INSIDE OUT (2015)

This post has been selected by BlogAdda as a Tangy Tuesday pick for 30.06.2015

The success of any movie depends directly on its ability to forge an emotional connect between the characters who inhabit the movie and the viewer. The greater we feel with / for a character, identify / empathise with their predicaments, feelings, choices and actions, the higher the chances of a movie's success. What if the main characters in a movie are the basic emotions themselves..? Would it make it easier or difficult to forge an emotional connect with such a movie ?

Pixar, the path-breaking animation studio that presented us with such classic delights such as Toy Story series, Finding Nemo, Wall E, Up and many more have explored the above question in their latest ambitious animated feature, Inside Out. When 11-year old Riley, is forced to relocate from Minnesota to San Francisco with her parents, she undergoes an emotional roller-coaster as she is stressed out in adjusting to a new place even as she misses her hitherto dear home and friends. The movie captures this emotional turmoil of Riley by exploring the working of her mind through the interactions between her five basic emotions of Joy (a chirpy Amy Poehler), Sadness (adorable Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling). 

While the movie deserves kudos for its high quality and vivid animation which we have come to expect from Pixar, what makes it tick is the fact that Director Pete Doctor (Up & Monsters Inc.) who has co-written this movie has conjured up a magical movie which works at so many levels. He presents a lively animated feature which breaches the hitherto accepted horizons of its genre to bravely explore the abstract world of mind and emotions, angst, existential crisis and depression. The movie succeeds mainly from its sheer brilliance in writing which successfully communicates, without compromising on an iota of entertainment value, the nature of every emotion,their behavioural outcomes, their utility and prominence in the larger scheme of our lives, the need to accept all of them as well as the need to strive towards a balance among them. Multiple abstract concepts which one would normally associate with psychology texts and self-help books such as formation of memories, transfer into and storage of long term memories, imagination, nostalgia, dreams, influence of emotions on memory, emotion - behaviour connect, loss of unused memory, repression, fears that fester in the subconscious, need for a balanced emotional state are presented through inventive and imaginative visuals in a sincere and heart warming manner.

Pixar has done what it does best.. Outdo Pixar.. in making the BEST animated features ever. This is an abundantly funny, yet, subtle, sensitive, profound and poignant movie that presents its inherently complex and abstract material in a lucid manner that appeals universally. It is a veritable treat which would satiate the appetite of every demographic one could imagine, effortlessly making each of them laugh and cry. Inside Out is a triumph in movie-making and am certain that it would find its place in the coveted club of everlasting classics in movie history.

If there could be ONLY one movie that one would see this whole year... THIS IS IT ! THIS IS IT !! A RARE GEM ! MUST WATCH !! RATING - 5/5

JURASSIC WORLD (2015)

Jurassic World directed by Colin Trevorrow is officially the fourth installment of the famous dino franchise that started in 1993 by the master auteur Steven Spielberg who had, in turn, adopted it from the best selling novel of sci-fi author Michael Chrichton. When Spielberg presented his pioneering movie, as an adventure 65 million years in the making, it proved to be a defining moment in movie history - an early triumph of movie magic concocted from CGI and animatronics wizardry - which redefined the possibilities and consequently, the paradigm of popular cinema. It left a firm imprint (a la T-Rex's footprint) on the minds of its viewers like me with its vivid imagery - be it the tiny ripples in the water accompanied by the thuds of the approaching creature, the chilling chase sequence of T Rex hounding a speeding jeep, the nail biter of a pantry sequence involving the two kids and a bunch of raptors as well as the sequence where kids trapped in the car are confronted by the mighty T Rex in a rampaging mode.

However, as with most such mega movies, the franchise soon became a victim of its own momentous success. Dino movies, just like their dinosaurs, soon got relegated to a prehistoric era in the minds of the movie goers as subsequent summer blockbusters have continued to grow and hone their CGI wizardry to create bigger, meaner and scarier monsters which pile up the scale of mayhem with each passing year. However, the enduring value of the original movie was reinforced when Universal Studios released the reworked 3D version of Jurassic Park in 2013 to mark the twentieth anniversary of its release which proved successful across the globe. 

The present movie is set in Isla Nublar after 22 years from the timeline of the the first movie and ignores the story arcs of its sub-par sequels (1994 by Spielberg and 2001 by Joe Johnston). John Hammond's dream is finally a reality with his successor Mesrani (Irrfan Khan) having set up a hugely popular, luxury dino theme park called Jurassic World spanning the entire island of Isla Nublar. The park is headed by a control seeking, very formal - "I am all business" - park manager, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard). Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) is an ex-navy officer-cum-animal expert, working in the park and is involved in a study on training velociraptors. As the movie opens, Claire is forced to play host to her school going nephews, Zach and Gray, who are sent by their parents for a fun weekend while they consider an impending divorce.

The park itself has been a successful venture for several years now with steady growth of visitors from across the world. The influx of the visitors is spiked periodically by introducing a new species every few years to sustain the waning interests. The tourists' fatigue of older attractions is succinctly captured in a sequence where Zach, in his observatory, prefers to remain glued to his smart phone and ignores a T-Rex (no less), quite literally, devouring a scapegoat (a key element in the first movie). So, when mother nature is incapable of dishing out attractions that could sustain such volatile attention spans, the corporation running Jurassic World decides to take matters in its own hands to bolster the sagging growth curve of footfalls in the park. They cook up a new dino attraction  - read bigger, louder, smarter dinosaur with more teeth - called Indominus rex, by concocting a genetic cocktail of DNA sourced from multiple dinosaurs and other species. Predictably, as dictated by the template of such genre movies, the dino escapes its confinement to go on a killing frenzy, unleashing mayhem on the unsuspecting tourists as well as other dinosaurs. 

Off the cast, Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) continues to charm with his performance and one gets a feeling that he might well be the right guy for an Indiana Jones reboot. He shares an interesting chemistry with Howard who is competent and brings in the necessary intensity in the second half. The rest of the cast including Irrfan and the two kids are merely for functional aspects - to stage an action sequence, mouth something vaguely philosophical or become feast for the predators - with limited scope to perform as is the norm in such monster movies.

Director Colin Trevorrow who had impressed with his indie time travel comedy, Safety Not Guaranteed, on his debut, is filling some VERY BIG shoes for his second feature and has managed to ace his first try at the summer blockbuster genre. Trevorrow's execution manifests his brilliance in marshaling the resources at hand to craft a sure-fire winner that packs in the right dose of spectacle to shock and awe the viewers. He stages the action sequences with commendable clarity and fluid camera work which herald him as a maker who is confident of his craft and can leave his mark despite several imprints of Spielberg (Executive Producer here) that permeate the movie. Trevorrow also doffs his hat at Spielberg's original as well as earlier works more than once as in the case of using Mr. DNA animation, statue of Hammond, using the dilapidated site of the earlier park to stage an action sequence or even in the spectacular sequence of feeding a great white shark to an aquatic dinosaur (Mosasaurus). 

Besides being the big bang blockbuster, Trevorrow and his co-writers supplement the regular fare of faulting human hubris in playing God to include multiple elements of self-referencing all through the movie by flagging the never-ending saga of our times - the interplay of consumerism and capitalism wherein we, the consumers (even as audiences) are constantly seeking the next BIGGER, BETTER experience and the capitalists seeking to continuously stoke this innate, insatiable instincts of the consumer and milk the same for more and more moolah. 

On the flip side, the movie could be definitely held guilty for doing such self referencing a tad too much as well as for playing up the ancient gender archetypes, multitude of conspicuous product placements and some pretty hollow characterisations. Yet, it redeems itself by delivering solidly on its promise of bringing the scares through BIGGER, LOUDER & MORE TEETH which translates into popcorn munching fun, fear and wonderment. While clearly not surpassing Spielberg's original, Trevorrow's energetic movie is mighty successful in replicating much of the awe and is clearly a worthy successor that ups the benchmark of spectacle value for future movies which could well make it the biggest winner of this summer.   

A MUST WATCH !! (preferably, in IMAX 3D, if you can !!)

RATING - 4/5