A film that starts out as a whimsical little human-interest story, and evolves into a nerve-jangling conspiracy thriller. This supremely entertaining documentary follows New Zealand journalist David Farrier as he stumbles upon online film clips showing the phenomenon of “competitive endurance tickling” and decides to write a lighthearted feature about it. But the response to his request for an interview is so unexpected – a barrage of emails spit vitriol, legal threats and homophobic slurs – that Farrier decides to dig deeper. It turns out that sinister forces are at work in the world of recreational tickling. Like Capturing the Friedmans, this film takes us on a compulsively odd, increasingly dark journey; like Foxcatcher, it explores what happens when an obsessive interest and a taste for power games coincides with extreme wealth. A fascinating piece of investigative film-making about a subject that is not nearly as innocuously fluffy as it sounds.
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