Directed By Greg Jardin

Starring – Brittany O’Grady, James Morosini, Gavin Leatherwood

The Plot – A group of friends gather for a pre-wedding party that descends into an existential nightmare when an estranged friend arrives with a mysterious game that awakens long-hidden secrets, desires, and grudges.

Rated R for pervasive language, sexual content, drug use and some violent content.

It’s What’s Inside | Official Trailer | Netflix (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

This is a film that lives and thrives by the appeal of its unique gimmick, with the many dynamics in backstories between this group sowing seeds of distrust and discontent that takes the storytelling miles. With the desire to spoil as little as possible about this film and its framing device, the script unravels such a compellingly experimental way of exploiting jealousy, all in the confines of such a wildly crazy night that continuously caters to the many dynamics, good or bad, within the group that effortlessly motivate their decision to play such a dangerously mind-altering game, affording the accessibility of each of them walking a mile in each other’s shoes, with newfound eye-opening knowledge that satisfies the subconscious. Despite my ability to constantly remain one step ahead of this movie’s ploys with its plot, particularly with a big twist reveal during the climax that I accurately predicted from the film’s opening ten minutes, the script is very clever at maintaining urgency and entertainment value to the heart of its storytelling, enacting a durability to its engagement that somehow grows all the more dynamic and intense the deeper the film delves into the true intentions of the characters during this darkly ominous night of reconnecting. In addition to the fascinating complexities of the screenplay, Jardin is a master of conjuring such vibrant personality to the air of his presentation, with transfixing visual impulses in conveying vital exposition to the audience in ways that made it difficult to ever take my eyes off of the screen. Between these imaginative sequences with photos describing character aspects that continuously adjusted to the mention of the overhead narration, with cuts involving surmised enhancements, color used as clarity in character distinguishing, and the consistency in technique of the rhythmically impulsive editing meant to mimic the rapid voracity of social media interaction, the film values expressionism in ways that simultaneously compliments its substance in storytelling, inspiring a hip and trendy consistency that caters to the air of personalities among this group, enriching ‘It’s What’s Inside’ as a complete sensory experience that artistically feels a lot bolder than most Netflix offerings. Even in the essence of establishing what the uncertainties of this game enacts psychologically to its players, the visuals hold a hypnotic spell that is made vulnerable from Andrew Hewitt’s electronic-dependent score, where uncontextualized objects feed into the ominousness of the unknown, creating an alluring mystique, but one that we feel each of these characters will regret by film’s end. Speaking of those characters, credit is deserved to the movie’s casting choices, with a highly effective ensemble at distinguishing the personalities of these characters in ways that prove all the more vital the deeper we get into this shape-shifting game. What’s important here is that no two performances ever feel similar, allowing each of them a nuanced psychology to the ways they attack the dialogue, but even beyond that, an emotional dexterity towards personalities that essentially involves each of them portraying two characters simultaneously, with some appraising scene-stealing credibility in their respective portrayals. Each of them are provided ample time to shine without a weakness among the eight of them, but for my money it’s the work of David Thompson and Brittany O’Grady who shine the brightest, especially with a second half utilizing the latter more accordingly to an evolution that makes her character feel so isolated among the group. O’Grady begins reserved and even slightly timid as the movie begins, serving as the typical straight girl protagonist that tie so many of these films together, but with the startling realization of some unsettling truths amid a betrayal of trust, the game unearths a powerful force that becomes mesmerizing the deeper Brittany commits to these deliveries, especially considering her character feels like the one who attains the most knowledge from the game. As for Thompson, I’ve been moved by his work in 2015’s ‘Green Room’ and his time as the Scarecrow on TV’s ‘Gotham’, but here he elicits such a gravitational pull as Forbes, in ways that the party literally halts whenever he unceremoniously invades it, bringing with him an air of unsettling ambiguity in ways that keeps surrounding characters on their toes. Beyond just what he does as a singular character, his duality in bringing to life mutual likenesses is the best among the cast, especially since any of the other character personalities feel sharply diverse from the quietly reserved that he maintains in a character with no shortage of secrets.

NEGATIVES

Despite the script eliciting such a refreshingly compelling device into its character psychologies, the experimental delves do become quite tediously convoluted by the film’s midway point, forcing the production and writing to work overtime towards maintaining a firm connection to the focus of its audience. This is especially conflicting once the resolutions begin to materialize, where the film quite literally halts its progress to illustrate another stylized sequence, in which it’s trying to outline each of the character intentions towards finding their ways back to stability, and between it and these long-winded diatribes involving them quite literally repeating what those firmly invested should’ve accurately interpreted a scene prior, the script doesn’t smooth out the edges of its exposition in ways that feel naturally garnered, with the biggest example of forced sentiments coming from the depths of establishing dynamics during the opening act, where the backstory of these characters shows the hand of its intention far too early, resulting in a third act twist that I sniffed out quite easily. If you’re like me and abide by the ages old rule that a script only mentions aspects that are vitally relevant to what’s captured in the film, then you’ll realize one character among the many introductions stands out like a sore thumb, so we just kind of are left to wait patiently for when their influence can be felt the loudest, and like clockwork it happens in the exact manner that I was predicting, resulting in an effective-but-highly-telegraphed climax that persists through another fifteen minutes for the film, where it chooses to meander as an afterthought to everything that we didn’t experience in the previous sequence. Finally, a personal preference would’ve imbedded more mystery to the confines of the game, especially since the rules of it are about deciphering, and the film’s visuals go out of its way to spoil key information for us the audience, without the characters benefiting from it. If you’re a longtime reader of mine, you know I typically hate when a film puts the audience at an advantageous position over its characters, with regards to pivotal information, and though this won’t be a problem to everyone who watches, I wanted the film to maintain more of that mystique in ambiguity for a bit longer, especially with such a unique method of characters attaining juicy secrets that they otherwise wouldn’t in their daily lives.

OVERALL
‘It’s What’s Inside’ is a visually stimulating psychological thriller delving into the minds of eight longtime friends, with the secrets between them that are uncovered with one trippy and uncontrolled game pitting their jealousies against them. With stylistically transfixing direction from Jardin that revels in the unorthodox, as well as complexly versatile performances from a picture-perfect ensemble, the film cleverly elevates the body swap genre in ways that scintillate originality for its compelling cause, despite convoluted storytelling of confusing consistencies that gamble too often with audience patience.

My Grade: 7/10 or B