There are certain moments in Look into My Eyes where you cannot help but weep like a baby as your soul is completely crushed. Some other times, you find your chest heavy but also a smile on your face; those are the bittersweet ones. But then, you also drift away, and conversations don’t quite register in your head as you find them boring (I know this is a harsh word to use, but I am choosing to be honest here). That’s not necessarily a problem, because the entirety of Lana Wilson’s documentary is a series of conversations, coming one after another. It’s only normal for the viewers to get drawn in by some of them, while others might not appeal as much. I obviously had to replay the ones I didn’t quite get into for this assignment, which kind of ruined my viewing experience. However, that shouldn’t be your concern. In this article, we’re going to discuss Look into My Eyes and address the big question y’all probably have—whether what we see is real or not.Â
What is the documentary about?
It only makes sense for A24 to produce a documentary about psychics. Trust me, I am not at all exaggerating when I say watching Look into My Eyes actually feels a lot like watching a standard A24 film—you know how strange those are usually, but also quite engaging and very admirable. One of the psychics even mentions The Witch—which is probably the most celebrated A24 movie—as one of his favorite movies. I’m not sure what would have happened if he had by any chance said the name of anything produced by Neon, though, just saying!
Anyway, I’m supposed to address the question in the subhead here. To be very honest, that’s quite hard because the documentary is about everything and also sort of nothing. I mean there’s no particular story here. No narrator is present either. It’s just Wilson, the director, filming a bunch of psychics based in NYC talking to (or treating) their clients. There’s no specific pattern. Sometimes the psychics are talking about their processes. Some other times, it’s the clients. But it is also much more than that—you know what I mean because you’ve already watched it, right?
The beginning of Look into Your Eyes grabs your attention right away. We see a fifty-something doctor sharing something she experienced two decades ago, when she had just begun her professional career. A ten-year-old girl was shot, and she came to her already dead. The doctor describes how she literally held the little girl’s brain in her hand. The incident was so shocking that nobody uttered a word. The doctor also had the hardest job in the world—breaking the news to the kid’s parent. The incident has traumatized her forever, and she hasn’t moved past it. We realize she is speaking to one of the psychics, hoping to find a solution here that involves contacting the spirit of the little girl in some way.
That is followed by similar settings—other clients sharing what’s troubling them with the other psychics. The majority of the conversations here are quite interesting and, at times, deeply affecting. There’s this man who lost his father a long time ago, and now he’s trying to contact him, being a dad himself. A woman wants to know from her grandmother if the relationship between her mother and her will ever be okay, and also whether she is going to have a good future with her husband or not. The grandma’s response is quite snarky, as she asks the woman why she would choose that man as a husband in the first place. Among all the conversations, I find the ones involving animals the most interesting. Having a pet myself, I am always worried about if they are alright, as they don’t have the tools to communicate their health problems or other issues to us. Quite naturally, animal psychics like Phoebe Hoffman should seem like gods to someone like me. What’s even more fascinating here is the psychic connection not being limited to the dead alone, as we see Phoebe helping a woman with her dog, who hates to walk on a leash, and is very much alive. Phoebe is quite the character by herself. You’re bound to feel for her as she talks to you about her terrible childhood with extremely narcissistic parents who would not do anything good for her. That’s an understatement, considering Phoebe used to do drugs with her father, and the old man was quite proud about it. Only after having a heart attack at the age of sixty did he tell his daughter that she had some kind of talent she should pursue. Phoebe spent most of her life as a loner, in isolation, until she finally decided to enroll herself in a course about animal psychics. That changed her life and brought her here, of course.
Is this all actually real?Â
Alright, time to ask the question, as I understand this is why you’re here. I was apprehensive about the documentary because of the context. Being an agnostic myself, I don’t have much faith in psychic reading. Quite naturally, my concern regarding the subject matter of Look into My Eyes was quite legit. However, now that I have watched it, I gotta say that it is quite remarkable how the documentary handles the question head-on, instead of circling around it. It’s undeniable that the whole profession of psychic reading is kind of looked down upon by so many people. Psychics are often seen as some kind of frauds who are deliberately duping people as a means of making money. But this is where Look into My Eyes appears to be quite defiant as it attempts to show our psychics in a much more humane manner. They are human beings just like us. Like the clients, these psychics have their own struggles. Take Eugene Grygo, for example. The man had to spend half his life as a closeted homosexual for his conservative upbringing. Both coming out and getting into this profession have kind of saved him. But what Eugene really intends to become is a performer. Along with his psychic readings, he also does open mics. In fact, Look into My Eyes closes with one of Eugene’s performances, and it’s quite fantastic.
The most interesting thing is one of the psychics, Per Erik Borja, actually asking the question we have in our subhead. During one of the readings, we see him fumbling with sensing the presence of a young skateboard enthusiast. It turns out he hasn’t read it right. He tries to find out who the spirit is by asking everyone in the room, but that doesn’t turn out fruitful either. We then find Borja in a state where he is questioning his own sanity, whether what he’s doing all this while is real or everything is inside his head. This introspection by him, and all the other psychics as well, is what makes the documentary quite the standout. Just like Borja, even Phoebe wonders the same from time to time. But both of them go on, as the motto here is to help people. Offer a beacon of light to those who are in the dark.
Another thing Borja points out is the misconceptions people—I’m talking about the believers here—have about psychics. Most of them actually believe that a psychic can’t have issues of their own. But here, Borja goes through quite the struggle. It gets revealed that it has a lot to do with the passing of his friend Alex. The documentary even goes to the extent of showing us all the other psychics sitting with Borja and trying to help him out. It is both fascinating and heartbreaking to see the guy talking about the demons he’s been battling internally, ever since Alex died. Things have become so troublesome that he wouldn’t even mind if he dies. He clarifies that he is not a suicidal person and wouldn’t harm himself but also confesses that he fantasizes about getting hit by a car. Thankfully for Borja, psychic Sherry feels Alex’s presence and deduces that the dead man used to have a great sense of humor. Other psychics sense Alex too, and they all end up collectively telling Borja that his friend wants him to find joy in life. Now do you see what’s happening here? Borja is leaving the room with a solution. So are countless other people who visit psychics and believe in the process. Many of them find hope here. At least the psychics we see in Look into My Eyes are certainly not trying to con people. All they’re trying to do is help out people who are in distress. By the end of the documentary, we go back to the doctor again and she gets to find her peace by communicating with the unfortunate little girl who was shot all those years ago.
So, I would say this much in conclusion: whether or not psychic reading is real is immaterial to ask. The right question should probably be: Even if it is not real, does it matter? We do have an answer to that, and it’s a firm no. To explain it further, there’s this scene where a woman is asking about her dog, Zeus, to her psychic. It’s been a while since Zeus has gone away, and the woman doesn’t know whether the dog is alive or dead. All she wants is to check up on Zeus, to see if he is doing okay. The psychic obliges and stuns the woman by talking about the abusive relationships she used to be in. The woman confirms that she was indeed in an extremely toxic relationship when she adopted Zeus. It turns out that Zeus sensed it all and tried to be her protector, as much as he could. There were times when the woman felt the urge to end things; she was unable to handle her situation, but every single time, she could not do it for Zeus’ sake. It was the dog who saved her life. When the psychic lets her know that Zeus is okay, but most likely dead, the woman is understandably in tears, and so are we. Whether psychic reading is a real thing or not, there’s no lie in this story. So at the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter, like I said. I suppose that’s what Lana Wilson intends to do with this Look into My Eyes. It is not at all about proving something, but about how it is affecting people just by existing.
Final Thoughts
I think I have already established the fact that as a documentary, Look into My Eyes is pretty astounding. The best thing it does is not follow any typical format. Wilson doesn’t saddle her horse with unnecessary narration in the background, which I thought to be a masterstroke. That makes the documentary more of a discussion where the audience is getting to be a part of it. All the clients and psychics are directly talking to us anyway.
Needless to say, Look into My Eyes is also a great sign of how far documentary filmmaking has come. Wilson, obviously, is a modern-day legend when it comes to the genre. Her earlier works, be it the Taylor Swift documentary titled Miss Americana or the one that centered on Brooke Shields—Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields—have been nothing short of fantastic. Naturally, good things are expected from someone like Wilson, but with Look into My Eyes, she has elevated her game. The documentary has won half the battle with the choice of topic alone, and the rest is won by how deftly Wilson has handled it. Instead of sensationalizing the whole thing, Willson’s approach is careful and sensitive, which is exactly what this kind of thing needs.
The most common criticism against Look into My Eyes must be people just writing the whole thing off by saying this is just a bunch of failed actors trying to get somewhere with their lives. Whether that’s true or not is debatable, but even if we consider that these people are nothing but a bunch of improvers, can we deny that they are actually helping people to feel better about life and themselves? I was being rhetorical here, in case you were looking for an answer.
