The subject matter at hand here will lead many to recoil, dismiss and mislabel this as "just an incel movie". I think that would be doing this movie a disservice. While it wears its message very blatantly on its sleeve, Manodrome tackles the much discussed "toxic masculinity" with sincerity and complexity, even if its scope is much smaller than the magnitude of the topic at hand. I really enjoyed my time with this one, even pausing to grab a notepad and pen at around the halfway mark as the little details and nuances I picked up began to stack on top of each other, becoming too much for me to remember. Please don't pigeon hole this movie and reduce it down because of a few tag words; give its characters a chance to challenge you and unfold. It's most certainly not an enjoyable watch, but really good message-piece stuff; I look forward to more from Trengrove in the future. It's been interesting to see differing ends of the debate from both this and The Royal Hotel this weekend; two films with similar gender-political plots from either viewpoint.
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Eisenberg plays the troubled Ralphie, an abandonment-issue addled 20/30 something who is currently on the pipeline that all fatherless, support-structureless, directionless men find themselves on, repressing their true selves and following what the world tells them is the embodiment of masculinity. Get muscles, get strong, say few words, don't express yourself, stay emotionless. Ralphie struggles to eat in front of others as he fears it's a sign of weakness. He refuses to eat anything but protein and "healthy" foods. He struggles to communicate with his girlfriend over his feelings and inner struggles. He bottles up his past and refuses to process the trauma of his childhood Christmas when his father left. He clearly is struggling with his sexuality and has no way of exploring this without fear of judgement or discrimination. He's disgusted and angered by seeing gay couples, conflicted by his world view and his own sexual feelings. As we all know, this is certainly a recipe for disaster; with no support structure and bottling up these bubbling emotions, it's inevitable how all this will come to a head.
While mainly online forums are the outlets for these types of shunned men in the real world, Manodrome personifies the online MGTOW/Incel style movement as an in-person cult, a fraternity of men who've dispensed with women and masturbation and are "taking back their masculinity" by doubling down on all the stereotypical aspects of being a man. Suffering through pain via the scarification of a club symbol, self affirmation chants, peer pressure to remove one's spouse or loved ones. As we've seen with many of these groups in reality, while they offer an environment for men to express their inner thoughts, they are fraught with ill intentions, misogyny and only amplify the negative aspects of the male experience. We see glimpses of how this world view is spread around by those caught within its folds, from Ralphie lecturing the child in the back of his Uber, and members of the frat bringing in members who are younger and younger. We see how this differs from the female experience when Ralphie sees the young girl getting her hair washed by, presumably, her mother and grandmother. Women have strong role models and support figures in their life from a very early age, while men very much lack this from their own, emotionally stunted ilk.
I feel like I'm just rambling at this point but yeah, there's a lot of nuance to this movie's portrayal of the problem, and I think a lot of it is restrictedly viewed in the vacuum of domestic troubles and lack of role models during upbringing for the sake of the movie's scope. I'm excited to read other people's takes about this movie, but I am worried that many will be reductive with their opinions after the words "toxic masculinity" and "incel" are mentioned in the plot synopsis and blurb.
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I really enjoyed this film's use of colour to encapsulate certain feelings or stances. Throughout, Ralphie has red/ginger hair, possibly to paint him as an outcast; the odd one out. He's also constantly wearing his red beanie. Ralphie's girlfriend, Sal, has blue hair, a stark contrast but also paints them as representations of their respective, opposing teams. Red vs Blue, Men vs Women, Red Pill vs Blue Pill. . The Christmas tree from Ralphie's past and the lights in the fraternity are a bright green, a symbol of safety, refuge, a safe place. Ralphie buys an expensive yellow Ralph Lauren shirt, an outward reflection of his cowardice and uncertainty of his new clique and their respective views. Ralph and Son Brad are drinking red drinks at the mall, while the two younger members of the frat are drinking yellow drinks.
A car is usually used in films and life as an outward reflection of a man's wealth, status and ego. Big, powerful men are shown driving large, black 4x4s and fast sports cars, while humble, less powerful men are shown driving humble, old, broken cars. After being inducted into the fraternity fully, Ralphie gets cold feet, punching Dad Dan and running from the house. He scrapes the outside of the car during his escape, where we're then shown the vehicle's profile and respective damage in broad daylight. This reflects Ralphie's damaged ego as he battles with his newfound brother's worldview and his true self. When he returns to the frat during the finale, he's somehow procured a large Toyota 4x4 (in reddy orange no less), his masculine persona fully back on display.
During the finale of the movie, we see Ralphie scoffing down bread and drinking Mountain Dew, his fake manly persona melting away, regressing back to his childhood. He is approached by a caring man at the retirement home, the personification of what every man really needs. A softly spoken, kind, caring mentor figure to reach out and ask if they can offer a helping hand. He too has lost his father, and instead of growing resentful and full of hate, he's instead reaching out to those in a similar place and offering them kindness. Ralphie curls up next to the man, his towel a shade of pink, his shirt baggy and loose like that of a child. He can finally be vulnerable around someone, but as the cops circle outside, it's all too late.
