THE MASTERPIECE
We reassess the greatest films of all time, one film at a time
Emotional intelligence: Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith).
Alamy
Inside Out
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN ONCE announced a film “set within the architecture of the mind”; Pete Docter could have described his extraordinary Inside Out in similar terms, and delivers more literally on the promise. A story focused on the competing emotions inside an 11-year-old girl’s head as she faces the greatest challenge of her young life, this is a metaphor extended to feature length and somehow, magically, able to sustain itself.
It came, as so many of the best films do, from a personal conundrum. Docter started wondering what was going on inside his young daughter’s head as she approached adolescence and her personality shifted in ways he didn’t quite understand. Being an animation genius, what could have been an idle musing became the engine for a years-long storytelling odyssey. How do you conceptualise the workings of a human mind on the brink of adulthood? How can you possibly encapsulate one human being ’s inner life, for even a couple of days? It turns out that, with trial and error and vast effort, the Pixar team found a way.