Inside Out 2 (U, 96mins)
Verdict: Mind-blowing sequel
Ama Gloria (12A, 84mins)
Verdict: Mary Poppins goes to France
Arcadian (15, 92mins)
Verdict: Nic Cage reins it in
Once upon a time, cartoons were populated by cute, dancing animals and fairytale princesses. No longer, if Inside Out 2 is anything to go by. This high-concept animation’s superbly realised characters include the likes of Anxiety (a friend/foe brilliantly voiced by Maya Hawke) and the amusingly French Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos). Look forward to seeing them on a lunchbox soon.
Sequel to the 2015 hit, Inside Out 2 similarly takes place inside the mind of Riley (Kensington Tallman), a girl whose inner HQ is controlled by personified emotions, led by the super-perky Joy (Amy Poehler).
Riley has just turned 13 – cue a hilarious Kevin The Teenager sequence where a big red demolition button marked ‘Puberty’ is pushed, transforming her, overnight, into a pimply, stinky, impossible-to-handle adolescent, as complicated emotions like Envy (Ayo Edebiri) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) move in.
Pixar fans may calm their own anxiety; this is a triumphant return to form for the studio behind Toy Story and Up. And while it can’t hope to recapture the novelty factor of the first Inside Out (indeed, the plot is basically the same, although Riley was only 11 at the start of the original), it’s otherwise even funnier, cleverer and more awesomely inventive, if not (thankfully) as emotionally devastating. (Some of us still haven’t got over the fate of poor old Bing Bong.)
Sequel to the 2015 hit, Inside Out 2 similarly takes place inside the mind of Riley (Kensington Tallman), a girl whose inner HQ is controlled by personified emotions, led by the super-perky Joy (Amy Poehler)
Pixar fans may calm their own anxiety; this is a triumphant return to form for the studio behind Toy Story and Up. And while it can’t hope to recapture the novelty factor of the first Inside Out
With lines like ‘when you put all the core beliefs together it creates what we call a “sense of self”’, the script sometimes sounds like ChatGPT regurgitating a psychology primer — and most of it will whizz over pre-pubescent heads. But in an era of churned-out, dumbed-down content, the level of sophistication is admirably ambitious.
It’s also something of a public service. That Inside Out 2’s first trailer scored 157 million online views within 24 hours — at that time, more than any other animated film in the history of Pixar’s owners, Disney — suggests it should provide comfort and joy for today’s anxiety-riddled youngsters.
Ama Gloria offers another remarkable peek into childhood, if on a more modest scale. Thickly bespectacled, cherubically plucky six-year-old Cleo (Louise Mauroy-Panzani) is devastated when her beloved nanny, Gloria (Ilca Moreno Zego), has to leave Paris for her native Cape Verde to care for her own children after the death of her mother. However, the two enjoy one last summer together when Gloria invites Cleo to her home, although Gloria’s children grow resentful of their closeness.
Anyone who had a special ‘Mary Poppins’ in their life will be in bits by the end. But even if you didn’t, you can’t help falling for this beautiful French coming-of-age story, thanks to the miraculous performance director Marie Amachoukeli coaxes from her child star.
Like Cleo, it’s a movie you’ll want to take home and cherish.
Ama Gloria offers another remarkable peek into childhood, if on a more modest scale
‘Restrained’ is not a word normally associated with Nicolas Cage. But that’s the mode the notoriously wild-eyed actor deploys in Arcadian.
Shot in Ireland, this low-budget horror casts him as the father of twin teenage boys (Jaeden Martell and Maxwell Jenkins), battling for survival in a post-apocalyptic world against freakish mutant creatures which appear to be afraid of the light.
The film offers some jump scares, effective tension and a decent amount of character building, but thanks to a coming-of-age teen love subplot, it feels like an odd waste of Cage’s unique talents.
Most memorable are the monsters: a nightmarish mix of lollopy limbs, telescopic claws, googly eyes and chattering jaws that suggest the Morris dancing hobby horses of the apocalypse.
