X
In Theaters Now
- 2024
- R
- A24
- 1 h 48 m
- 2024
- R
- A24
- 1 h 48 m
Summary A group of New York City psychics conduct deeply intimate readings for their clients, revealing a kaleidoscope of loneliness, connection, and healing.
Directed By: Lana Wilson
Written By: Lana Wilson
In Theaters Now
- 2024
- R
- A24
- 1 h 48 m
- 2024
- R
- A24
- 1 h 48 m
Look Into My Eyes
78
5.5
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Summary A group of New York City psychics conduct deeply intimate readings for their clients, revealing a kaleidoscope of loneliness, connection, and healing.
Directed By: Lana Wilson
Written By: Lana Wilson
Where to Watch
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
78
82% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
18% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
78
82% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
18% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
It may seem fragmented, elusive, or “arty” to modern audiences who aren’t into older movies and have no reference point for what they’re watching. Hopefully not, though, because it’s an often profound and touching documentary that engages your attention differently than movies usually do.
What I did not expect was to emerge with not only a deeper understanding of this strange calling, but far greater empathy for those who seek out its practitioners.
Entrancing from the start but slow to reveal the full scope of Wilson’s vision, Look Into My Eyes locks into that furtively cinematic essence by framing its psychic readings with a stiff naturalism that recalls the interview scenes in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “After Life.”
[Its] genuine focus is the emotional turmoil that drives people to practice this profession as well as to patronize its “experts” in search of guidance and insights into the biggest questions of their lives.
Leave it to a documentarian to find subjects who profess a similar faith in the power of ecstatic rather than merely objective truth.
Agnostic but empathetic, Wilson’s film suggests communing with the dead may just be a roundabout way of reaching the living.
This is a documentary about psychics that make you think Ouija boards might be a better investment.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 4 User Ratings
5.5
50% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
25% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
25% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 4 User Ratings
5.5
50% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
25% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
25% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Psychic ability is a subject that often mystifies yet captivates many of us. It’s also a topic that’s frequently misunderstood and comes with a lot of distorted, uninformed baggage in need of serious clarification. Those looking to be enlightened about it, however, are unlikely to come away from director Lana Wilson’s documentary on the subject with much new or profound insight. The film profiles seven New York City psychic professionals through conversations with these individuals and footage from sessions with some of their clients. Regrettably, though, this overlong offering is in serious need of being trimmed and recut. Much of the material becomes redundant and tedious as the film progresses, and the picture frequently focuses on the wrong content. Many of the client sessions, for example, are abruptly cut short just as they’re starting to get interesting. In addition, the interviews with the psychics are at their best when they wax philosophically about the nature of this phenomenon (particularly when discussing how they became involved in this practice, often through artistic, healing and self-acceptance avenues), but there’s not nearly enough of these fascinating metaphysical musings. And then there’s a potentially intriguing collective gathering involving all seven psychics that, sadly, receives woefully short shrift, again getting clipped just as it’s becoming engaging. Instead of more of what works best in the film, viewers are left with numerous easily eliminated pregnant pauses, often-superfluous descriptions about everyday aspects of the psychics’ personal lives and overly repetitive discussion of subjects addressed in the session material (especially those involving the work of a pet psychic, an intriguing but vastly overused narrative element). “Look Into My Eyes” could have been a genuinely revelatory, insightful examination of this subject, but the filmmaker has not made the most of that golden opportunity. Instead of providing audiences with a meaningful, articulate look into the subject matter, viewers are left with a meandering, unfocused treatment of a topic that could be valuable and impactful to many of us – and that truly deserves better handling than what’s presented here.
Report
Production Company
A24,
Artemis Rising Foundation,
Chicken And Egg Pictures,
Drifting Cloud Productions,
Secret Sauce Media
Release Date Sep 6, 2024
Duration 1 h 48 m
Rating R
Genres