Tickled

'TICKLED': Four Stars (Out of Five)

Critically acclaimed documentary flick; about an online tickling competition, involving young athletes tickling each other. The film was directed by first time feature filmmakers David Farrier and Dylan Reeve. Farrier is a New Zealand entertainment journalist, who also stars in the movie. He met a lot of harsh resistance, while investigating the film's story, from a producer of the 'tickling endurance sport' (named Jane O'Brien). The struggles Farrier and Reeve had making the film, becomes as much apart of the story as the tickling itself. The movie has received mostly rave reviews from critics, and it's become a small indie hit (at the Box Office). I think the film is really well made, and extremely intriguing.

The movie begins with a montage of clips, from Farrier's other obscure entertainment stories. Then we see him come across an 'endurance tickling' video. He's intrigued by it, and he then decides to write the producers of the video (Jane O'Brien Media) about doing a story on the sport. He gets a very negative reply, from the corporation, which accuses him of wanting to put a 'gay slant' on the videos (as they insist the 'endurance competition' is exclusively heterosexual). Farrier, and his friend Dylan Reeve, then decide to investigate the subject further; as they make a documentary about their journalistic journey.

The movie is a very insightful (and educational) look, at how much those with a lot of money (and power) can get away with. It's involving, and always interesting; and at times it seems more like a legal thriller, than a film about an odd fetish. The material is disturbing, and often hard to watch, but it's also really well made. As far as documentaries go, this one is pretty fascinating (and informative).

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Tickled began with a simple idea. Some film-makers were exploring a fun story about the world of competitive tickling after seeing a couple videos on the internet. But this documentary is only partially about people being put in restraints and tickled until they can hardly stand it. The rabbit hole that these film-makers get sucked down is surprisingly deep, and absolutely thrilling. Faced with a great deal of opposition, it feels like every scene in Tickled requires the documentary team to take a risk. There are action movies that do less to excite me than this movie did by simply approaching some men to ask a few questions. Who would have thought that there was so much to learn about such a silly topic? The documentary team does some research, and helps fill in as many of the gaps in the story as possible. I was impressed by the fact that they were able to find some people to come forward with the truth, and also that they never shied away from confronting those involved.

I think it's important to point out that all the videos that are shown in this film involve fully-clothed people (with the exception of some guys who have their shirts off.) While it might be a fetish for some, there's nothing overtly sexual in the content we are shown. That's what makes the entire story so fascinating, because it feels like a relatively harmless series of videos that may titillate someone, but shouldn't scandalize all the people involved. Yet there's a cover-up going on, and the joy of this documentary is getting to the bottom of it all. I was downright riveted by all the things we learned as this movie progressed, and I was desperate for more. In fact, I fear that's the one area where Tickled felt a bit lacking. The pay-off at the end felt like we had a few answers but no solutions. I understand it's not the role of documentarians to fix the world's problems, but I felt the film left me on an unsatisfactory cliffhanger. Tickled is still an excellent story, and it delivers more than you'd expect.

I arrived at the local art house cinema expecting to see Weiner only to find that it played at 4:30 and 9:30. Tickled, a film I hadn't heard of was just about to start at 7:00 so there I was.

I have seen tickle videos on YouTube and elsewhere and always wondered about the economics behind these strange, professional looking videos. They weren't advertisements for subscription pay sites so what gives...

Tickled sheds some light on the economics and motivation behind them. Without giving anything away, I'd suggest that it is as creepy and malevolent a story as Foxcatcher. The head games played by Mr. DuPont and 'Teri Tickle' are frighteningly similar even if the results were very different.

Talking about the film with strangers as I left the theater: I thought my 'creepy' was better than any of the other adjectives mentioned. But when I talked about tickle videos being everywhere on the Internet, they might of thought that was creepy.

Too often in documentaries, the person with the microphone can be overbearing to irritation. The low key approach in Tickled makes the journey more interesting. It only heightens what unfolds on the screen.

David Farrier captures our attentions with subtlety and ease in his documentary, TICKLED.

When David receives a hostile response to an inquiry about competitive tickling he does not shy away from looking further.

It is the looking further when a seemingly harmless 'sport' comes to be seen as something much much more. David managed to arouse our curiosity and take us on a journey that (pun intended) tickled my interest, deepened my suspicions and shocked me with it's focus.

TICKLED goes to show us what money and position can achieve and get away with. In a scenario which could have been harmless, one person takes it to an abusive next level and David is there with us the entire time.

Tickled is such a weird creature, a documentary about the "Sport" of competitive endurance tickling. Yep, you read that right.

However that is merely the beginning, as the documentary delves deeper it gets dark. Really, really dark.

Not to ruin anything but there is so much more and the subject matter is remarkable, trouble is its ruined by a very lackluster near spineless documentary filmmaker who squanders the potential.

Within moments I felt like I was watching another scripted documentary alike Catfish (2010) the concept was too fantastical and everything just felt too convenient.

However upon investigation it certainly appears to be legitimate and once you've watched the documentary you'll realise that is a really scary fact.

Well made and truly fascinating subject matter but handled by people who were just out of their depth.

We can only dream what could have been! Do hope this doesn't develop a TV show like Catfish otherwise my spidey sense will start tingling again.