Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere is another presentation from the British documentarian and journalist. This time, he tackles not Jimmy Saville or any single notorious figure, but a movement, and set of ideas, through exploration of several rising or claimed as prominent figures within “the sphere” as they would call it. This is an approach that seeks to shed light on multiple aspects of the rise of toxic masculinity among young men and women, but, while being well done, ultimately does not illuminate what a harder hitting and more focused approach might have achieved.
Courtesy Netflix
What Theroux typically does is give his subjects enough rope that they hang themselves, either by themselves or during his probing. The problem here is that Theroux never seems to grasp how these subjects are disconnected from such norms. To them, everyone is an enemy and an other, with anyone differing at all being worthy of scorn. There is no such thing as bad publicity for them, and besides, “it is all just lies” even though it is not. No, Theroux might show these people being disgusting but he never manages to capture any moments of change or realization, because these guys know and embrace precisely what they are.
That he never tackles this aspect, or delves deep into how and why it has spread into the larger culture, despite hinting at it, makes this an ultimately very soft peddled work. It is perfectly fine for what it is but the problem here is that it should have and could have been so much more except for his commitment to his methods, which are used here against him. When you come upon crazy people and ego filled narcissists, you cannot except “normal” to be how you examine them. This is not a call for him to stoop to their level but rather for him to try to dig deeper into what makes them tick, and not explain it away with bafflement based on cliched assumptions and conclusions.
Courtesy Netflix
Indeed, those assumptions and conclusions feel half baked. There is a greater film, a more shocking, probing and interesting work, somewhere in this one. This is the PG rated theatrical cut of a director’s vision that surely would have warranted an R, except in this case, the person leading the investigation is too meek to go deep. The question is, why? Anything here would be speculation, so let us instead examine precisely what is and is not in the work and what does and does not work, because most of what is here is indeed, perfectly fine, if ultimately basic.
Theroux takes as subjects several men, one of whom he introduces almost so late in the work as to be an afterthought. He spends most of his time with two men, one with a talk show and one with a rabid live stream presence. Of these two, he gets perhaps a little closer to the truth with the one than the other but still pulls away. He certainly shows his subjects as they are, not shying away from the ugliness, but he often leaves out context. This would achieve not a legitimization of their words, but rather an emphasis on what is very wrong and perhaps give us, as viewers, clues as to where this is really coming from.
The biggest problem with the film, though, is that Theroux skims over the biggest names in online toxic masculinity, perhaps because of legal reasons, but also avoids more than minimal examination of “why and how” these men affect and indeed, infect, the minds of teen and young adult males. Moreover, he skims the women, seemingly dismissing them as foolish, naïve or gold digging. It does a disservice to the women even if it might, in some cases, be true. It is not like documentaries have not examined bald faced ambition and cruelty.
Courtesy Netflix
Finally, it is unavoidable that such embedded journalists might begin to worry more about access than truth and given how little of real, journalist, investigative and revelatory truth is in this work, it is fair to question if Theroux sometimes worried more, despite his claims on camera to the contrary, that access meant more. It is fair to argue that he should have kept pressing, going for information and reaction and then let the chips fall where they would, with that as the outcome. When you are faced with rabid animals, you don’t just wipe the foam off and keep smiling at them.
Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere is now streaming on Netflix.
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