Movie Review: Tickled
What We Liked
What We Didn't Like
Tickled is a very smart documentary investigating our collective failures at the macro level. The legal system, the school system and our community ecosystem have “leakages.” Our failure has been forgetting we are linked and responsible for each other’s well-being, as the Dalai Lama and other spiritual leaders teach. We haven’t tried hard enough nor succeeded enough, and we know this because individuals responsible for causing damage continue to hoodwink and exploit others and perpetuate cycles of violence. In other words, Tickled, debuting at Sundance this 
year, explores narratives that stain our global conscience today. At onset it might seem a film about tickling does not merit this mature provocation, but New Zealander documentarians David Farrier and Dylan Reeve, filming in New Zealand and the U.S., present the “tickling game” as an exposé of our failures in keeping each other safe.
The narrative is conveyed with Charlie Brown likability by Farrier and Reeve; Farrier is a journalist attracted to zaniness who one day discovers the sport of Competitive Endurance Tickling online. In the game, someone is tied up at their hands and feet and tickled by one person or several. With its cuffs and participant comments about losing control and “you might as well enjoy it,” the game links in elements of desire, fetishism, sadism, and masochism. At one point the games were rumored to be a test for the military to see if tickling would hold up as a torture tactic. The person whom the filmmakers identify as running the organization – an apt word as there are tickle huts worldwide where the sessions are filmed and staff, including casting agents, who organize at the local level for the games – is now suing the filmmakers for defamation.
The most successful of documentaries are made by director-artisans who use good technique to bring real life to film life and engage a broad audience. I noticed the directors thank their Kickstarter supporters, which run up a significant list. When they move filming to America, Farrier mentions he has a tourist visa, and I remained impressed with his dedication to his work and also, his courage. Farrier’s discovery of the competitive tickling world turned into this documentary when he queried about the games and received a hostile, homophobic response from the producers. His pursuit of information led quickly to legal charges against him and he and Reeve decided to make the film. (Yes, they have been in trouble with the law since they began pursuing this story.) Their commitment to expose unclear authority and the secrets of its network is similar to what Louie Psihoyos and his team did in The Cove. It is a brilliant attitude of art-making, admirable for its bravery, and what Farrier and Reeve uncover is the film we see.
The filmmakers are careful about how they film and deliberate in how they present their footage. I loved the shot early on of an airplane opening on the backs of heads of seated passengers followed by, in the next second, all their in-flight televisions turning on simultaneously. The scene presents technology as a central presence in our world, an omniscient narrator of human story, while suggesting the inversion of private into public life and that technology can also be used to incite and alienate. A recurrent technique shows nonspeaking footage with voiceovers presumably added in post-production, so we focus more on the image of the investigation and experience the documentarians’ apprehension perhaps more viscerally. I got a feeling Farrier and Reeve were living this bizarre story multiple times, in multiple waves. Tickled is unique, so I was unsurprised to see the spirit of Gertrude Stein make an appearance in the titles of the film’s original score. Leaves Expanded May Be Prevailing Blue Mixed with Yellow Sand is on point to experience and examine Tickled.
Dina Paulson-McEwen
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