Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power

Name: Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power
Genre: Documentary
Released: October 21, 2022
Duration: 107 min
Rating: 58
Cast: Catherine Hardwicke, Eliza Hittman, Julie Dash, Kathleen Antonia, Lara Dale

2022

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Mixed or average reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews

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Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power

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Movie Details & Credits

Kino Lorber | Release Date: October 21, 2022 | Not Rated

Starring: Catherine Hardwicke, Eliza Hittman, Julie Dash, Kathleen Antonia, Lara Dale, Maria Giese, May Hong HaDuong, Rhiannon Aarons, Rosanna Arquette, Sandra de Castro Buffington

Summary: If the camera is predatory, then the culture is predatory.” In this eye-opening documentary, celebrated independent filmmaker Nina Menkes explores the sexual politics of cinematic shot design. Using clips from hundreds of movies we all know and love – from Metropolis to Vertigo to Phantom Thread – Menkes convincingly makes the argument thatIf the camera is predatory, then the culture is predatory.” In this eye-opening documentary, celebrated independent filmmaker Nina Menkes explores the sexual politics of cinematic shot design. Using clips from hundreds of movies we all know and love – from Metropolis to Vertigo to Phantom Thread – Menkes convincingly makes the argument that shot design is gendered. Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power illuminates the patriarchal narrative codes that hide within supposedly “classic” set-ups and camera angles, and demonstrates how women are frequently displayed as objects for the use, support, and pleasure of male subjects. Building on the essential work of Laura Mulvey and other feminist writers, Menkes shows how these not-so-subtle embedded messages affect and intersect with the twin epidemics of sexual abuse and assault, as well as employment discrimination against women, especially in the film industry. The film features interviews with an all-star cast of women and non-binary industry professionals including Julie Dash, Penelope Spheeris, Charlyne Yi, Joey Soloway, Catherine Hardwicke, Eliza Hittman, Maria Giese, and Rosanna Arquette. [Kino Lorber]… Expand

Director: Nina Menkes

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 107 min

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Critic Reviews

100

The Playlist Lena Wilson

Oct 17, 2022

The film is accessible, engrossing, urgent, and horrifying. Read full review

Ray Lobo

Oct 17, 2022

After watching the documentary, I hope that as critiques of the male gaze become more and more mainstream, audiences will see through the many cliches and understand the ideology objectifying women in cinema. And as they gaze back, I hope we all realize that they have complex stories to tell. Read full review

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

Oct 17, 2022

Brainwashed is a bracing blast of critical rigour, taking a clear, cool look at the unexamined assumptions behind what we see on the screen. Read full review

The Film Stage David Katz

Oct 10, 2022

Criticism can be poetry, but in Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power it is definitely prose, reserving the expressiveness for her own oeuvre. Read full review

Clayton Dillard

Nov 30, 2022

Nina Menkes’s documentary comes dangerously close to inhabiting its own title. Read full review

Sarah Jane

Nov 30, 2022

If this film is a jumping off point into more and, quite frankly, better discussions, then I guess it is worth watching? Read full review

RogerEbert.com Marya E. Gates

Oct 21, 2022

In order to do this subject—and these women—justice, there is a need for a clear-eyed reckoning. Unfortunately, “Brainwashed” does not deliver that, instead favoring disingenuous rhetoric and often patently false information to serve its predetermined narrative. Read full review

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Brent_Marchant

Feb 11, 2023

The objectification of women is certainly a crucial issue that needs to be dealt with. However, if awareness of the problem is to be raised, it definitely requires a better film than this specious, sloppy, cherry-picked offering. Based on a TED Talk-style presentation titled “Sex and Power:The objectification of women is certainly a crucial issue that needs to be dealt with. However, if awareness of the problem is to be raised, it definitely requires a better film than this specious, sloppy, cherry-picked offering. Based on a TED Talk-style presentation titled “Sex and Power: The Visual Language of Film” by director Nina Menkes, the filmmaker makes the argument that objectification is a result of the way male-female interactions are typically staged in movies, a practice that reflects a phenomenon referred to as “the male gaze,” a leering stare that, in turn, is responsible for things like employment discrimination in the entertainment industry and increased incidents of sexual harassment and assault. And, because films “reinforce” this, as Menkes insists, they’re at fault for these troubling problems, a product that’s a direct result of the decision-makers in the male-dominated movie industry. One might say this is indeed a plausible hypothesis given the proliferation of these filming techniques in motion pictures. There’s just one problem with this theory – it’s largely nonsense. To begin with, “the male gaze” has been around a lot longer than the movie business (like, say, all the way back to prehistoric times), a notion implied just by the very idea that movies are said to “reinforce” this practice, suggesting its earlier appearance in the history of the species. Second, males invoke the gaze with more than just women (just ask almost any gay man who’s checking out another male at a bar or community event). And, third, this practice is engaged in by men who never go to the cinema (especially many of the somewhat obscure titles the director cites as examples to allegedly prove her point). The argument is further undermined by some of the film clips she uses in a failed attempt to add credence to her contention – pictures that were directed by women that incorporate some of the same filming techniques she criticizes. She even takes issue with the staging of a scene in the film “Bombshell” (2019), a picture whose very intent is chronicling the sexual harassment scandal at FOX News involving power broker Roger Ailes, lambasting it for employing some of the same filming practices that this production was seeking to expose. Of course, to demonstrate how things should be done, Menkes taps a number of clips from her own films (titles that I, as an avid cinephile, have never heard of and that include content similar to what she’s criticizing, even if filmed somewhat differently). (Ah, yes, nothing like a little blatantly shameless self-promotion to help prove your point.) To its credit, this documentary draws worthy attention to the issues of objectification, employment discrimination in Hollywood and sexual abuse, but this film is a sorry representative of those issues, all of which are addressed much more effectively by releases like “This Changes Everything” (2018) and “She Said” (2022). Those other films are much more interesting than this snooze, too, a clunky offering that plays more like a seminar than a movie. It’s truly ironic that Menkes asserts men have become brainwashed into this way of thinking by what they see in the movies, especially given that the only one who seems to have been brainwashed here is the director herself by her own material.… Expand

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