LOOK INTO MY EYES - Mark Reviews Movies

Look into My Eyes, A24

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 12, 2024

Whatever one might call people—psychics, mediums, fortune tellers, seers—who claim to speak with the dead or communicate on some spiritual plane, it is almost an absolute certainty, barring the slimmest of slim unlikelihood, that it's fake. In the right setting, it may look, sound, and even feel real to some, and Look into My Eyes takes advantage of that particular setting and mood to make it seem as if this group of self-proclaimed psychics might be legitimate.

Ultimately, director Lana Wilson's documentary isn't about spiritualism or anything like that. The filmmaker's concerns are human—those living, obviously—and grounded in reality, because it shows us that these supposed mediums have as much pain and doubt as those who come to see them, looking for signs and words from loved ones who have died or pets, either dead or alive.

It's an intriguing idea for a movie about psychics and the motives that lead people to seek out such services, but regardless, this remains an inherently dishonest one. It's one thing to acknowledge that grief and suffering are a universal of life and human existence, but it's another thing entirely to suggest that this group of seers might be the real deal. Even leaving the remote possibility that they fit into that tiny sliver of uncertainty, wouldn't it be quite the coincidence that seven legitimate psychics just happen to be living in the same city and at the same moment in all of history?

Wilson doesn't want us to think skeptically about her premise, which is ridiculous and, depending on how much one believes self-professed psychics exploit the very real pain of people for money, irresponsible. By the way, the topic of payment never arises in the movie, and neither do any of the introductory or screening processes of these alleged psychics. When a curious party first contacts one of these mediums, how much information, for example, do they reveal about the purpose of a session in a phone call or email? With the prevalence and ease of researching almost anyone by way of the internet and social media, how much of that work do these psychics do before meeting someone in person?

From the picture Wilson gives us, these clients, looking for answers from a dead relative or friend from beyond the mortal realm, just show up for a reading or séance with one of the seven. If that were true, it might lend some credence to these self-proclaimed psychics, as long as one doesn't know any of the techniques implemented for centuries by such folks. Just look up the term "cold reading" if any of this looks impressive. It's amazing what people, especially those who do or want to believe in such phenomena, will overlook or ignore when their mind is set or distracted by grief.

That is what's so distasteful about fake psychics, which the overwhelming majority or all of them, again, are. It's nothing more than a parlor trick, made easier these days with the spread of personal information online. Just like alleged psychics in general, Wilson does a disservice to the grieving, the pained, and those in need of emotional and psychological comfort by making a movie that strongly suggests such a trick might be real, simply by filming around both the bottom line—money—and whatever happens before a client steps into a session.

There is at least some skepticism here, as a good number of the featured mediums reveal they're performers outside of this shady business venture. Most of the scenes of them outside of the sessions have the psychics talking about looking for auditions, writing scripts, preparing for an open mic night, or reminiscing about a show they performed in some years ago. We can connect the dots, of course, but Wilson doesn't. That would mean asking questions that might shatter the illusion that there might be some legitimate spiritual phenomena happening here. We understand why the mediums wouldn't want those questions asked, but as a documentarian, doesn't Wilson have an ethical obligation to get at or at least reach toward the truth?

The only truth that matters in this movie is that the mediums are hurting, from the deaths of loved ones and other trauma, and that they need as much help as their clients. That's easy to believe, but it's tough to shake the subjects' method of looking for healing, by way of the pain and sadness of others. One doesn't need to have supernatural powers to know that everyone in Look into My Eyes would benefit more from talking to a living person than claiming to speak to a dead one.

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