley’s mind, which is where memories are stored in colored orbs. Joy is hoping all of Riley's memories and core memories are joyful - the core memories are turning points in Riley's life and power different islands that encompass personality aspects. At a console, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger manage to keep things in control. But after the moving fiasco and Riley's sadness about her former life in Minnesota, it becomes clearer that sometimes emotions can't always be manipulated by anyone, including Joy. Sometimes core memories are forgotten or begin to erode and one of the key themes of "Inside Out" is that the mind is far more complex than what five beings can manage at a console. In the end, Sadness may be the key to resolving Riley's issues.

"Inside Out" is a resplendent film of boundless imagination. Every scene and every shot takes us into a world I have never seen before - one where memories and emotions coexist in a varicolored landscape of orbs in multiple wall displays and a maze of tubes. Thanks to the screenwriters Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley, "Inside Out" also emits so much humanism, controlled humor and unshakable sympathy to Riley and the five emotion personalities that you can't help but feel connected to them all. The film has an air of sophistication about how emotions cannot be controlled and manipulated. Even happy memories can fade and though there is a touch of melancholy about growing up and adapting to a new home, the future still holds a measure of hope and suggests that life is an adventure and all sorts of emotional curveballs will come Riley's way (Joy just has no clue what will happen when puberty hits). But this facet of Riley's existence is not something that only young girls will identify with - everyone will see some semblance of themselves in the restoration of happy and sad memories.

Stunning animation, vivid colors and razor-sharp writing are all but a few of the reasons why "Inside Out" works. We now live in a pop culture that revisits cinematic helpings of already well-traveled landscapes. “Inside Out” reminds us of the genuine power of fresh new landscapes.

Burt Reynolds wants to go to Venice

HEAT (1986)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

 Burt Reynolds is an actor who has so much magnetism and charisma that he can lift his right or left eyebrow, smile a little, shrug his shoulders and say so much without uttering one syllable. So much talent, spread and squandered on so many futile efforts. "Heat" is among them, an alleged action thriller that thrives on the absurd and preposterous and says nil.

Mind you, I do not expect an action thriller to always have something to say nor do I expect a Burt Reynolds flick to be anything other than a sparkling diamond in the rough. But let us consider the opening sequence. Burt is some mean drunk at a bar who hassles a woman waiting for her date and a proposition of marriage. He harasses her to no end and the date shows up, telling Burt to leave. They exit the bar and a fight ensues where the scrawny-looking date actually has the upper hand, or the upper punch. He knocks out Burt and his date is impressed. It was all a ruse you see, and that could have been a sweet setup for a comedy about how Burt Reynolds is always playing tough and mean only to be roughed up by a weakling to impress a fiancee. That could have been a major stroke of inspiration, especially from screenwriter William Goldman ("Misery," "All the President's Men") who is not known for such comedic sensibilities.

Travel with Burt

Instead we are saddled with a movie that goes nowhere fast. Burt plays yet another tough guy named Escalante, who might be a bodyguard at a casino though he looks more like James Bond. He also helps out a young troubled girl (Karen Young) who is roughed up and raped by some scrawny-looking rich kid in a blue robe. A Mafia Don eventually enters the picture...oh, why go on? Peter MacNicol is some other rich, scrawny-looking guy (I sense a pattern) who wants to hire Escalante to help teach him how to fight back. How noble. All I learned from the training exercises is that in a violent situation, when in doubt with those fists of fury, aim for the tender ball sack or tear off an ear!

Escalante's character is so mysterious that either he is a Vietnam Vet and current bodyguard, or he works at a dingy travel agency (it looks like one) because the guy has a major need to go to Venice. He is also adept at fighting and never uses a gun, and has a gambling problem. Or maybe he needs a lot of money so he can stay in Venice. Either way, this interminable bore of a movie is not really about anything - just a series of flimsy, illogical excuses to show close-ups of Burt Reynolds. In one exceedingly ill-written scene, Escalante somehow convinces a villain to off himself! No way! For some seeing Burt in anything might be sufficient justification and, for others, "Heat" is a reminder of the semi-interminable celluloid waste of Burt Reynolds.