On September 6, 2024, A24 releases 'Look Into My Eyes', which has earned rave reviews from critics, currently holding at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the documentary, "A group of New York City psychics conduct deeply intimate readings for their clients, revealing a kaleidoscope of loneliness, connection, and healing." Read the full review round-up below.
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| Adrian Swancar on Unsplash |
Tomris Laffly of Harper's Bazaar praises the film, stating, "Perceptive documentarian Lana Wilson has an intellectually inquisitive touch regardless of whom she’s filming—courageous late-term abortion doctors (After Tiller) or Taylor Swift (Miss Americana). In her latest, she turns her reflective lens on an unexpected cluster: psychics across New York City, an artistic, sensitive group not especially concerned with making accurate prophetic claims, but motivated by a desire to provide a therapeutic service to their customers. With a cozy but respectful camera, a considerate tone that never compromises the film’s idiosyncratic subject, and a profound understanding of urban alienation, Wilson puts forth something that will make every New Yorker—or anyone who’s ever sat with unprocessed grief and suffering—feel a little less alone, a little more seen."
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com writes, "Wilson reframes psychic readings as acts of joint therapy, revealing how these intimate sessions are often as emotionally powerful for the psychic as the client. And while Wilson avoids some of the dicey issues like profiting off grief, there’s no denying these people are finding closure and managing pain through these readings. Why are they inherently deemed lesser than the therapeutic or pharmaceutical industries that profit off misery? Wilson doesn’t need you to believe, but she will make you understand." Adding, "Wilson follows seven NYC psychics through their lives, intercutting sessions with personal details about each. They all have interesting stories. Most of them are adjacent to theatre or acting, which should give the skeptics some fuel. Wilson even asks one bluntly how different what she does is from stage improvisation. The answer is not much, but isn’t great improv sort of feeding off the energy of a partner too? It’s truly fascinating how many of them struggle with tragic loss of their own. It’s as if their efforts to contact the other side and prove that the dead can find peace there is also to manage their own grief. If they can contact a client’s loved one who has found comfort in the afterlife, that means theirs has too."
Jake Kring-Schreifels of The Film Stage notes, "In this deeply moving, compassionate exploration, determining whether this small and goofy group actually has real powers is beside the point." Concluding, "There is a real beauty in the way all of this is portrayed. Wilson knows the intimacy and effectiveness of these appointments require no distractions, no sense of outside noise. Thus her camera never feels like it interferes, framing both sides of the table in darkness and with a stillness that allows each person’s stories, tears, and smiles to come through. Look Into My Eyes‘ first half highlights these emotional exchanges for extended periods, hopping between psychics and clients before Wilson unravels the inner lives, techniques, and philosophies of her subjects. After spending time with Taylor Swift and Brooke Shields (for last year’s doc Pretty Baby) and implementing a more traditional, biographical chronology with archival footage, she seems to relish creating her own narrative structure that deepens the more she spends time with each individual. "
David Ehrlich of indieWire says, "I was a little awed by the discipline and control with which Wilson gradually zooms out on her subjects over the course of the movie, as the ever-widening scope of her documentary makes room for us to find our own truth in all of this fiction."
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