When a new Netflix original movie hits the streaming service, it can be hard to determine whether that movie is actually worth your time. Netflix makes plenty of great movies, but it makes plenty of schlock as well, and you might be a half-hour into the movie before you realize the movie you’re watching isn’t actually all that interesting.
Thankfully, It’s What’s Inside falls into that first bucket of movies that are well worth your time. This smart, psychological thriller/comedy tells the story of a group of friends who are gathered for a pre-wedding party. When one friend arrives late with a device that allows them to switch bodies, though, things quickly spiral out of control. Here are three reasons the movie is worth watching.
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The movie features a cast of young, fresh talent
There’s a version of It’s What’s Inside that works. It might be more like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, where part of the joy is seeing actors with personas we know doing something wildly different than what they usually do. Here, though, we instead get the thrill of performers that are mostly new faces quickly establish their characters, and then switch bodies just as quickly.
It sometimes mean that these actors have to work with the broadest possible strokes of the actors they’re playing, but many of the members of this ensemble are more than up to the challenge.
It’s just mind-bending enough to keep you invested
One of the joys of It’s What’s Inside is that it’s actually a movie that is fairly difficult to follow. It’s not Primer, but the movie certainly has its characters switch places frequently enough that it wouldn’t hurt to have a chart of exactly what’s going on from moment to moment.
That kind of puzzle movie can be alienating to some viewers, but the mind-bending quality of It’s What’s Inside is part of the fun of the movie. Having to second-guess the identity of basically every character is a challenge, but once you’ve learned all the movie’s secrets, it’s also pretty rewarding.
It’s What’s Inside is a smart examination of how we really feel about our friends
In addition to being a heck of a lot of fun, It’s What’s Inside is an examination of the way a person relates to their body, and just as crucially, what this group of friends really think about each other’s bodies.
The title is obviously a play on the idea that what’s inside a person is what actually matters, and this movie seems to suggest we all care more about image than we might be willing to let on. It’s What’s Inside is fun and silly, but it’ll make you think just a little bit, and that’s valuable too.
It’s What’s Inside is now streaming on Netflix.