Look Into My Eyes

Like most people in life, both the "psychics" and clients in this film need emotional attention, want to feel special, and find meaning in life. The answers to our biggest questions in life are unanswerable. The heavy-duty theatrical theme and overly dramatic moments that run through this documentary reveals a complete lack of credibility. Anyone can use their intuition, empathy, and compassion to help people seeking solace. People with confidence who are in tune with themself and their environment can logically work out issues and found solutions. If you want to have a psychic reading for fun, go ahead. If you need a help to work out a situation, talk to someone you know and trust. If you're grappling with real trauma, please seek help from someone with a Master's Degree in Counseling.

I felt embarrassed watching these self-proclaimed psychics fumble through these readings, stating vague information that or could not make sense (when they don't, they just brush it off) to the person being "read". These "psychics" continue to ask for more and more information from their subjects while they spew more nonsense that never really confirms that they are speaking to the other side.

These folks seem like actors, skilled (in some cases) at keeping a conversation going even if they're just talking in circles. I'm all about there being a connection to the other side, but this does nothing to prove or convince me of anything. These readings look like a theater student forgetting their lines or having an awkward experience at an improv class. Oof, this missed the mark for me.

The trailer promises a new look at the world of psychic readings, but what we get are sometimes too-intimate looks at the lives of a series of scammers who sell the illusion of talking to the dead or to pets or to dead pets in order to comfort people who are emotionally fragile and clearly not the sharpest knives in the rack.

That suckers go to psychics for succor is no great revelation, although this documentary seems to think it is, and then it goes to pains to say that's okay. In that very modern falsehood of thinking validating everyone's feeling is a good idea. Maybe just tell the person, "Hey, your dog's probably dead, but who knows?" and let them live in reality. Don't too many of us hang on to deception? Isn't that part of the reason we're descending into a totalitarian regime in 2025?

While no names or narration are given to guide us, the documentary all but exposes each of the "psychics" as hucksters, many of whom seem mentally ill and who narcissistically see only their own pains in everyone elses's. Other just seem like empathetic people who spout feel-good nonsense as band-aids, and you have to wonder what their clients really think afterward. But we never hear from them.

It's very telling that many of the fleecers portrayed here talk openly about their dreams of art and acting. It seems that while they never made it to Broadway, they all found their stages, given the lovely size of many of their apartments.

It's also telling that they all come from disempowered, disenfranchised communities (women, gay, African American), a sad reminder of how effective is the brainwashing done by the elite and/or religion (in this case, the delusion of an afterlife and of magic).

Psychic ability is a subject that often mystifies yet captivates many of us. It's also a topic that's frequently misunderstood and comes with a lot of distorted, uninformed baggage in need of serious clarification. Those looking to be enlightened about it, however, are unlikely to come away from director Lana Wilson's documentary on the subject with much new or profound insight. The film profiles seven New York City psychic professionals through conversations with these individuals and footage from sessions with some of their clients. Regrettably, though, this overlong offering is in serious need of being trimmed and recut. Much of the material becomes redundant and tedious as the film progresses, and the picture frequently focuses on the wrong content. Many of the client sessions, for example, are abruptly cut short just as they're starting to get interesting. In addition, the interviews with the psychics are at their best when they wax philosophically about the nature of this phenomenon (particularly when discussing how they became involved in this practice, often through artistic, healing and self-acceptance avenues), but there's not nearly enough of these fascinating metaphysical musings. And then there's a potentially intriguing collective gathering involving all seven psychics that, sadly, receives woefully short shrift, again getting clipped just as it's becoming engaging. Instead of more of what works best in the film, viewers are left with numerous easily eliminated pregnant pauses, often-superfluous descriptions about everyday aspects of the psychics' personal lives and overly repetitive discussion of subjects addressed in the session material (especially those involving the work of a pet psychic, an intriguing but vastly overused narrative element). "Look Into My Eyes" could have been a genuinely revelatory, insightful examination of this subject, but the filmmaker has not made the most of that golden opportunity. Instead of providing audiences with a meaningful, articulate look into the subject matter, viewers are left with a meandering, unfocused treatment of a topic that could be valuable and impactful to many of us - and that truly deserves better handling than what's presented here.

The storytelling by Lana was superb as was the cinematography and lighting. This became not a story about if psychic readings are true, but how people can heal through this sort of interaction. We get to know the people going to the readers and then the readers themselves, how they found their individual gifts and how they came to offering readings. The pacing was good and Lana delicately weaves the 7 psychics with multiple clients that culminate into an emotional climax that is both heartfelt and rewarding. It was funny and deeply moving with a few pull at the heartstring moments. Def watch!!