Netflix luck out with this low-budget, high-concept hit
Next in the My Girlfriend Made Us Watch series is a movie that was recommended to my girlfriend by everybody’s favourite personal-data-harvesting app, TikTok (Unrelated, but I have a TikTok account now where I make videos about going to the cinema. Eat it up, China).
The TikTok video’s creator recommended watching It’s What’s Inside without looking up anything about it, which is how I prefer to watch movies anyway, so it suited me just fine to stick on this random new-release movie without the faintest idea of what I was getting into.
I’ll say upfront that this is a movie worth watching. It’s not going on my best of 2024 list, but it’s damn close. It cribs a little hard from a few other recent movies, but it puts enough of its own spin on things to justify watching it. If you’re looking for a fun, lightly-mind-bending watch, you could do a lot worse than It’s What’s Inside.
I will, however, be discussing the movie’s central conceit (which isn’t brought up until around a quarter into the movie), so if you consider that a spoiler, go watch it and check back in. It’s kind of the main hook of the movie though, so if you don’t mind me mentioning what that is, keep on reading.
Briefcase Briefcase Briefcase
On the eve of their friend Rueben’s (Devon Terrell) wedding, Shelby (Brittany O'Grady) and Cyrus (James Morosini), a couple suffering from intimacy issues, attend a small gathering with several of their old friends at Reuben’s large family home. When a controversial figure from their past, Forbes (David W. Thompson), makes a surprise appearance with a mysterious briefcase, their night will take a drastic turn.
Before we get to the contents of the briefcase, I need to address the similarities between It’s What’s Inside and Bodies Bodies Bodies. While I think I prefer the latter movie (it’s funnier, has a higher production value, and has wilder set pieces), It’s What’s Inside did make itself stand out with some really interesting visual choices.
Split screen is used throughout the movie to great effect—there’s one fun, nine-way split early on—but apart from that there are a couple of ‘flashback’ sequences that look absolutely remarkable. They’re done by depicting a series of black and white ‘photographs’ from the last night the whole gang was together, with the photographs being editing and remixed in real time as the narrators of the sequence attempt to get their facts straight.
It’s just a really fun and creative way to feed the audience the necessary backstory.
What’s In The Box?
Then there’s also the romantic relationship between the main two characters which I found really compelling. Cyrus is clearly infatuated with their friend Nikki (Alycia Debnam-Carey), but instead of dumping him for this, Shelby is attempting to meet him halfway by trying to look and act like Nikki to appeal more to him (who does not deserve this level of commitment).
There’re some fun dynamics between some of the other supporting characters, too—flings, jealousies, obsessions—but Cyrus and Shelby are always the most interesting.
But what is this movie really about? Well, once Forbes reveals the contents of his briefcase, It’s What’s Inside becomes a body-swapping horror/comedy that derives all of its tension and narrative thrust from the thrill of watching horny twenty-somethings pretend to be each other.
The stakes of this movie are low—up to a point, anyway. The body-swapping device in Forbes’ briefcase exists within the plot only to give the characters a Werewolf-style party game to play where they try and guess the true identities of each other. Things do spiral out of control eventually, but for the most part, it’s just an excuse to explore an exciting What If scenario.
Getting Freaky
The filmmakers were clearly working with a limited budget but did a good job of finding reasons to contain the narrative to the house. They also used some inventive camera work and lighting to remind the audience of who’s who, because it could be a bit of a task keeping the real identity of any given character in your head, especially as identities swap again and again and you’re tasked with recalling who was who half an hour ago.
Still, it’s a fun exercise keeping track of everything, and it’s a movie with twists and turns that are able to capitalise perfectly on all of the information the audience is given in the first act.
It has that typical ‘why are all of these vastly different people even friends?’ thing that can be a bit of a hump to get over, and the ending is a little messy, but overall, I had really good time with It’s What’s Inside.
Thanks for reading my review. If you liked it, consider buying me a cup of coffee at https://ko-fi.com/kieranobrien or below
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