Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post: Inside Out 2

Hello and welcome to debut of Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post.

This where I (Dave-El) will write about a Movie I have seen and Post about it on my blog over the Weekend (usually Saturday, sometimes Sunday or even both.)

As you can see, the I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You marketing department worked really hard on this.   

What better way to launch a new series of posts about my love of movies than with a post about a new movie. 

The first edition of Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post is about Inside Out 2, a sequel to Inside Out (2015). For my post about the first film, click here. 

Riley Andersen is 13, and about to enter high school. Her personified emotions—Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust—have since created a new section of Riley's mind called "Sense of Self", which houses memories and feelings that form Riley's beliefs. 

The primary belief of Riley's Sense of Self? "I'm a good person."

Joy, intending to fill the Sense of Self with only positive memories, has also invented a mechanism that launches any negative memories to the back of Riley's mind. 

Riley and her best friends Bree and Grace are invited to a weekend ice hockey camp where Riley hopes to qualify for her school's team, the Firehawks. 

Everything is going great! 

Absolutely fine!  

Then the Puberty Alarm goes off.  

Yep, everything is just... fine.

Except...

Riley is over reacting to even the most modest actions taken by Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust. And there are the new emotions:  Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui.

There is conflict: 

Joy thinks Riley should focus on having fun at the camp.

Anxiety wants Riley to win a spot on the team because otherwise her future is doomed to failure! 

In a match up of Joy vs. Anxiety, Anxiety wins! 

Anxiety get busy as she...

• dumps Riley's Sense of Self into the back of Riley's mind
•  throws the old emotions into a memory vault.
• uses negative memories to create a new, corrupted Sense of Self.

Anxiety's manipulations leads Riley to blow off her friends Bree and Grace in order to ingratiate herself with high school hockey champ Val Ortiz so Riley will not be forced to eat alone in the high school cafeteria and not make the Firehawks team.  

Joy and the original emotions are on a quest to recover Riley's original Sense of Self from it's exile. It's primary belief of "I'm a good person" grows weaker, fainter.

Meanwhile, what is the primary belief of Riley's new Sense of Self created by Anxiety? "I am not good enough."

During the final scrimmage game of the ice hockey camp, Riley who is now burdened by self doubt caused by Anxiety's Sense of Self is a monster on the ice.  Riley's hogging the puck and missing her shots. And she hurts Grace which gets Riley sent to the penalty box. 

This results in Anxiety swarming the control board in a panic which causes an overwhelmed Riley to experience a panic attack.

The old emotions returns and Joy restores the old Sense of Self but the damage is done. Riley is still caught up in her panic attack. 

Anxiety cannot determine who Riley is or will be. And Joy realizes neither can she.  Joy removes the first Sense of Self again which allows a new, complex, and varying Sense to form from Riley's positive and negative memories. 

Riley regains control and reconciles with Bree and Grace. And with Joy taking control, Riley smiles as she finishes the game. 

The film ends with Riley in high school, she's friends with Val and the Firehawks team and she still friends with Bree and Grace. There is some uncertainty if Riley made the team but she feels good in that she knows she tried her best and there is always next year.   

OK, I will admit this movie did a number on me. I remember when I was younger and anxiety took control and quite frankly never let go. I never experienced the catharsis that Riley has with Joy and Anxiety working in tandem.  

The moment in the ice hockey camp scrimmage that has been built by Anxiety into this make or break moment for Riley's future, the horrible realization that Anxiety has destroyed all that was good that got Riley to this camp in the first place, it is a terrible and heartbreaking moment.  

Basically, Inside Out 2 is a visual representation of the struggles anyone who has battled with their mental health will recognize.  Not all of us got that catharsis when we were young.  

Pixar is back to their best form, taking a concept that is not easy to describe and turning it into a movie that is funny and sad and even thought provoking about this crazy thing called life. 

Inside Out2 made headlines by actually being a major box office success.  It had the third-biggest domestic opening weekend for an animated film and is the highest-grossing film of 2024 to date. 

I wouldn't be surprised to see this movie way past $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales by the time this posts. 

When Andrea and I went to see Inside Out 2 the weekend after it's debut, I think it was the most people I've shared a theater with since Barbie last summer.   

Inside Out 2 represents Pixar back to it's classic form.  

If only it didn't make me think and feel so much.

My brain still hurts.

______________________________

What's coming up next for this crazy new thing called Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post?   

• Saving Private Ryan 
• Crazy Rich Asians  
• The Muppets Take Mahattan 
• Pee Wee's Big Adventure 

And yes, there will be posts about classic films from the Golden Age of Hollywood. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and I'm always down to see a movie. 

Your Friday Video Link: Shark Week Special

On Sunday July 7th, the Discovery channel launches it's annual "Shark Week".  

To celebrate, Your Friday Video Link presents an animated feature inspired by The Little Mermaid.  

But with a shark!

Enjoy!  

Of Presidents and Kings

On this day on July 4, 1776, the following statement was issued to Great Britain and it’s King: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”  Yes, the group that declared this were rich land owning white men and those that were NOT rich NOT land owning NOR white NOR men had fuck all in the way of rights in this nascent little nation. 

Over time efforts were made to include those who were NOT rich and NOT land owning and NOT white and NOT men but admittedly, I’m getting way ahead of myself. 

 

Anyway, this group declared that men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

 

Yeah, the reality of that has not always lived up to the ideal. So Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are unalienable Rights given by their creator? Well, that must have been news to the women who were trying to make a life in this new world. 

And the slaves, yeah, this was news to them too.

Also the natives who already lived here when the weird white guys with buckles on their hats showed up, they were shocked to hear this too.  

 

Again, it takes time for the circle of those included in those unalienable Rights to be expanded. It takes time and yeah, some bloodshed. No one said attaining equality for everyone would be easy. 

 

Over the last 2 and a half centuries, the United States of America has in fits and starts moved forward to expand the blessings of liberty to include all who are citizens of this country.  There have been steps backward in that process but the steps forward tended to outnumber the steps back.

 

At least until recently.

 

This past Monday felt like the biggest step back. One of the biggest damn reasons why we issued a Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 was we were sick and tired of being told what to do and how to do it by a king sitting on a throne an ocean away. Then on July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court decides that yeah, maybe we need a king after all? By granting the President immunity from criminal prosecutions for “official acts” means the President can act with total impunity and no regard for consequence.

 

Basically like a king. 

 

Current President Joe Biden issued a statement that he thinks this is a bad idea.

 

Former President Donald Trump is just positively giddy with school boy glee that he doesn’t have to answer for any of the criminal charges against him.  

 

Of course this isn’t the only step the Supreme Court has taken reverse progress to provide the rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness to ALL of America’s citizens. 

 

Last week’s reversal of the 1984 Chevron ruling means a loss of protections for citizens to have clean water and air, safe food and medicine and protections against discrimination.  Chances are if you are a rich land owning white man, the overturning of Chevron won’t hurt you much and may in fact put even more money in your pocket. Way to go, rich land owning white men of America! You’ve earned it!

I'm not sure how exactly they did this but apparently other rulings by the Supreme Court made being homeless against the law and bribery is now legal somehow?

What gives?  

The more I know, the more depressed I get.

Today is America's birthday but I don't feel like celebrating.  

I feel like this is too many steps backwards.   

248 years backwards.

We extricated ourselves from a king.

The Supreme Court gives us king.  

And all of us souls who call this country home do not feel that equal anymore.

There are the rich landowning white men. 

And there is everyone else.

 

Supreme Greed

Before we get into today's post about how the Supreme Court overturned it's ruling in the 1984 case of Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council on Friday, a brief word about the Supreme Court's fuckery on Monday.

The Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump has immunity for stuff he did while President.  

Sorry, I don't believe that sentence fully conveys my feelings on this subject.

Let's try again.

The god damn Supreme Court fucking ruled that god damn Donald fucking Trump has fucking immunity for shit he did while god damn President.  

Once more, I feel I am coming up short in expressing my feelings on this subject.

Let me try again.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKK!!!!!!!!

Anyway...

Here is the post that I originally wrote for today where in we see how the Supreme Court's ruling on Friday pushes government of the people that much closer to perishing from the face of the Earth.

_________________________________

While everyone was in a tizzy of terror in the aftermath of Thursday's Biden-Trump Debate (which is still resonating a week later; OMG! Biden's a doddering old man!), no one was paying attention on Friday when the Supreme Court overturned another long standing ruling with dramatic implications almost on par with their over turn of Roe V. Wade.  

The Supreme Court on Friday overturned its 1984 ruling in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. 

What this does is undermines the authority of government agencies to regulate virtually anything:

• water and air quality  
• drug safety
• labor practices
• food safety
• discrimination   
• artificial intelligence 
• broadcasting 
• online communication platforms  

Almost anything that can affect the quality of life for the average American citizen has been affected by this ruling. 

So what exactly did Chevron do? 

Basically, when Congress passes a law, there are regulatory agencies that can set standards for making sure the requirements of that law are met fairly and equitably as well as establish penalties  for those who do not follow the law. 

Basically corporations put up a fight and said who the hell are these agencies to tell us what to do. 

The Chevron ruling in 1984 basically said regulatory agencies can do what they want but corporations were free to push back if any requirements were unreasonable.  

Corporate America did not like that.  

Conservatives did not like that. 

And they have been pushing for a way for 4 decades to get Chevron overturned. 

The Constitution says that the Legislative branch makes laws, the Executive branch executes those laws and the Judicial branch interprets those laws. What had Conservative's panties in a knot was the regulatory agencies were usurping the Judiciary's role of interpreting laws.  

In 1984, the Supreme Court said no, that is NOT what is happening here.

In 2024, the Supreme Court rules that is EXACTLY what is happening here.  

Basically, it's those goddamn literalests on the Supreme Court taking point here. ("Ain't nothing in the Constitution about no Environmental Protection blah blah blah!")   

Overturning Chevron means changing government from being proactive to make sure your water is clean, the food you eat is safe and you're not being fucking discriminated against to being reactive.  

Now it's up to you to sue in the courts that maybe your chicken nuggets have too much cardboard in them and it's up to a judge in a court of law to determine if that's true or not.  

You can imagine corporations love this because it means less money being spent on food inspections, air scrubbers on smoke stacks or paying fair wages to everybody unless somebody happens to sue and given how time intensive and expensive that is, how often will that happen and even then since the corporations have more money for more expensive lawyers, how will that be successful. 

Old model under Chevron: corporations have to do the right thing immediately.

New model with Chevron: companies can avoid the right thing as long as they can until their luck runs out.  

So it's a big ol' "Fuck you!" to American citizens and another win for corporate America.

And under a 2nd Trump presidency, this will only get worse. 

Which is why we need to vote for the doddering old man. 

_________________________________

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, the birthday of the good ol' USA!  

All that is born is destined to one day die.

Are we close to the death of the great American experiment?

How the Supreme Court's ruling on Monday runs counter to what we demanded on July 4th, 1776. 

I will rant about it tomorrow.  

Tuesday TV Touchbase: This Looks Like a Blog Post For Superman

Under the heading "the wrong people keep dying" Martin Mull passed away last week.  Martin was the epitome of "the guy who was in the thing".  Here are just some of the things that I watched that this guy was in: 

• The New Adventures of Wonder Woman
• Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch
• The Simpsons
• Just Shoot Me!
• Dexter's Laboratory
• Arrested Development
• Community
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine
• Not Dead Yet

Also Martin Mull was Colonel Mustard in the cult classic movie Clue. 

Martin Mull had a dry, clever wit delivered with a certain charm that will be missed. 

Welcome to another edition of the Tuesday TV Touchbase.  This is my weekly “Tuesday” post where I “touch base” on what I am watching on “TV”.

 

Are we clear?

 

This week’s post is about Superman, past, present and future!

 

In the present, we’ve got My Adventures With Superman, the animated series that features Jack Quaid as the voice of Superman/Clark Kent. 

 

The idea of Jack Quaid as Superman may seem counterintuitive but for this series, Jack’s earnest demeanor is perfect, dang it! This is a Superman who is young and unsure of who he is but he is committed to one over riding principle: “I’m here to help.” 

 

This series has some unique spins to the Superman mythos. The idea that Clark, Lois and Jimmy are the same age and true confidants to each other is a refreshing take on the old school concept of Superman keeping his distance from his alleged girl friend and pal.   

 

Krypton is revealed to be the center of a brutal autocratic empire and Brainiac has convinced Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El that the empire was a good thing and to get her cousin on board with bringing it back. 

 

The action can be a bit too frenetic and the dialogue seems to be shouted too often (a criticism I also have about Star Trek Lower Decks) but My Adventures With Superman is a fresh new take on the Superman saga that I am enjoying quite a lot.

 

Looking to the future, Superman & Lois will be returning to the CW for it’s 4th and final season this fall. Since season 3 ended with Superman and the Lex Luthor constructed Doomsday monster in a knock down drag out fight, it seems the new season will kick off some version of the comic storyline where Superman died stopping Doomsday.  

 

And he stays dead and the show is renamed & Lois. 

 

Just kidding. I’m sure Superman will recover from his case of death.

 

There’s only 10 episodes this season to get anything done so I can’t imagine any “Death of Superman” storyline would play out too long. 

Like the new animated series, Superman & Lois caught my attention by doing something unique with the mythos: Clark and Lois as parents of teen-aged boys and all that comes with.  

 

Looking to the past, I occasionally will catch an episode of The Adventures of Superman on the H&I channel.  Even by the standards of 1950’s TV, this show was made on the cheap. One episode featured a robot run amuck.  Well, not so much run as shambled amuck in all it’s tin foil covered cardboard glory.

George Reeves’ Clark Kent is quite the snarky smart ass, a bit more tougher than the mild mannered milquetoast Clark was often depicted as in the comics.  

The super stunts are cheap, almost laughable but they have an innocent charm that appeals to the child still lurking in us. And like the new animated series, it's the interplay between Clark, Lois and Jimmy that really makes the classic series from the 1950's watchable.  

 

Another show from the past I would like to re-visit is Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.   There were some really tight budgetary restrictions on the super stunts but I have some fond memories of this series, mostly for Terri Hatcher’s super smart and super sexy Lois Lane.  And while I found his take on Superman a bit lacking, I kind of liked how Dean Cain portrayed Clark Kent, mild mannered, yes, but still a capable individual you can believe is a big city newspaper reporter.

 

But it’s Dean in the present day that kind makes it hard to look at those shows.  Dean Cain has aged into a thick headed hard right MAGA wing nut who frequently makes the rounds on Fox News to remind us what a hell hole our country is.  Sometimes he’ll cite his legacy as Superman and try to claim there are certain things that Superman wouldn’t friggin’ put up with. It’s sad how little Dean understands of the character he once portrayed. 

 

Superman is not a judge or a jury or an executioner.

 

Superman doesn't care about your race or religion or your sexual orientation or your gender.  Do you need help? Superman's response? “I’m here to help.” 

That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Next week: Interview With the Vampire.   

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here. 

Let's have Martin Mull take us out for today's post, "The Time of My Life" from the film A Futile & Stupid Gesture.  

The Biden - Trump Debate: Holy Crap! What Now?!?!

So Andrea and I tried to be good informed American citizens by watching the debate Thursday night between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

 

We gave up after 10 minutes.

 

Trump was dishing out the usual lying platitudes that can be summarized as follows:

• America sucked.
• I made it not suck.
• America sucks again.
• I will make it not suck.

 

Trump is not big on details. 

 

Meanwhile, Biden was…

 

Biden was…

 

…

 

Could someone check for a pulse?

 

Oh my God! Every single BAD thing that Donald Trump and right wing pundits have been saying about Biden being in decline was in evidence on that stage.

• Meandering statements.
• Raspy voice.
• Lost trains of thoughts. 
• Vacant expressions 

 

At the end of a statement where Biden clearly lost the thread and was unsure how to finish his sentence, Trump had this expression that seemed to suggest, “Holy shit! I was right?” 

 

Make no mistake, in terms of actual factuals, Trump came up short as he usually does because who needs facts when he can just make up shit.

 

But Trump was lying coherently.

 

Biden was trying to make the case for his Presidency with actual things he has done and facts.

 

But Biden was telling the truth incoherently.

 

History lesson:  

the Presidential debate in 1960 

between Richard Nixon and John F Kennedy.

 

People who listened to the debate on the radio thought Nixon won.

 

People who watched the debate on TV thought Kennedy won.

 

Why? Because on TV Nixon was melting. 

 

Nixon was fighting the flu with some medication that made him punchy and bleary eyed.

 

Also someone had the bright idea of covering Nixon’s 5 o’clock beard shadow with extra make up which under the hot studio lights started to melt. 

 

Nixon looked bad on TV and it may have been the edge to give Kennedy the win in 1960.  

 

Going in the debate on June 27th, 2024, Biden should’ve had the wind at his back.

• His opponent is a convicted felon.
• His opponent has a history of being incoherent and rambling.
• His opponent lies!

 

Instead…

 

Joe Biden looked and sounded bad.  Donald Trump looked and sounded… not bad.

 

Never mind the substance of their leadership styles and objectives.   In front of a national audience, Trump put on a better show than Biden.

 

Please understand I will take the doddering old man over the other dude is deficient in intelligence, morality, ethics and compassion.

 

But we can’t escape the fact that Joe Biden is, God help us, a doddering old man.  

 

I don’t think Biden is in a state of dementia or Alzheimer’s or anything of the sort. He is just old.

 

And being old is catching up to Joe Biden.

 

Also catching up to Joe Biden is the babbling man-monster who is deficient in intelligence, morality, ethics and compassion.

 

And if he regains the White House…

 

We are so screwed!      

 

Then THIS GUY shows up Friday in North Carolina and...

And if I may echo the sentiments of Mark Evanier, Where the fuck was this guy Thursday night?

Blog Bidness: Break Time Is Over

Hi there! Hey there! Ho there! 

I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You is back! 

And thousands cheer!

Or react with indifference.  

Oh who cares? I do this blog for me and that lonely little Russian spy bot that sees if I said anything insulting about Vladmir Putin.

"Мне чертовски скучно!"

I had hoped to get more ahead on some recurring blog features during the down time.  

I didn't.

The biggest change to the blog is how I post about movies.  Cinema Saturday and Cinema Sunday are gone.  My movie posts will appear under Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post on Saturday.  Maybe and/or Sunday.  But my commitment is one movie post a week, 2 if I have the spoons for it. 

Otherwise I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You is just more of the same:

What's going on in the world?  A post about the Biden-Trump debate will go up later this morning.

The Tuesday TV Touchbase will still be a thing.

And whatever else pops in my head.  

Спасибо за чтение! 

Thank you for reading! 

And remember to be good to one another.