Movie Review: 'Inside Out 2' is an emotional whirlwind

Becoming a teenager can sometimes feel like a wrecking ball flung directly through your brain. That’s what happens to Riley’s “headquarters” in “Inside Out 2.”

Continuing the story of the critically acclaimed 2015 film, “Inside Out,” which followed 11-year-old Riley’s personified emotions through the difficulties brought on by her family’s move from Minnesota to San Francisco, “Inside Out 2” sees Riley two years older and once again facing massive changes.

After a demonstration of the well-oiled machine Riley’s emotions have become using the lessons learned in the first movie — a particularly successful game of hockey — Joy takes us through the current state of Riley’s life: her new friends, her forming system of beliefs and her newfound sense of self. Things are looking up for Riley and her crew when a flashing, screaming siren shakes them out of their comfortable routine — puberty has arrived.

Here’s where the wrecking ball comes in. Riley’s brain gets restructured to make room for a gaggle of new emotions: Ennui, Embarrassment, Envy and their overzealous leader Anxiety.

On the outside of her head, Riley is headed to a three-day hockey camp with her best friends that could define the next four years of her social life. On the inside, the new emotions are butting heads with the old as Anxiety becomes convinced she knows what’s best for Riley, and Joy is getting in the way.

I will be completely honest with you, dear reader. I hate sequels.

Unless a movie is adapting some longer piece of media that requires a few installments, I believe any movie that can stand on its own should stay that way, and if it can’t there’s certainly no reason to produce more of them. But the short list of exceptions to this rule has just gained another entry, and its name is “Inside Out 2.”

The idea that going through puberty would trigger the emergence of “new” emotions tripped me up initially and, honestly, I still think it’s a bit of a gimmick — does anyone really believe a 6-year-old never feels embarrassment or envy? But setting that aside, Riley’s difficulties with self-worth and friendship and their corresponding inward disasters rang true to the horrors of the early teenage years.

Part of what made the first movie so effective was its basis in actual psychology — filmmakers consulted with psychologists to accurately reflect the inner workings of an 11-year-old’s mind — and it turns out our brains have more stories to tell.

Set pieces like the back of the mind and the literally growing sense of self provide fresh visualizations of familiar experiences. As Joy, Sadness, Anxiety and the rest of the crew frantically scurried through Riley’s mind I found myself thinking, “Oh yeah, that is what that feels like!”

Along with making these experiences a little more comprehensible, “Inside Out 2” also sends a pretty comforting message: Whether anxiety is right has no bearing on whether it’s helpful.

Riley is being judged by the other girls, they do think her taste in music is childish and her hockey coach isn’t happy with her performance. But like Joy reminds Anxiety at the end of the movie, Riley can only control so much, and that’s completely OK.

Growing up involves a lot of reassessing priorities. Deciding which of your gut feelings to pursue is awkward, messy and sometimes disastrous, but life goes on and, generally, things work out.

In one scene, Riley overhears some of the older girls talking about her behind her back, one of them criticizing her lack of self awareness as she insists she wasn’t that bad at her age. It’s a devastating moment for Riley, but anyone who’s made it past that phase of denial can say with confidence, “Trust me, you were.”

Caroline Julstrom, intern, may be reached at 218-855-5851 or cjulstrom@brainerddispatch.com.

Caroline Julstrom finished her second year at the University of Minnesota in May 2024, and started working as a summer intern for the Brainerd Dispatch in June.