Joey’s Home Movies For the Week of September 9th – ‘Inside Out 2’ Continues to Delight While ‘All of Us Strangers’ Comes to Criterion

Welcome back to my Home Movies! This week, we have Pixar’s latest juggernaut in Inside Out 2 hitting shelves, along with All of Us Strangers getting the Criterion treatment. You can see my Telluride review of the latter here, as well as my interviews with filmmaker Andrew Haigh (here), plus cast members Jamie Bell (here), Claire Foy (here), and Andrew Scott (here). What else is coming out today? Read on to find out…

Joey’s Top Pick

Inside Out 2

Doubt Pixar at your own risk. Inside Out 2 is not just a worthy sequel to Inside Out, it’s one of their best works in years. I spoke to director Kelsey Mann and producer Mark Neilson here about crafting this follow-up, but the box office windfall does speak to audiences embracing this one quite fully. My review here on the site began like so:

Pixar is at their best when crafting original stories. Many point to Inside Out as the animation giant’s last masterpiece, not without merit, too. The sequels that they put out, on the other hand, are often seen as lesser efforts. There’s no less care put into them, but sometimes there’s less of an idea at play beyond recreating magic. Now, Inside Out 2 very much does recreate the magic of the last one, but it also has a new hook, an important message, and terrific craftsmanship. It all adds up to a massive success from the studio, as well as one of the best films of 2024 so far.

Inside Out 2 could easily have been tossed off, or even just fallen into middle tier Pixar, like basically all of their non Toy Story sequels. Somehow, we instead have a film that impeccably builds upon Inside Out to create something more complex and even more satisfying. The movie brought me to tears when the last one did not (I know, I’m one of the few). The simple message that we should all love all of ourselves builds out into a memorable cinematic experience for the whole family.

Also Available This Week

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1

Kill

Knuckles (TV)

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season Twenty-Five (TV)

Ted: Season One (TV)

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – Season 1 (TV)

Wind River (4K)

Criterion Corner

All of Us Strangers

From The Criterion Collection: “A metaphysical exploration of queer love and loneliness, familial grief and healing, this delicate but audacious chamber drama confirms director Andrew Haigh’s gift for bringing complicated emotions to the screen. Isolated in a seemingly empty new high-rise, London screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) finds his solitary existence upended when he begins a passionate romance with the impulsive Harry (Paul Mescal), then reconnects with his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) in a reunion that pushes beyond the limits of time and space. Putting a deeply personal imprint on a novel by Japanese writer Taichi Yamada, Haigh reaches cosmic heights while never losing sight of the story’s achingly human heart.”

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Tótem

From The Criterion Collection: “In a bustling Mexican household, seven-year-old Sol is swept up in the whirlwind of preparations for her terminally ill father’s birthday party, led by her mother, aunts, and other relatives. As the day builds to an event both anticipated and dreaded, Sol and her family begin to understand the gravity of this year’s celebration. Lila Avilés directs a dynamic ensemble cast in this stunning sophomore effort—a warmly observed, poignantly funny, and emotionally expansive study of the ways we cope with grief.”

Stay tuned for more next week…