Summertime at the Movies -- Whimsy from Pixar and Raunch from Judd Apatow

Inside Out:

On a Friday when the multiplex was filled with families streaming into 'Minions', we went to see 'Inside Out' from Pixar Animation Studios.

Banner for 'Inside Out'.

The movie tells the story of 11-year-old Riley who moves with her family from Minnesota, where her passion was ice hockey, to San Francisco when her father gets a new job there.  It's mostly told from inside her head, where five competing characters struggle to control the console at headquarters that moderates and mixes Riley's emotions. Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) has been the dominant character --but with Riley's move to San Francisco, Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith), Anger (voiced by Lewis Black), Fear (voiced by Bill Hader) and Disgust (voiced by Mindy Kaling) take on bigger roles as she confronts mean girls at school, bickering parents at home and hockey withdrawal.

The 'little voices' of 'Inside Out'.

'Inside Out' is whimsical, ingenious, and fresh.  Everyone should rush to the multiplex to see this insightful and delightful look at 'the little voices inside our heads'.

Trainwreck:

This past Saturday, we went to see 'Trainwreck', the movie directed and produced by Judd Apatow and written by and starring Amy Schumer.  The theater was virtually sold out for a 2:10pm show.

Poster for 'Trainwreck'

Amy Schumer plays Amy Townsend (a version of herself?) who is a writer for S'nuff, a men's magazine in the manner of Maxim.  In an opening flashback, her father tells Amy and her sister that he and their mother are getting divorced because 'monogamy isn't realistic'.  Flashing forward, we find Amy living by this mantra -- hooking up with one man after another, drinking and drugging in excess, and generally -- a trainwreck.

At a S'nuff editorial meeting (Tilda Swinton plays the editor) Amy is assigned to write a story about a sports medicine doctor, Aaron Conners (played by Bill Hader) who hangs out with his patients -- including LeBron James and the Knick City Dancers.  Amy puts her usual moves on Aaron and he falls for her hard.  From there, the movie goes on far too long and makes its central character ever more unlikeable.

Many individual scenes could be brief raunchy skits on late night cable TV, however the cumulative effect of one after another is excessive and ultimately disgusting.  You leave the theater with a bad taste in your mouth from the excessive bile.  We may all know a trainwreck, but we don't willingly spend more than two hours with them.  This summer, get your air conditioning somewhere other than a theater screening this movie.