#tickled (2016)

Tickled (2016)

“For all its frightful detours, Tickled maintains a lightness that backs the bafflement we’re clearly supposed to feel. One wishes [David] Farrier and [Dylan] Reeve pushed slightly harder for a bombastic ending. But when you’re dealing with a real-life, albeit wacky, James Bond villain, there’s no point in risking it all in the name of a documentary for which you already have most of the content.”

I just watched the documentary Tickled (2016) with my roommates and it was... OMG so many adjectives. Funny and enthralling and horrifying and bizarre and sad. We kept having to pause it to discuss. And then do a bunch of googling when it was over to figure out what happened to the people in it.

Like it starts off seeming like a silly piece on a ridiculous sport (competitive tickling), but quickly veers into mysterious and disturbing territory. For a while I thought maybe it was a decades-long extortion or blackmail scheme, but then you realize whoever is behind it is spending tons of money but doesn't seem to be making much (if any) off of it. The rabbit hole it leads you down is deep and strange and fascinating.

Spoilers under the cut: