Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 31 minutes, Director – Adrian Choa
Louis Theroux meets and follows controversial online influencers behind the rise of toxic masculinity.
Louis Theroux wastes no time in jumping into the world of ‘the Manosphere’ – the labelled home for controversial ultra-masculine influencers, often pointed to as part of the rise of toxic masculinity, particularly in the young audience they reach, and bring in thousands, if not millions, of dollars from, through their online content. Yet, while he quickly tries to cut into what it is that these men see themselves, and the rest of the world as, through their twisted takes on ‘traditional values’ – although largely just for women, it seems – the ensuing 90-minutes doesn’t quite feel as if it deepens.
There are unsettling moments as Theroux views livestreams of the people he’s following, in one case 23-year-old fugitive Harrison Sullivan, username HSTikkyTokky, has a crony arrange to meet someone just so Sullivan and his group of followers can violently beat and attack them. Sullivan is one of the more threatening figures we see, and one we spend the most time with despite his increasing wariness of Theroux, and there’s a growing darkness to much of what he, and the people he inspires, says.
An echo chamber forms from these people trying to follow in both his footsteps and those of other participants in the documentary. A number of which you can feel growing wary of the documentarian as he asks more questions about their lifestyles, especially the women in them. Very few women appear in the film, even fewer who get time to speak to Theroux, perhaps because of the circumstances and control the men being interviewed exhibit over them. Podcaster Myron Gaines, also known as Amrou Fudl, quick to shout his points over everything else when the mics are on is just as quick to stop, in the rare event he isn’t present for, any conversations Louis tries to get with either his girlfriend, Angie; particularly about Gaines’ insistence of a one-sided monogamous relationship, or female staff.
Yet, the questions asked about this do occasionally strike as slightly similar, just a little later with a different influencer. I sat the more the film went on wanting Theroux to dig a little deeper, although it could have easily removed access to a number of these figures – as even just comments about him in stream chats seem to rub Sullivan up the wrong way.
Instead, hypocrisies are highlighted, and origins for some of these views and behaviours briefly looked into, but often it felt as if the film could be doing more to properly confront this world of toxic masculinity. Particularly in the early stages it slightly feels like something that, even if we haven’t heard of the figures (outside of Andrew Tate I hadn’t heard of any of the people mentioned in this film), is going over much of what we’re already aware of. While Theroux brings his usual style, with his now trademark pause and glance aside during interviews, and some expectedly amusing moments every now and then amongst the shock brought about by the attitudes of those he speaks to (and how matter-of-fact some of them are when not playing up to the camera and their online audience) I just wish he, and the film as a whole, went more in depth with his questions.
Into The Manosphere certainly isn’t all surface, it manages to get under the skin, of both subjects and audience in different ways, a couple of times, but at others it seems to want to observe the behaviour we know by a certain point exists without investigating further. Things are solidly watchable, and seem to be captured with the intent of this being a quick 90-minute look at the Manosphere, and for what there is to like there’s more to be successfully unsettled by. Just, sometimes on a slightly surface level that feels as if it more simply asks about rather than confronts the matter at hand.
Far from Theroux’s most in-depth work, Into The Manosphere feels almost wary of avoiding confrontation and therefore often feels, despite its unsettling subjects, rather surface level with the documentarian’s style helping things through.
Just A Little Bit Random 