“We Live in a Time ” Review
By Aurora Zaytoun
Greg Jardin’s It’s What’s Inside fits nicely within the newly emerging sub-genre of Gen-Z horror. The “who is it” supplants the “whodunnit” with all the right ingredients: an eclectic, often preformative, 20-somethings friend group, an isolated and bizarrely fitted art collector’s mansion, an over-budgeted visual editing department, and a palpable festering of anxieties associated with the modern age. Think Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, except without Pete Davidson and instead with some weird dude with a bulky briefcase.
On the eve of one of the character’s weddings, seven old college friends gather at an estate to celebrate the groom-to-be. The group is troubled by various dynamics: a warring couple, partners with wandering eyes, career and lifestyle judgements–one of them, of course, being an influencer–and a damning college-era history that rears its ugly head when the eighth and largely ostracized friend–the weird dude with the bulky briefcase–decides to show up to the party.
The elephant is soon addressed. Inside the briefcase, the friend introduces the rest of the group to the new technology he has been developing: the ability to swap bodies through a system akin to former telephone exchange networks. Despite initial hesitation, the group decides to take part in the technology to play an elevated Mafia-esque party game in which the players must guess who is within whose body. As underlying dramas become shielded by anonymity, the friends descend into a compounding chaos that even their news skins can’t fully protect themselves from.
Now, if you’re anything like me and my roommate, you’ll need to pause the first half of the movie a couple of times to keep track of who’s who. In this way the movie, though at times confusing, doesn’t always hold your hand through it. For the most part, the writer’s trust you and that trust is refreshing.
While the ending twist wasn’t exactly out of this world, I wouldn’t say it was glaringly obvious either. If you’re in search of it, you could certainly try to squeeze out a “lesson learned”–perhaps something along the lines of walking a mile in someone else’s shoes–but I wouldn’t bother. The movie is unserious and self-aware, centering meanness and phoniness without looking back. You mock these people because they seem ridiculous, but also because you know people who would act like this in real life. While none of the characters are fully fleshed out, there’s definitely someone that you’re not rooting for, and sometimes that’s all it takes to keep a viewer’s attention, or at least mine. The movie isn’t deep or insightful, but that doesn’t make it not entertaining.
At its core, It’s What’s Inside embraces the fact that it’s not going to win any Oscars. Instead, the movie will serve as a great pre-Halloween watch party with your own eclectic friend group, a couple bottles of wine, and a post-viewing debrief. Letterboxd user @vitor said it best: “if tik tok had an award show this would take over best picture.”