影片的内容更像是新闻调查,从中可以看出美国记者对于事实(真相)的坚持,忽然会想起柴静和看见。一切看似不正常的行为背后细究都能发现童年成长的痕迹,在人类最懵懂、最脆弱、最需要认同和保护的时候,如果得到的是外界恶意的回应,那必然在其后某个时候会找到一个点作为发泄。正如片中的DAVID,任何形式的瘾或癖好,都是个人内在情绪的变相表达。so you can learn to find the right way to vent.l believe the world is beautiful!
A priori, any documentary makers should adopt impartiality towards their subjects, but for New Zealander TV reporter David Farrier and producer Dylan Reeve, they have their own skin in the game. The germ of TICKLED is when Farrier, whose bent is on “quirky and odd stories”, is tickled by the online videos of “competitive tickling endurance” and starts blogging it, after met with unexpected homophobic responses and legal threats from the videos’ production company Jane O’Brien Media, Farrier and Reeve are undeterred, if anything, they are further intrigued to beat the bush of this undermined phenomenon and fly to USA to continue their guerrilla probe.
What initially appears as a reportage on the fetish of “erotic tickling”, all the participants of the videos are athletic, teenage or early-twenty-something boys, intriguingly swerves into a conspiracy theory exposé, when the pair obtain more information about the said production company and an 90’s personage called Terri DiSisto, who allegedly spearheaded the video production, through various interviewees, including former participants, reporters and local recruiters, what they piece together is a one-man empire of David D’Amato, the only son of a wealthy Wall Street banker, who invents fake identities to register companies and disburses expense of running them and shooting the videos, all because the guy is minted.
Real life is stranger than fiction, Farrier and Reeve’s investigative modality is nothing special, pedestrian talking heads, voice-only recording sub rosa, occasionally punctuating the narrative with scenic shots, and the key to their triumph can be encapsulated in three operative words “resources, stakeout and chutzpah”, and what is really both unsettling and edifying is to see the deleterious effects of the pandemic bully culture, David is such a fruition, a sadistic tormenter who revels in ruling the roost, and will not have no for an answer, anyone who dares to defy his command is met with inconceivable discrediting retaliation, but how did he do that? Is himself a savvy internet hacker who can disable a university’s computer system (an act of vengeance on a participant who wants out, for which he served a six-month prison sentence) or he outsources the job to someone else, that leaves a question mark, what we can infer is that when one is well-oiled like him, nothing seems to be impossible.
Finally, when most of the lowdown is divulged, TICKLED ends with more reverberations when Farrier calls David’s last relative alive, his stepmother, and we are apprised that David is not a bully in his childhood, instead, allegedly he is a bully victim, that, for this reviewer, is the manna from heaven, while most of us may concern about what damage those bullies can wreak when they grow up, the film intelligently reminds us that the same attention should also be applied to the victims, how their mentality can be forever impaired by the pernicious act and in turn, they comes off as a new bully when they are equipped with the wherewithals, that is food for thought from one side of the story.
referential entries: Tim Wardle’s THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS (2018, 6.6/10); Sandi Tan’s SHIRKERS (2018, 7.4/10).
这肯定是2016最佳纪录片了,紧张刺激又不失精彩,看这部纪录片你是笑不出声的,人有性癖固然正常,但是对权力和控制的变态渴望才是真正可怕的事情,你会难以想象这种人性丧失的人真正存在。佩服导演,十星推荐。
细思极恐,如果说挠痒是一种隐秘的性癖,那并无可厚非。真正令人不安的是所有那些骚扰、控制和威胁,在能轻易逃脱法律制裁的灰色地带,就像被挠本身,没人take it seriously。
看到结尾都没意识到这是一部真的纪录片,还以为是伪纪录片形式的电影。因为很少在纪录片里面看到悬疑的成分,这部片抽丝剥茧,一层一层揭示谁才是幕后推手,究竟又是什么原因让TA这么执迷于tickle game,好像侦探片,事实证明真实世界远比电影来的精彩。
我以为有什么惊天大阴谋。。。原来就会个这。。。 这个故事告诉我们,不要没事骂记者
从一个事件深挖出背后的阴谋 剧情扑朔迷离 像探案剧一样的纪录片 在这个互联网年代 只要有钱 没有什么可怕的事情是做不了的 细思极恐
有点creepy,我敢说独尊帝国的论坛主也是这号人物
我真没看出什么好来。。。Vice调调的鼓弄玄虚最后讲了一个特别简单又无聊的故事,果然记者最会编
一个同志记者想报名参加挠痒大赛,却被告知该运动仅限直男。倔性上来的他展开调查,结果发现挠痒帝国背后隐藏着惊人的真相…作为纪录片拍出了悬疑追凶的感觉,搞笑运动和黝暗人性对撞带来匪夷所思的荒谬:这不是关于挠,而是关于控制。今年最好的纪录片候选。
纪录片的拍摄和内容都挺猎奇的。一个特殊癖好者建立了一个帝国,传销和莆田系拍出来应该也是这个样子。[B]
HBO出品,必属佳片。非常精彩的调查纪录片。在美帝当律师真是好赚啊。面对威胁恐吓,大部分人都会退缩沉默,但也总有些人会勇敢地做出不同的选择,向他们致敬。
纹理很清晰,一层层推进,一步步解释,但是真相有点无趣,啰。
The whole thing is just beyond weird
3.5:我的这趟旅程始于对一项奇特运动的好奇,这项运动叫作挠痒痒耐力比赛,现在我知道了,虽说叫挠痒痒但是跟挠痒痒一毛钱关系都没有,这是一场关于权利、掌控和骚扰的游戏,有关一个人内心的扭曲以及这种扭曲能够到什么程度,一个人试图把自己的生活搞得充满铜臭味,只是为了继续自己内心的执念……
整个片子的脉络非常清晰:由带有奇闻意味的挠痒爱好者组织引入,再通过网络暴力挖掘组织背后的秘密,最后没有过多的把注意力引向司法阴暗面,转而聚焦个人精神问题,我认为这样的解读很理智。从一开始该组织的操作者的行为就带有反社会型人格以及偏执人格障碍的特征,至于个人癖好请宽容看待。
看介绍以为是轻松愉快的纪录片,没想到到最后这么紧张。“挠痒痒”这种少见的性癖团体背后竟然有这么庞大的资金和权力支撑,毁了这么多青年的生活。而影片似乎再次论证了“恐同即深柜”?令人害怕。
题材本身很值得被挖掘和讨论,却把通篇的重点放在了揭秘幕后黑手的真实身份上,伦理引导和情感倾向也明显到怀疑导演拍摄纪录片的专业度。结尾太欠缺力度,而且我绝不相信这样大规模大投入的视频拍摄仅仅是为了满足个人的特殊性癖好而不是为了敛财,但如此欲言又止的结束倒留给观众更多的想象空间。
假如David没有把My Documents意外地公布在互联网…
相当有趣的一部纪录片,涉及fetish/网络欺凌/身份伪装/money-power/深柜/童年阴影等各种因素。b站地址http://www.bilibili.com/mobile/video/av6826141.html
从反方向把《狐狸猎手》的故事又讲了一遍。
本以为这是解析”tickle fetish”的纪录片,没想到是对这个遍布全球的网站背后大佬的调查。作为纪录片它只能算中等,但我还是很佩服这些工作者的努力和胆量,不畏邪恶势力勇敢做着抽丝剥茧查明真相的工作。