By Gregory Crofton
Who wants to watch a documentary about competitive male tickling? I might be the last one to get in line for that movie, even if it’s the only one playing.
But I found it on HBO’s video on demand, and having read in several places that people liked the film very much, I dove in.
After struggling through an early but over-long section about, yes, male tickling, the doc became something more like a very good episode of the CBS’ crime show 48 Hours. Heart-poundingly tense in several spots, this movie is about real confrontation in a world that grows more digitally removed every day.
The filmmakers — David Farrier and Dylan Reeve — are entertainment reporters from New Zealand who take stab at covering a strange “competitive tickling” story they discovered on Facebook. Farrier’s media request is coated with invectives and hurled right back at him, and so the story begins. Learn more about the film here.