A Pair of Cool Summer Films on Life Stages

Magnolia Pictures publicity image for Thelma, June Squibb as titular character, Fred Hechinger as her grandson Danny.

Disney publicity image of Anxiety, voiced by Maya Hawke, from "Inside Out 2."

I don’t go to the movie theater all that often, but twice in recent weeks my wife and I decided to catch a flick at the local cinema. As chance would have it, both movies we saw were, to some extent, ruminations on maturity, on the nature of aging and stages of life. To me, one was good although not great; the other was unexpectedly excellent.

When “Thelma” comes out on DVD, for us dinosaurs who don’t consume all our media from streaming services, you can bet I’ll snatch up a copy. Thelma is the gem.

When “Inside Out 2” hits the bargain bin, I’ll be willing to pick it up, too. It’s re-watchable, a good movie, but the disappointment is that it’s a sequel to a much better film.

“Inside Out 2” continues the adventures of Riley, a girl who has moved from Minnesota to California, where her father is part of a tech startup in San Francisco. The premise of the first movie was to personify key emotions and visually represent the interior working of the brain as Riley struggles with the stress of the move. That first movie was poignant, clever and thought-provoking.

Who thought we could choke up over the fate of an imaginary character who is part cat, part elephant, part dolphin and mostly cotton candy? Bing Bong, Riley may have left you behind, but we won’t ever forget you.

Anyway, that was the first movie. Part of its theme was that sadness is as important as joy, and maturing means learning to acknowledge and live with all of your emotions. At the end of the film, an expanded control panel is installed in brain HQ, with a big warning light labeled “Puberty.”

Which, almost inevitably, sets up “Inside Out 2.” And, of course, the siren sounds, the light flashes and suddenly, puberty hits, signaling a total remodel of HQ, among other things—including new emotions. Anxiety, Ennui and Embarrassment join the club.

The sequel is still clever, and has many good themes and moments. I like the idea of your self-concept being healthier if it is more inclusive of your actual experience and self, and not just what you desire to be rather than what you are. But the new emotions didn’t make as much sense to me. In the first movie, we saw inside HQ of the adult characters, who had the same core set of emotions as the 11-year-old Riley. And while I thought she was amusing to watch, is Ennui an emotion? And isn’t Embarrassment really an Elaboration of Fear?

I also wasn’t in love with all of the new side characters, the popular girls Riley aspired to be with or the current friends she was willing to leave behind. Funny that an imaginary friend from movie one seemed more emotionally “real” than any real friend from movie two. The concept makes sense—puberty is certainly a time of intense anxiety about one’s place in the peer social order, it’s just that the characters and dialogue didn’t resonate all that well with me.

Still, it was a good, watchable film, one I would be willing to see again, but probably wouldn’t do lots of repeated watches as I have with the original "Inside Out."

And then there is “Thelma.” How to describe “Thelma?” Think action move where our hero is a realistic character in her 90s. She has a death-defying trip across a maze—the interior of a cluttered shop—that is as dramatic as any break-into-the vault scene in a thriller, but reflects the limits of mobility of a body as it ages. Thelma has a grandson who looks after her and loves her, but in some many ways, it turns out Thelma is the adventurous, capable one, unfazed by and able to overcome her limits in a way that her grandson isn’t.

I think that’s part of the theme of this movie—so much of what holds us back is ourselves and how we picture ourselves. It’s not only what we can do, but what we allow ourselves to do.

And yet, “Thelma” acknowledges realities of ageing. As her main sidekick, an old man from a nursing home, says, “we are diminished.” A person in their 90s can be emotionally and mentally very sharp, but not quite as quick nor as physically strong as a younger person can be. In one sad scene, Thelma and her sidekick visit an old friend (to “borrow” a gun), and the old friend is obviously well beyond the point where she should be living alone at home. It happens at different rates and different times for different people, but age will eventually diminish any who survive to their golden years.

In a way, both movies are about self-knowledge, about the importance of recognizing who you really are, and what the realities are about your point in the road of life. And both have June Squibb—as a minor character (Nostalgia) in "Inside Out 2," and the main star of "Thelma." In my mind, “Thelma” is a 4.9 and “Inside Out 2” is a 3.9; they’re both worth seeing and thinking about.

And I suppose that’s the best thing one can say about any work of dramatic art—play, novel, TV show or movie. It if makes you more aware of yourself and seems to explore some fundamental realities of this human life, well, that’s a win. Maybe it’s a binge-worthy thing—watch “Inside Out 2” and then “Thelma.” That would seem to be a few hours well spent.