The Mask You Live In
The Mask You Live In
| 05 January 2015 (USA)
The Mask You Live In Trailers

Compared to girls, research shows that boys in the United States are more likely to be diagnosed with a behaviour disorder, prescribed stimulant medications, fail out of school, binge drink, commit a violent crime, and/or take their own lives. The Mask You Live In asks: as a society, how are we failing our boys?

Reviews
Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.
Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.
Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
badoli The documentary raises some valid points, but ends up very superficial. The downfall starts with blaming of superheroes and video games. The old stereotypes from the brainwashed boy are popping up, that are refuted in a lot of studies. Sure, media has influence, but the "how" and the "how much" only implied. The study it presents is from the 70ies and 80ies and hardly representative of the present state of psychology.As such it feels the movie pushes a narrative. Some of the interviewed people offer only anecdotal reference and some just lack any credentials for the issues they discuss. At times it feels weirdly constructed, as with the vilification of porn segment. Even Philip Zimbardo only conjures the old outsider-stereotype and an extremely bold statement like "violance against women is at epidemic proportions" is not supported by any historical figures. Questionable feminist terms like "rape culture", "entitlement" and "privilege" are thrown around.The main topic of this film is very important and current and at times it seems the film is highlighting the right issues. But ultimately it looses itself in general attack on anything that it perceives masculine. I wish it was more subtle in the approach and better researched and balanced.
Jada Flint The film, The Mask You Live In, demonstrates the difficulties that men face in society to fulfill the expectations associated with the idea of manhood. The film illustrates the pressure from parents and other adults to limit the expression of emotions because it is viewed as a weak and negative characteristic that is typically associated with girls. The mindset of constantly hiding emotions and portraying a sense of toughness, just to make sure one does not loose their manhood, can lead to bullying or depression because it psychologically affects boys and men. Additionally, media plays a significant role in pressuring the idea of manhood because it illustrates a limited view of what men should be. A significant amount of violence and porn can influence how men treat women in society simply to prove their manhood. I think the film does a great job at showing these ideas to the audience to help understand the mix messages society creates to define manhood, and the need to redefine the ideas and concepts of manhood.
korpake 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.
Adrian Shaw Such an important topic, namely trying to get to the route of masculinity to understand more fully why good boys oft turn into bad men ... and maybe, what we as a society, can do about this. But this documentary misses the mark, and turns out to be a confused, meandering, expose using irrelevant shock stats, several dubious commentators (and several excellent ones) and sadistic raw footage to villanise the male. The finger of blame is pointed at fathers, schoolyard bullies, schools, social hierarchy, TV, Hollywood movies, Internet Porn, Video Games, sport culture and rap. The message is that male dominance is endemic and pervasive, resulting in a small percentage of sensitive male teens become alienated, depressed, violent and possibly suicidal and *all* women being at risk of rape, violence and abuse. The female aspect needs exploration in a separate documentary, and to confuse the two in a documentary that masquerades as a factual narrative explaining the modern-male psyche is a big miss.