*This review contains minor spoilers.
Remember Bodies Bodies Bodies? The A24 romp about a gathering of entitled, rich Zoomers during a hurricane that ends poorly when the friends decide to play a game together?
The new Netflix offering It's What's Inside certainly does.
After an opening that focuses on two of the cast of characters--a couple, no less, showing all of the lessons learned from the aforementioned Bodies flick--It's What's Inside eventually becomes the story of a party of entitled and obnoxious friends who decide to play a game, whereupon plot-driven hi-jinx ensue.
The movie opens with Cyrus and Shelby, but in stark contrast to how Bodies Bodies Bodies opens, we don't see them in a loving embrace, but rather, in an uncomfortable argument. Shelby is trying on a wig to attempt to spice up their sex life, but she walks in on Cyrus masturbating to porn. Shelby starts complaining that she does not want to go to the evening's festivities, but Cyrus pushes her to do so.
This cuts to the two of them en route to the party and trying desperately to dance around how their morning started. Shelby seems to want to discuss it and figure out what's going on--the two apparently barely ever have sex--but Cyrus is quick to shut the conversation down, further frustrating Shelby.
Eventually they arrive at their friend Reuben's home. It's his big pre-wedding party gathering with friends, though his fiancée is absent from the shindig. Halfway through the night, an old friend named Forbes that the group has barely had any contact with in years shows up... and he has a strange device.
He explains that in the intervening years since he was last in with the friends, he and a Silicon Valley team of scientists came up with a device to swap the minds of anyone using it. His gift to the party is the chance to use the device and play the wildest game the gang has ever seen.
But no one suspects just how wild the night will end up being.
TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS
+ It's What's Inside is a quite intense ride from the very early going. You get the opening story of Cyrus and Shelby's faltering relationship, and then you are thrust into the world of their friends and all of the excess and resentment and boisterousness that it contains.
And while the movie appears to be a story of deceit and buried feelings between everyone, it all eventually takes a serious turn at around the midway point. This twist makes sure that we understand that this body-swapping scenario is not something the characters can come back from. It will have lasting ramifications.
So the story as it is told is extremely well done. It is full of twists and manipulations, and it definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat. It's a very exciting ride!
+ Still talking about the story here: It's What's Inside is a genuinely fun movie about people getting what they think they want and what they actually deserve. This is probably one of the reasons why the comparisons to Bodies Bodies Bodies stick even once you get past the fact that this is a movie about young people playing a game together.
It's interesting to watch these characters, after they get used to the body swapping, start dipping their toes into trying to get what they think they really want out of life. And, of course, there are consequences for that all across the board.
This is really a slight play off of Up #1, sure, but the story of this film is multi-layered and has a lot going on. So I'm talking about how much fun the movie is rather than how intense and in-your-face it is!
- The biggest problem I had with this outing was that the actors are being tasked with playing as multiple different characters. To that end, some of the characters aren't developed as much before the body swapping begins (we spend a lot of time with our main characters, Cyrus and Shelby, but not enough with the rest), so we are left with some characters who just feel too much like each other (Nikki and Brooke aren't wildly distinguished from each other).
Additionally, the actors seem to have a hard time shifting from who they were to who they are. Especially during the first swaps, it feels like the actors aren't changing enough to embody the new character they are supposed to be playing. Maybe there's a statement there and what's inside not having far too much of an effect on what's outside, and the effects of muscle memory and what have you, but... I doubt it. I think this was just a straight miss from some of the actors involved.
- Not to knock a movie for being clever, but It's What's Inside is probably a Two Viewer: a movie that ages a lot better if you get to watch it in quick succession after your first go 'round.
There is a lot going on in this one, including an end-of-the-movie twist that I can't say was entirely properly foreshadowed without sitting down and giving the whole thing another watch. And really... who has time for that? I'm trying to get 200 first time watches this year; I can't be watching the same flick twice!
So it's a weak Down, but you take them where you can find them when you are me.
OVERALL
I can't say that I adored It's What's Inside as much as I did with Bodies Bodies Bodies, which I thought had better comedy, better acting, and a better resolution. But that's not to downgrade this picture that much, because I definitely did have a great time with it! The story is a well-written blast from beginning to end that forges its own identity.
🍿 SCORE = 71 / 100
717★★
留言