It’s What’s Inside, 2024.
Written and Directed by Greg Jardin.
Starring Brittany O’Grady, James Morosini, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Gavin Leatherwood, Devon Terrell, Nina Bloomgarden, Reina Hardesty, David Thompson, and Madison Davenport.
SYNOPSIS:
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.
Having only helmed music videos and shorts so far, writer/director Greg Jardin’s It’s What’s Inside certainly has a moody aesthetic that smoothly ties into its admittedly intriguing real-life body swap game (partly intended to make party games like Werewolf and Mafia quite literally real), but mostly comes across too concerned with what it can do with that concept and how it can function as twisty and playfully confuse viewers rather than operate as a sharp satire of vapid, loathsome, self-absorbed individuals hiding grudges and secrets.
Heavily relying on the unexpected (although even then, some of this feels inevitable and obvious), Netflix has forbidden reviews from digging too deep into the story’s specifics. However, it can be mentioned that young couple Cyrus and Shelby (James Morosini and Britney O’Grady) are in a sexual rut; he appears obsessed with porn and masturbation, bafflingly not wanting to engage in intercourse with his girlfriend even when she takes up suggestions to make bedroom play spicier. Naturally, this has left Shelby frustrated. More concerning, their friend group believes Cyrus has proposed marriage, mainly because they have been together for so long that it is a genuine surprise. Whenever pressed about it, he rambles off excuses.
The bulk of the film takes place inside an atmospheric gothic mention at a reunion between that friend group, with the confident and hunky Reuben (Devon Terrell) set to marry Sophia (Aly Nordlie), the latter of which I remember nothing about. Then again, everyone here is similar to an extent, wishing they were someone else or banging someone else. It’s a film that constantly hammers home its messaging in blunt dialogue, that these characters hardly know anything about one another until the game winds up their insecurities, jealousies, and unflattering pasts. Even then, they remain self-absorbed in each other’s bodies that they continuously miss the point or enjoy existing inside someone else for shallow reasons.
It’s fine that none of these characters are necessarily likable, but there is no shaking the feeling that Greg Jardin is ultimately holding back on that front, choosing to play morally questionable elements sanitized and safe to a point, in line for a crowd-pleasing ending that feels like a copout rather than sticking with the MO that these are all insufferable and awful people. It’s a film that desperately needs a dark climax to take these people down, yet it doesn’t and even unconvincingly lets one of them off the hook. Some elements are simply contrived and laughably dumb, namely how the script writes off two of the friends; it doesn’t work as satire because, from the moment the scene begins, one isn’t laughing with the movie but rather at how it expects viewers to accept that even these characters could be so blindingly stupid. Then there is the absence of a named character from everyone’s past, and you would have to have never seen a mystery before not to start suspecting they will eventually figure into the evening.
The electrode-based body swap machine was invented by a longtime friend of the group, Forbes (David Thompson.) He was estranged from them for roughly seven years following an incident at a college party with those friends, which also saw him legally responsible for his high school-aged sister’s terrible evening. With a history of hosting game nights that spin excessively out of control, there is also reason to suspect him of having malicious motives. There are also a few supporting characters, each with distinctions, such as a burnout stoner, a social media-obsessed influencer, and an obnoxiously rude dudebro.
Drenching scenes in moody lighting (courtesy of cinematographer Kevin Fletcher) and stylistic editing techniques (done by Greg Jardin, pulling triple duty on his debut feature-length film) to reveal who is inside whose body at times (typically after someone has guessed correctly while playing the riff on Werewolf), the filmmaker feels caught up in ensuring there is clarity while also aggressively trying to instill confusion. It’s another half-committed element that doesn’t work, which is frustrating since the remaining 90 minutes mostly amount to broad generalizations of who and what these people wish they could be.
Everything Greg Jardin is attempting here and trying to pull off with the juxtapositions of the two central relationships feels on the nose without necessarily taking the film anywhere psychologically dark or riveting. The final reveal and epilogue come across as an unrewarding whimper and not the loaded explosion being set up. Nonsensical entertainment that is occasionally funny and easily digestible with a terrific hook? It’s What’s Inside certainly accomplishes that while functioning as hollow.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
