Netflix’s fun body-swap thriller It’s What’s Inside has a huge blind spot

It’s what’s insidea buzzy new thriller now streaming on Netflix, it’s one of those entertaining, high-concept films where the fun comes purely from a daring premise that’s taken to exciting, disorienting, tense, or scary places. Written and directed by Greg Jardin, it’s a sharp little film that clicks into place with a satisfying click around the potential consequences and plot twists inherent in the big idea. Then it doesn’t let go until it reaches its corrosive denouement.

There’s just one problem: Whether it’s intentional omission or lack of imagination, Jardin completely ignores the most obvious, most interesting direction to explore.

(Ed. remark: One wide setup spoiler ahead It’s what’s inside – specifically part of the premise that isn’t revealed in the trailer.)

It’s what’s inside is a dark body-swap comedy with a broad science fiction premise. A group of eight college friends – four women, four men, all attractive – reunite the night before one of them, Reuben (Devon Terrell), gets married. The purpose of the evening is to reconnect and party in the bizarre mansion-cum-art installation curated by Reuben’s late mother. Reuben has invited a wildcard, Forbes (David Thompson), who no one from the group has spoken to since he was expelled from college for reasons many of them have reason to feel guilty about. Forbes now has a tech career that remains unexplained and unexplored.

Forbes shows up with a suitcase containing a surprisingly old-fashioned device that can switch the friends’ consciousnesses. He suggests a board game, something like Mafia or Werewolfin which the crew swaps bodies and then tries to guess who is who. After some initial shock and doubt, the group latches onto the game and begins to enjoy the out-of-body, persona-switching experience as if it were a wild new designer drug. But soon old grudges, strange dynamics, secret crushes and devious betrayals surface, and eventually things go terribly wrong.

It’s spiky, entertaining stuff, and while it’s played mainly for laughs and tension, it’s a setup with real thematic teeth. But to explain the trick It’s what’s inside missing, I’ll have to spoil something not happen in the game. It gives away almost nothing of the film to point out something that Jardin clearly doesn’t want to explore. Still, if you want to go in completely unspoiled, with all possible twists still on the table, read no further.

There are equal numbers of men and women in the cast (which also includes Brittany O’Grady, James Morosini, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Gavin Leatherwood, Reina Hardesty and Nina Bloomgarden), which is no coincidence. Over the course of the game itself, none of the characters swap bodies with someone of a different gender – or even seem to consider that this is an option. It’s completely off the table. For no reason explained in the script, it’s just not in the characters’ minds, or seemingly Jardin’s.

I don’t normally criticize a movie for not being something it’s not trying to be, or for not doing what I thought it should do. But in this case, the omission shocked and surprised me – especially in a film with a youthful cast, released in 2024, that otherwise plays heavily with questions of sexuality and identity.

Perhaps Jardin was trying to avoid the usual sneering clichés about men becoming obsessed with their breasts once they inhabit a woman’s body (as in the anime film Your name), or perhaps he was avoiding the sometimes toxic current debates about gender. These are understandable impulses, but ultimately the choice is heavily to the detriment of the film. It cuts off so many potential avenues for comedy and intrigue, as well as themes and character beats that would complicate the film in interesting ways, giving the darkly comedic social commentary a bit more spice.

At a fundamental level it is a matter of credibility; it undermines the faith in the characters that none of them would think to try to switch genders, or even suspect for a minute that a body of one gender could be inhabited by the consciousness of another. That seems absurdly narrow-minded for a group of Gen Zers who are otherwise happy to make statements about sexuality, race and identity politics. They’re all very straight, too, and there’s never a hint of weirdness creeping into the perverse, remixed matchups that take place over the course of the body-swapping game.

A more fluid approach to gender could have enriched the themes It’s what’s inside does exploring. The film’s central thread concerns the relationship between Shelby (O’Grady) and Cyrus (Morosini), which has become stuck in a sexless stalemate that may have something to do with Cyrus’ continued obsession with self-confident influencer Nikki (Debnam-Carey). . Jardin uses this private drama to explore notions of fidelity, body image, porn addiction, social media idealization, and the difference between love and fantasy. In that context, passing up the opportunity to, say, place a male character on the business side of the male gaze by placing him in a woman’s body being ogled seems like a huge missed opportunity.

None of this gets in the way It’s what’s inside‘s lively satire and twisting intrigue. It’s fast, with a flashy, richly saturated look; Jardin isn’t afraid to use his gimmicky premise, but his take on the body-swap comedy has both substance and style. Jardin, who also edited the film and provided the VFX, is known for his direction technically elaborated one-off promotions for Netflix content, and he has a flashy style, but he also handles a complex story with confidence. If anything, some of the visual devices he uses to help you keep track of the body changes are unnecessary, because his cast is so good at telegraphing who’s in whose skin, and it’s an infectious pleasure to watch them imitate each other’s tics. and characterizations.

That makes everything It’s what’s inside simultaneously a thoroughly satisfying film and a deeply unsatisfying film. Jardin delves into the value, temptation, and danger of inhabiting someone else’s body, but he ignores the most consequential shift in perspective of all. Because neither the filmmakers nor the characters can see past this basic, binary view of gender, the film’s sly provocations and pointed conclusions ultimately ring hollow. These people can change bodies as much as they want; they are still stuck with the same old worldview.

It’s what’s inside now streaming on Netflix.