Tickled (2016)

Beautiful, moving film.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

David Farrier captures our attentions with subtlety and ease in his documentary, TICKLED. When David receives a hostile response to an inquiry about competitive tickling he does not shy away from looking further.It is the looking further when a seemingly harmless 'sport' comes to be seen as something much much more. David managed to arouse our curiosity and take us on a journey that (pun intended) tickled my interest, deepened my suspicions and shocked me with it's focus.TICKLED goes to show us what money and position can achieve and get away with. In a scenario which could have been harmless, one person takes it to an abusive next level and David is there with us the entire time.

Sometimes when i'm bored i'll watch porn with a really long introduction so i become attached to the people in the video and this is basically what that is, if you have a weird sadistic fetish like me you'll probably find your fingers getting kinda sticky within this documentary and that's a good thing. most of the footage is good quality so if your a cinophile that'll be ticking(tickling) your boxes and if you haven't yet picked up a kink for tickling then you're about to.In all seriousness this actually a very good little film and i really enjoyed it. but anyway in the words of my dwarf god "yer makin' a chicken out of a feather" and i don't know what that means but oh dear lord do i want to have torbjorns 20 children right ow.(((im really sorry god please don't hold this against me)))

A very intriguing documentary by this clever kiwi crew. What seems to be, and what SHOULD be, some fairly innocent and legit questions asked about professional tickling, turns out to be something quite extraordinary.A rabbit hole that goes very deep indeed, as leads get thin, and as law suits get filed, the crew know it is going to be a tough journey to get to the bottom of things and get the tough answers to the questions that were initially asked.It keeps the viewer engaged right to the very end.Very enjoyable and enlightening watch.Perhaps the next step for this crew is to see if they can get to the bottom of Huzaifa Huxaifa and why Lenny Pozner has a copyright on this person.

Whether it is drama, comedy or documentary, New Zealand filmmakers punch above their weight. The documentary Tickled (2016) is one of the most unusual films you will see for a long time and a guaranteed conversation starter in the right company. While the film's title suggests comedic titillation, what it reveals is something more sinister that has wrecked many lives. It is also a fine example of how dogged investigative journalism can stumble from something that appears innocuously weird into something bizarrely dangerous.It is said that movies have plots while documentaries have premises. Pop-culture journalist David Farrier specialises in fringe phenomena and his premise is that if someone spends a fortune to stay anonymous they have something serious to hide. He comes across something described as "competitive professional tickling" that involves the filming of young athletic males being tied down and tickled by one or more other young athletic males, all fully clothed. His initial inquiries to understand more about this activity are so aggressively stonewalled that he turns his investigation into a documentary with most of the filming in the United States. Expecting to find a secretive cult of homoerotic activity, he finds participants who have been subjected to extraordinary legal threats, extortion, and public shaming. The scale of intimidation and the lengths to which perpetrators are prepared to go indicate there is big money involved. The documentary feels like a parallel universe where things go from strange to stranger as the inquiries lead to a prominent and wealthy American lawyer who was a teacher and school principal. Farrier and his team-mate Dylan Reeve use old fashioned stakeouts, doorstop confrontations, and forensic web-based research to turn the study of a fringe fetish into a gripping thriller.This is a well-produced documentary, especially for a novice filmmaker. Minor criticisms aside, like Ferrier's occasional tendency to tell rather than show and a few scenes that need tighter editing (like the time spent in the car stake-out), the overall pace, direction and content make this a totally engaging film. The hand-held filming technique and the unexpected twists and turns in the investigation impart real-time-discovery effects. A quick Google search will show that both during production and since the film's release Farrier and Reeve have been and still are under serious legal and financial threat. Not only do the filmmakers deserve a bravery award, their work is riveting from the laughter-filled opening scenes to the chilling closing credits.