Movie Reviews
IT'S WHAT'S INSIDE Review
Overall, IT’S WHAT’S INSIDE is a high-quality production with an intriguing plot, excellent performances from the main cast, and a fun visual style. However, the movie features Pagan elements where characters switch bodies through the use of magic. It contains a very negative worldview, with countless instances of foul language, a brief sex scene, mentions of one character’s Buddhist beliefs, and numerous instances of the characters lying, manipulating, and being cruel to each other in service of their interests. Movieguide® advises extreme caution
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:
A pagan worldview where characters switch bodies through the use of magic. Negative worldview, as all characters lie, manipulate, cheat, steal, and threaten each other to get what they want. There are also brief mentions of one character’s Buddhist beliefs;
Foul Language:
over 100 obscenities and profanities, with 80 to 90 “f” words and 10 to 20 uses of Jesus and OMG.;
Violence:
A scene shows two dead bodies impaled on an outdoor sculpture;
Sex:
One brief sex scene, but couple remains fully clothed;
Nudity:
One scene shows a female character in her underwear and bra;
Alcohol Use:
Characters drink throughout the movie;
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
Characters are shown smoking marijuana multiple times; and,
Miscellaneous Immorality:
Characters frequently lie to each other to serve their own interests, characters are unfaithful, Beatrice wanted revenge against Dennis and Nikki, Dennis admits he and Reuben lied about Forbes’ role in the college fight so as to get him expelled, Shelby was envious of Nikki’s lifestyle and appearance, Beatrice steals Dennis’ money while in Dennis’ body, and Nikki is revealed to be a hypocrite (lying about humanitarian acts)
IT’S WHAT’S INSIDE is a twisty sci-fi thriller streaming on Netflix and is a movie for anyone who’s ever wondered what it would be like to be someone else. It tells the story of a group of college friends meeting up before one of them gets married. An estranged friend arrives unexpectedly with an intriguing game, and things get messy as each person discovers the truth about their friends—and themselves.
IT’S WHAT’S INSIDE introduces Cyrus and Shelby, a longtime couple who can’t seem to keep the spark going in their relationship. They head off to their college friend Reuben’s wedding. They gather the rest of their friend group — Dennis, Nikki, Brooke, and Maya — at his mother’s house the night before the wedding to catch up.
Everything goes as expected until Forbes, an estranged friend no one knows Reuben reaches out to, arrives. They hadn’t seen him since a college party led to Forbes’ expulsion, as he’d brought his high school-age sister Beatrice to the party. Forbes has a large suitcase with him, which he tells the group contains a special game.
Forbes has been developing the game with a team at work. It allows users to switch bodies with others. Forbes tells the group he and his co-workers play a game with the machine—they switch bodies and have to figure out who is in whose body.
During the first round, the friends have fun, but Cyrus starts to feel uneasy when Forbes, in Dennis’ body, tells the group he’s Cyrus. In Reuben’s body, he plays along, encounters Maya in Nikki’s body, and the pair kiss.
When everyone is back in their bodies, they prepare for round two, but Cyrus says he doesn’t want to play. Shelby’s enthusiasm for the game changes his mind, and the group switches bodies once more. They continue to have a good time playing the game, but Cyrus is still uncomfortable.
Elsewhere, Reuben, in Dennis’ body, and Brooke, in Maya’s body, go up to a second-floor balcony and have sex. As the rest of the group gathers in the house, the balcony gives way, and the pair fall to their deaths. Chaos ensues as the group argues over what to do — Forbes tells them they can’t call the police, as the machine is too precious to be given to them. In contrast, Dennis and Cyrus argue over whether they should switch bodies back, forcing Dennis to live forever in Reuben’s body. During the fight, Dennis, in Cyrus’ body, calls the police and claims to have killed the others. In the commotion, Forbes attempts to run away with the machine, but in Brooke’s body, Nikki knocks him out. Shelby, who Forbes explained how to work the machine to, refuses to switch them back, as she is in Nikki’s body, a famous influencer.
Cyrus attempts to convince Shelby to switch everyone’s bodies back, but after Maya, in Shelby’s body, reveals Cyrus, previously in Reuben’s body, kissed her, previously in Nikki’s body, in Round One. Nikki is adamant that she return to her original body. As the police get closer to the house and with time running short, they argue and try to convince others to side with them on who should go into what body. Multiple characters mess with the machine to set who switches bodies with whom. The police arrive right as the machine is set off.
IT’S WHAT’S INSIDE is a sci-fi twist on the classic “whodunit?” The plot constantly keeps viewers guessing, and the movie uniquely incorporates social media. The main cast is excellent as they change their mannerisms when playing each other.
However, IT’S WHAT’S INSIDE has a very negative worldview, as all the characters are shown to be selfish, petty, and cruel. They lie to manipulate one another and threaten and blackmail each other. The movie contains countless instances of extremely strong language, a short sex scene, repeated drug use, and a brief violent scene. MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.
Desert Warrior, 2026.
Directed by Rupert Wyatt.
Starring Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley, Ghassan Massoud, Sharlto Copley, Sami Bouajila, Lamis Ammar, Géza Röhrig, Numan Acar, Nabil Elouahabi, Hakeem Jomah, Ramsey Faragallah, Saïd Boumazoughe, and Soheil Bostani.
SYNOPSIS:
An honorable and mysterious rogue, known as Hanzala, makes himself an enemy of the Emperor Kisra after he helps a fugitive king and princess in the desert.
With aspirations of being a historical epic harkening back to the sword and sandal blockbusters of yesteryear, Rupert Wyatt’s seventeenth-century Arabia tale is about as generic and epically dull as one would expect from a film plainly titled Desert Warrior. Yes, there appear to be real locations here, and there are some admittedly sweeping shots of various tribes storming into battle on horseback and camels, but it’s all in service of a mess that is both miscast and questionable as the work of a filmmaking team of mostly white creatives.
The story of Emperor Kisraa (Ben Kingsley, a distracting presence even with only one or two scenes) rounding up women from other tribes to be his concubines, which inevitably became the catalyst for a revolution led by Princess Hind (Aiysha Hart), uniting all the divided clans and strategizing battle plans for flanking and poisoning, is undeniably ripe for cinematic treatment. The problem is that what’s here from Rupert Wyatt (and screenwriters Erica Beeney, Gary Ross, and David Self) is less than nothing in the primary creative process; no one seems to have a connection to Arabic heritage or culture, but they have made a flat-out boring film that is often narratively incoherent.
Following the death of her father and escaping the clutches of oppression, the honorable Princess Hind joins forces with a troubled, nameless bandit played by Anthony Mackie (he totally belongs here…), who seems to be here solely to give the movie some star power boost without running the risk of white savior accusations. Whatever the case may be, it’s jarring, but not quite as disorienting as how little screen time he has despite being billed as the lead and how little characterization he has. It is, however, equally disorienting as some of the other names that show up along the way.
As for the other factions, Princess Hind talks to them one by one, giving the film an adventure feel that fails to capitalize on using beautiful scenery in striking or visually poignant ways at almost every turn; the leaders of these tribes also often have no character. There also isn’t much of an understanding of why these tribes are at odds with one another. This movie is filled with dialogue that consistently and shockingly amounts to vague nothingness. Nevertheless, each tribe doesn’t take much convincing to begin with, meaning that not only is the film repetitive, but it’s also lifeless when characters are in conversation.
That Desert Warrior does occasionally spring to life, and a bloated 2+ running time is a small miracle. This is typically accomplished through the occasional fight scene between factions that also serves to demonstrate Princess Hind coming into her own as a warrior. When the tribes are united in a massive-scale battle, and that plan is unfolding step by step, one certainly sees why someone would want to tell this story and pull it off with such spectacle. However, this film is as dry as the desert itself.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist
‘4’, the opening track on Richard D James’ (Aphex Twin) self titled 1996 album is a piece of music that beautifully balances the chaotic with the serene, the oppressive and the freeing. It’s a trick that James has pulled off multiple times throughout his career and it is a huge part of what makes him such an iconic and influential artist. Many people have laid the “next Aphex Twin” label on musicians who do things slightly different and when you actually hear their music you realise that, once again, the label is flawed and applied with a lazy attitude. Why mention this? Well, it turns out we’ve been looking for James’ heir apparent in the wrong artform. We’ve so zoned in on music that we’ve not noticed that another Celtic son of Cornwall is rewriting an art form with that highwire balancing act between chaos and beauty. That artist is writer, director and composer Mark Jenkin who over his last two feature films has announced himself as an idiosyncratic voice who is creating his very own language within the world of cinema. Jenkin’s films are often centred around coastal towns or islands and whilst they are experimental or even unsettling, there is always a big heart at the centre of the narrative. A heart that cares about family, tradition, culture, and the pull of ‘home’. Even during the horror of 2022’s brilliant Enys Men you were anchored by the vulnerability and determination of its main protagonist.
This month sees the release of Jenkin’s latest feature film, Rose of Nevada, which is set in a fractured and diminished Cornish coastal town. One day the fishing boat of the film’s title arrives back in harbour after being missing for thirty years. The boat is unoccupied. And frankly that is all the information you are going to get because to discuss any more plot would be unfair on you and disrespectful to Jenkin and the team behind the film. You the viewer should be the one who decides what it is about because thematically there are so many wonderful threads to pull on. This writer’s opinions on what it is about have ranged from a theme of sacrifice for the good of a community to the conflict within when part of you wants to run away from your roots whilst the other half longs to stay and be a lifelong part of its tapestry. Is it about Brexit? Could be. Is it about our own relationships with time and our curation of memory? Could be. Is it about both the positives and negatives of nostalgia? Could be. As a side note, anyone in their mid-40s, like me, who came of age in the 1990s will certainly find moments of warm recognition. Is the film about ghosts and how they haunt families? Could be…I think you get the point.
The elements that make the film so well balanced between chaos and calm are many. It is there in the differing performances between the brilliant two lead actors George MacKay and Callum Turner. It is there in the sound design which fluctuates from being unbearably harsh and metallic, to lulling and warm. It is there in the editing where short, sharp close ups on seemingly unimportant factors are counterbalanced with shots that are held for just that little bit too long. For a film set around the sea, it is apt that it can make you feel like you’re rolling on a stomach churning storm one minute, or a calming low tide the next. Dialogue can be front and centre or blurred and buried under static. One shot is bathed in harsh sunlight whilst the next can be drowned in interior shadows.
Rose of Nevada is Mark Jenkin’s most ambitious film to date yet he has not lost a single iota of innovation, singularity of vision or his gift for telling the most human of stories. It is a film that will tell you different things each time you see it and whilst there are moments that can confuse or beguile, there is so much empathy and love that it can leave you crying tears of emotional understanding. It is chaotic. It is beautiful. It is life……
Rose of Nevada is released on the 24th April.
Mark Jenkin Instagram | Threads
Released through the BFI – Instagram | Facebook
Review by Simon Tucker
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