INSIDE OUT 2***

INSIDE OUT 2 was released this summer and has made just shy of USD1.7bn and counting on a USD200m budget. So two things are certain. 1) No-one needs another review of this film because everyone has already seen it.  2) Bob Iger is for sure gonna greenlight a threequel.

I found the film to be charming and spot on about the perils of puberty but basically blah. Maybe I am spoiled - the stunning animation and creativity are literally something I have seen before. The novelty and sheer heart of the first instalment got me all choked up in the threatre. This one, I admired, but it didn't hit me emotionally. Plus, I am hardly the target demographic.

Our protagonist Riley is now a 13 year old good kid dealing with increased anxiety and envy at the onset of puberty. She is sent to a sports camp with her two childhood best friends and faces the twin evils of wanting to hang with the cool kids, and doubting she is good enough to make the team. But of course, as we know she's a good kid, so no actual peril there.

Meanwhile, inside her head, the emotions we have come to know and love are joined by new puberty-laden baggage, and we get a new concept - the Sense of Self.  The message here is that it's damaging to try and only use good memories and feelings to create a Sense of Self. You have to let the bad stuff in too, and deal with it, and grow from it, and love it. So enough with the helicopter parenting parents!

Yep, Amy Poehler's Joy is very much the target of all those books I have been reading by NYU Professor Jonathan Haidt about the dangers of molly coddling kids in the real world, but letting them run wild in the virtual world. So as much as this film is aimed at kids, parents take note!

INSIDE OUT 2 has a running time of 96 minutes and is rated PG.

BOTTOMS*****

Director Emma Seligman (SHIVA BABY) and writer-actor Rachel Sennott (THE IDOL) reimagine BOOKSMART as a tale of two high-school lesbian best friends who want to lose their virginity before college.  They get their chance when a rumour goes around the school that they served time in Juvenile Detention, giving them instant cool status. The girls exploit this by setting up a kind of FIGHT CLUB to teach their fellow girls how to defend themselves from sexual predation. Naturally they are delighted when the two hot popular cheerleaders turn up.

The landscape of this film is familiar to those of us raised on John Hughes movies and HEATHERS and Friday Night Lights. It's a culture that privileges the beautiful and the sports stars and is oppressively heteronormative. It's a culture that doesn't fund teachers or books but builds a new sports field. This film is  here to rip the piss out of all of that. Not just in hilariously blunt dialogue that has characters say exactly what they think no matter how politically incorrect. But also with visual gags around posters and text written on chalk boards and aural jokes on the school's PA system.  The result is a film that is laugh-out loud funny and that will absolutely repay repeated viewing.  It features a cracking largely all-female diverse cast. That said, particular props to ex sports star Marshawn Lynch who has some of the most darkly funny lines as the girls' No Fucks Given high school teacher. And Nicholas Galitzine, most recently seen in the Amazon Prime gay rom-com RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE, is hilariously funny as the camp jock superstar.

Behind the lens, this film is exceptionally well put together by director Emma Seligman.  The editing is sharp, the music choices stunningly good and the copious violence directed with real impact and flair.  Most of all, I loved the production design and costumes.  The team have created a kind of era-ambiguous contemporary but retro feeling, as in the TV show Sex Education. It could be any time between 1989 and now. It gives the film a timeless feeling but also acknowledges our shared love of the high school movie genre, adding layers of depth to the viewing experience.

BOTTOMS is rated R and has a running time of 91 minutes. It played SXSW 2023 and was released in the USA in August. It goes on release in the UK tomorrow, November 3rd.