Anxiety in Inside Out 2 Is Too Real
NY Times critic Maya Phillips wrote about seeing her anxiety reflected in Pixar’s Inside Out 2.
When an emotion takes over in the “Inside Out” movies, a control board in Riley’s mind changes to that feeling’s color; Anxiety’s takeover, however, is more absolute. She creates a stronghold in Riley’s imagination, where she forces mind workers to illustrate negative hypothetical scenarios for Riley’s future. Soon, Riley’s chief inner belief is of her inadequacy; the emotions hear “I’m not good enough” as a low, rumbling refrain in her mind.
I’m familiar with anxiety’s hold on the imagination; my mind is always writing the script to the next worst day of my life. It’s already embraced all possibilities of failure. And my anxiety’s ruthless demands for perfection often turn my thoughts into an unrelenting roll-call of self-criticisms and insecurities.
And yet — Anxiety isn’t the villain of this movie.
A cursory spin around social media reveals many other people who identified with that aspect of the film.
I really enjoyed this movie and loved that they didn’t make Anxiety the villain. It would have been so easy to do so — Hollywood has a habit of really dumbing things down, especially in movies aimed at kids. The filmmakers seemed to understand that anxiety is the flip-side of a coin that includes some mixture of watchfulness, anticipation, and exhilaration. That emotion can be useful to people, until it spins out of the control as in the movie and then it wreaks havoc.
Comments 3
Yup. I don’t remember when was the last time I felt so seen as during the Inside Out 2 screening we went to with friends. This movie is amazing — just like the first one. If we must have sequels, dear Hollywood, then this is the way to do them. 🩵
This was such a brilliant review. I don't understand why NYT makes certain articles unavailable for comments (like this one), so I'll just post it here. I felt like she had so much more to say about the topic, but was cut short. Perhaps this will stir a longer article or even book from the author, but it was one of the better reviews I've read in a long time (stopped subscribing to NYT long ago).
That move is coming for you, high performers. The tacit assumption being that what drives high performers is a sense of self that says "I'm not good enough."
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