Inside the Rain Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Inside the Rain Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 9, 2020

Mental illness hasn’t typically been played for even a few laughs in films through the years, but Inside the Rain arguably manages to wrest at least a wry smile or two if nothing more guffaw worthy in its tale of a pretty seriously afflicted college student named Ben Glass, played by Aaron Fisher, who also wrote and directed this feature, his first foray into filmmaking. Fisher has gone on record as stating that the film is semi- autobiographical, and in some online interviews Fisher has detailed the “drug cocktail” he is forced to take to keep him highly functioning. Drug cocktails play into Inside the Rain, though it’s notable that Ben Glass actually downs his retinue of daily pills with a cocktail, something that ultimately leads to disaster when he overdoses in an attempted suicide.

When a "horrible misunderstanding" leads to Ben's college thinking he's made a second suicide attempt at the school and is therefore facing explusion, he decides to use a filmmaking assignment given in one of his classes to dramatize what he feels is the college's attempts to pound his "square peg" personality into a round hole. That leads to a whole series of "adventures" as Ben tries to crowdfund and then shoot the film. It may be a bit too "meta" for its own good, but Inside the Rain offers some winning performances and what might be thought of as an "insider's" view of what living with mental illness can be like.

Inside the Rain Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Inside the Rain is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FilmRise and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. This is another recent feature that doesn't seem to have much of an online presence in terms of available technical data on the shoot, though I did find some social media posts about the film with Arri Alexa and Arri Alexa Mini hashtags. This is a nicely detailed looking presentation for the most part, with a solid accounting of a natural looking palette, and precise renderings of the fine detail in everything from printing on prescription pill bottles to some of the fabrics in the office of a psychologist Ben visits regularly. There are some deficits in shadow detail in some dark scenes, notably a strip club sequence which, due to some lurid purple, blue and red lighting, also comes perilously close to some posterizing effects at certain moments.

Inside the Rain Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Inside the Rain features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 tracks. The surround track noticeably opens up the pretty ubiquitous use of source cues, as well as providing at least sporadic engagement of the side and rear channels to offer things like background clamor in some crowd scenes. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout the problem free presentation. Optional English subtitles are available.

Inside the Rain Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (720p; 2:16)

Inside the Rain Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the things that my research into the tribulations of Frances Farmer alerted me to is that the "whys" and "wherefores" of mental illness are often a complete mystery. Fisher attempts to unpack some of that mystery in Inside the Rain, and the film is certainly a testament to Fisher's own mastery of his "issues". The film is a bit formulaic despite its rather unique setting and context, but for those wanting a supposed "rom com" with just the hint of a bipolar disorder, Inside the Rain might be worth catching. Technical merits are solid and with caveats noted Inside the Rain comes Recommended.