I wasn’t intending on watching this documentary but clips for it are going viral and my wife seemed vaguely interested. I’m familiar with neither Louis Theroux’s work nor any of the male influencers featured here. Still Theroux seems like a skilled interviewer and the influencers are obviously huge celebrities in their own niche. That means this does have value after all even if I’m familiar with most of the talking points. The most fun parts are certainly when Theroux speaks with the women in the lives of these men but the scariest part is when it suggests that political power is the logical next step of the movement.

Here Theroux interviews four major figures of the so-called manosphere: Harrison Sullivan, Justin Waller, Myron Gaines and Sneako. Professing to be a naïf who knows almost nothing about the movement, he gets them to talk about they’re about and what they’re doing. It’s the usual spiel of being proud to assert their masculinity, that women are meant to and actually enjoy being dominated, that men must break out of the matrix to find success and so on. Of course, at the same time they’re all also selling something, pushing get-rich-quick investment schemes, promoting products and Onlyfans girls, building massive audiences on monetized platforms and so on. Indeed they are casually indifferent about ideological consistency so what actually matters most is making money. By getting the women in their lives to speak out, Theroux reveals that these manly men fail even in imposing these values on their significant others. The last subject Sneako is far and away the scariest, not only because he seemingly believes in the most insane conspiracy theories such as the world being secretly ruled by a cabal of Satanists but because his objective has expanded beyond selling things to gaining political power.

From what I can tell, the innocent and often flabbergasted attitude that Theroux often adopts is part of his standard persona to get his subjects to talk themselves into a hole. It’s not difficult to understand why they agreed to the interview despite expecting him to be a hostile interviewer as they’re all desperate for clout and attention. What is more impressive that Theroux or his team manages to get their women to talk as well. It’s fascinating how Myron Gaines for example becomes visibly nervous on camera when his then girlfriend is less than enthusiastic about their so-called one-way monogamy. In the case of Harrison Sullivan, his own stream proves that far from being the ultimate alpha, he is subservient towards his mother. Of course these women are self-serving as well, so Myron easily gets female guests on his talk show knowing that their purpose there is to be attacked and mocked because they too want Internet fame. The same goes for the Onlyfans girls who know that being associated with people like Harrison grows their own fanbase. It really is all about the grifting and it works because these people are readily recognized by their fans on the streets and they live lives of luxury from the money they are able to make.

Apart from the sometimes silliness of Theroux’s persona, his failure to pose obvious follow-up questions can be frustrating. As Sneako is an ardent Trump supporter, why wasn’t he asked how Trump being U.S. president ties into the world being ruled by Satanists? Harrison mocks Theroux for having interviewed Jimmy Saville leaving him open to the obvious rejoinder that Theroux is interviewing Harrison right now so what does that say about Harrison? I suppose Theroux believes that it’s pointless to seize on low-hanging bait like that and it’s better not to be overtly antagonistic. Theroux also suggests that the mentality of these male influencers might be rooted in their lack of father figures while growing up. It’s plausible but it might be better for the documentary for him to cite some actual scientific authority for that.

Most of all, I feel that Theroux doesn’t ask these influencers how successful they are in actually helping their audiences. Sure, they might be inspirational figures but does that translate to really making money, getting women, and achieve all of the other hallmarks of success that they are claiming? By putting money into one of the investment schemes they are touting, Theroux already demonstrates that it loses money. To me, the movement is yet another iteration of the religion / self-help grift and these influencers mostly don’t even believe in what it is they are selling. As for this documentary, it makes for a decent introduction to this world and offers some entertaining moments. But it’s not the definitive documentary on the subject and leaves many things unsaid.