The Mask You Live In (2015)

Explores how our culture's narrow definition of masculinity is harming our boys, men and society at large and unveils what we can do about it.

Director:

Jennifer Siebel Newsom

Writers:

Jessica Anthony, Jessica Congdon

Stars:

Joe Herman, Michael Kimmel, Caroline Heldman

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joe Herman	...	Self - Coach and Former NLF Player
Michael Kimmel	...	Self - Sociologist and Educator (as Dr. Michael Kimmel)
Caroline Heldman	...	Self - Political Scientist and Educator (as Dr. Caroline Heldman)
Tony Porter	...	Self - Educator and Activist
Roman Sarlo	...	Self
Mike Nelson	...	Self
Cleo Cloman	...	Self
Borey Ai	...	Self
Nghiep Lam	...	Self
Curtis Carroll	...	Self
Tommy Winfrey	...	Self
Ian Breckenridge-Jackson	...	Self
Lisa Elliott	...	Self - Neuroscientist (as Dr. Lise Eliot)
Michael G. Thompson	...	Self - Psychologist (as Dr. Michael G. Thompson)
Nadine Burke	...	Self - Pediatrician (as Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris)

Storyline

Explores how our culture's narrow definition of masculinity is harming our boys, men and society at large and unveils what we can do about it.

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Plot Keywords:

male protagonist | misandry | culture | men | masculinity | 

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Genres:

Documentary | News

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

28 Youths were credited in order of speaking appearance, and 62 Additional Youths Interviewed, were named by first name only.

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Connections

Features Machete Kills (2013)

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Soundtracks

Menace to Society
Written by Bob Mair, Joel Wachbrit and Don Reynolds
Performed by The Blue Van
Courtesy of Iceberg Records A/S

User Reviews

Some salient points, some propaganda.

I'll start with saying I understand the motivation behind making this film. I think there needs to be much more discussion about these sorts of issues. There is a lot of social dysfunction in the world and men suffer the consequences and are a big part of the causes of this dysfunction. But so are women and they don't feature at all in this film, like they are just spectators or victims and not active participants. They had lots of guys sharing their experiences and that's nice and its important to tell those stories, but I consider myself an average guy and I never had any of these issues. I don't see myself or any of my friends in this film. It's like they missed out whole sections of society Because I can't see myself in the film I draw the conclusion that this film isn't relevant to me or the people I know. This perception may not be correct, but that's the way I see it.

I thought in some respects this was a really silly and annoying film. It started by suggesting that masculinity is bad and not real because it's just a distortion or absence of femininity (like how darkness is absence of light and not "a real thing"). That put me off right from the start. I hoped it would get better but it didn't.

Having just watched it, I can't actually recall many facts that were relevant. Mostly how boys/men are bad and bad things happen to them and how they perform worse than girls etc. Plus just lots of random people spouting their opinions without much justification. We are supposed to just take "experts" opinions as facts. This annoyed me even more. People can't seem to tell the difference between facts and opinion and there is no credible contrarian view when appropriate, so this is just a big propaganda piece (some parts). This film doesn't use facts of logic, it uses emotional appeal, manipulation and biased opinions. Nothing wrong with that as long as people are aware.

Then they say insanely stupid stuff like: "boys can't tell the difference between reality and video games." That really got me mad. I run around lopping off people's heads with light sabers, but that doesn't influence me in real life in the slightest.

I thought it was a bit rich that a film about men and masculinity was directed and produced entirely by women. Imagine a film entirely directed and produced by men, about femininity, telling women they need to do this and that. I'm not saying you can't do that, it just doesn't carry as much weight for me. Plus I guess its OK if you buy into the narrative that men and women are all the same (which I don't).

I did like the last 5min though. Generally a good summary that gets some key points across.

I wanted to like this film, but if I were to summarize the message of the film, it would be: "Men are bad and need to be more like women and just accept that as fact because we said so."

I gave it a 3 because I didn't like the film, but I didn't hate it enough to give it a worse rating. It is a topic that needs more discussion, just not like this.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 January 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Mask You Live In

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Representation Project, The Annenberg Foundation, The Brin Wojcicki Foundation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Color:

Color