Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Lana Wilson explores the relationships between New York City psychics and their clients in a compelling character study about the desperate need for human understanding. Look Into My Eyes takes a compassionate and nonjudgmental stance on a profession widely derided as exploitative. Cynics, including this reviewer, need to view this film dispassionately with an open mind. Wilson isn’t trying to sway disbelievers or catch charlatans in action. There are times when the clairvoyants, who’ve also suffered significant personal trauma, miss the mark completely, but their profound healing effect on the psychologically wounded cannot be ignored.
No Frills in This Intimate Look at Psychics and Believers
Wilson, known for After Tiller and Taylor Swift: Miss Americana, captures the psychic sessions with an intimate lens. There are no set pieces, accompanying music, or excessive edits. Wilson does cut and pan between the participants, but is careful not to interrupt or give the impression she’s staging something. Everyone is aware of her and the crew’s presence, but they’re non-obtrusive. The only time you hear Wilson is when she’s directly addressed for various reasons. She’s a fly on the wall watching deeply personal interactions in a cinéma vérité style.
Look Into My Eyes then changes perspective by having the various psychics tell their own troubled stories in distinct, personal spaces. This is absolutely fascinating to behold. Their apartments, studios, and offices speak volumes to a unique craft. Each traveled bumpy roads of addiction, loss, sexual confusion, and abuse before having a moment of clarity that supposedly unlocked their ability.
You don’t get the sense they are con artists or hucksters preying on the gullible. A remarkable scene has one of the psychics being completely forthright about her spiritual responses. Could they just be thoughts generated from her own mind? But if that were true, how can she have a sense of her clients’ darkest secrets? This obviously isn’t the case when you see them grasping at straws.
A Documentary About Searching for Answers & Finding Closure
Look Into My Eyes surprises with a wide range of emotions. The film’s tone isn’t uniformly serious. There are several laugh-out-loud moments that provide much needed moments of levity. One woman specializes in animal communication. Most of her clients just want to know what their pet is thinking. An elderly lady wondering about her dog’s behavior and a young man asking about a pet dragon he was forced to give up are hilarious. The idea that someone can channel a lizard’s spirit seems ludicrous, but the psychic, who could honestly just be making everything up, gets a glowing reaction.
Relief seems to be the common thread that drives people to the psychics observed. Wilson opens the film with a doctor recounting an awful incident that happened many years earlier. This poor woman had been haunted by this memory and its aftermath. She wanted to weep uncontrollably but literally had to get back to work saving other people. This scene is absolutely devastating. Her hurt is so raw and palpable. Even if the psychic couldn’t really communicate with the dead, her words of comfort and warm embrace were a light through the darkness. In this sense, they’re providing a therapeutic service to unburden guilt, shame, existential confusion, and the inability to process life’s most horrific tragedies.
Wilson avoids showing the business aspect of psychics. This may have been a mistake and gives credence to those who view psychics as con artists. No money changes hands, no credit cards are swiped, and yet these people aren’t working for free. We don’t see how the psychics advertise their services or how they were found to begin with. Another question not answered is how many sessions the clients have had with the psychics. Are they repeat customers continuously coming back for advice and salvation?
A Compelling Narrative About People
Wilson’s lack of personal details, especially names and locations, has artistic merit. Her goal isn’t to make these people famous. She’s not promoting mediums. The audience has to assume Wilson started filming with no preconceived notions or agenda, and that the narrative developed organically once she saw the impact of their readings and sessions. Wilson wouldn’t have shielded outright fraud. That would definitely have been a part of the film if at all witnessed. She chooses to tell a compelling narrative because that’s where the footage led her.
Look Into My Eyes won’t change any minds about the validity of psychic powers. If you thought it was hogwash before, then watching this film isn’t going to dent that opinion. The opposite is also true. Believers will see the psychics as legitimate and have that faith reinforced. The common ground, and Wilson’s brilliantly delivered point, is the connection between the psychics and their customers. That’s real and offers a welcome fulfillment to both parties.
Look Into My Eyes is a production of A24, Chicken And Egg Pictures, Drifting Cloud Productions, et al. It will have a limited theatrical release from A24 on September 6th.
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