The Red Pill

Name: The Red Pill
Genre: Documentary
Released: October 7, 2016
Duration: 117 min

2016

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No score yet based on 3 Critic Reviews Awaiting 1 more review

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Universal acclaim based on 75 Ratings

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8.3	User Score Universal acclaim based on 75 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Gravitas Ventures | Release Date: October 7, 2016 | Not Rated

Summary: When feminist filmmaker Cassie Jaye sets out to document the mysterious and polarizing world of the Men’s Rights Movement, she begins to question her own beliefs. Jaye had only heard about the Men’s Rights Movement as being a misogynist hate-group aiming to turn back the clock on women’s rights, but when she spends a year filming theWhen feminist filmmaker Cassie Jaye sets out to document the mysterious and polarizing world of the Men’s Rights Movement, she begins to question her own beliefs. Jaye had only heard about the Men’s Rights Movement as being a misogynist hate-group aiming to turn back the clock on women’s rights, but when she spends a year filming the leaders and followers within the movement, she learns the various ways men are disadvantaged and discriminated against. The Red Pill challenges the audience to pull back the veil, question societal norms, and expose themselves to an alternate perspective on gender equality, power and privilege.… Expand

Director: Cassie Jaye

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 117 min

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Critic Reviews

John DeFore

Nov 12, 2016

Cassie Jaye's The Red Pill is clumsy and frustrating in many ways. But it demonstrates enough sincerity and openness to challenging ideas — letting representatives of this problematic movement make their case clearly and convincingly — that one wishes it were able to look at multiple sides of this debate at the same time. Read full review

Katie Walsh

Oct 13, 2016

Jaye never gets to her original question about rape culture, and ultimately twists herself in knots to justify the movement’s misogynist rhetoric. Read full review

Alan Scherstuhl

Oct 13, 2016

Jaye acknowledges in the opening and closing minutes that MRAs sometimes spew nasty garbage online, but she never presses them on this in her many interviews. Instead, she lets them moan about how hard it is to be a dude in 2016. Read full review

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User Reviews

veilex

Nov 1, 2016

The Red Pill is part auto-biography and part look at the men’s rights movement in the West. Although she was an award-winning filmmaker, Cassie’s entry into the MRA subject matter thrust herself into unexpected drama on both sides of the issue.

This documentary does a terrific job ofThe Red Pill is part auto-biography and part look at the men’s rights movement in the West. Although she was an award-winning filmmaker, Cassie’s entry into the MRA subject matter thrust herself into unexpected drama on both sides of the issue.

This documentary does a terrific job of pealing back the layers of disinformation to get at the meat of what the MRA movement is about. If you're interested in an honest and objective portrayal of MRAs, or are interested in genuine equality, then "The Red Pill" is a must watch movie for you!… Expand

25 of 32 users found this helpful257

StormageddonBK

Nov 30, 2016

Simply put, a masterpiece. Anyone interested in the truth on men's rights and men's negative treatment in today's society should watch this.

Oh, I saw the critic reviews... ZERO's... seriously! Pathetic MSM filth! This is exactly what this film is addressing, the vitriolic attitudes towardsSimply put, a masterpiece. Anyone interested in the truth on men's rights and men's negative treatment in today's society should watch this.

Oh, I saw the critic reviews... ZERO's... seriously! Pathetic MSM filth! This is exactly what this film is addressing, the vitriolic attitudes towards people who are interested in telling things as they are and not as the politically correct left want you to.… Expand

7 of 12 users found this helpful75

gracjanski

Sep 17, 2020

At the beginning I was thinking, oh no...not another woman making a film about herself instead about the issue. But after 30 mins the scenes, the stories of the people, the arguments were so touching and sad...I am still sad about, what I saw and I know they are true, because I am informedAt the beginning I was thinking, oh no...not another woman making a film about herself instead about the issue. But after 30 mins the scenes, the stories of the people, the arguments were so touching and sad...I am still sad about, what I saw and I know they are true, because I am informed about feminism and mens right since many years.
The 3 "professional" critics shows exactly what mainstream medias are: liars… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Calders

Nov 23, 2016

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The Red Pill is a fascinating movie that follows feminist film maker Cassie Jaye exploring the men's rights movement. Whilst she is expecting to find a movement of hidden misogyny when she meets the leaders of this movement she finds them to be reasonable people. Perhaps move surprising to her is that their arguments for the seriousness of men's issues are believable and backed up by solid data. This leads Cassie to question many of her previously firmly held beliefs, and the viewer gets to see her on this journey. This film really is what the best documentaries should be, not just something that confirms the modern zietgeist but a film that challenges the viewing to think about the world in a different way. Could it really be that we now live in a world where men are more disadvantaged than women, this is a film that will leave many believing that. In short this is simply the must see film of the year, if not the last few years.… Expand

14 of 20 users found this helpful146

seventhbeacon

May 2, 2017

A very thoughtful examination of the things our society seems to ignore as a whole. It's not men vs. women, but it does examine the unintended consequences of harmful ideologies that exclude rather than seek true equity among the genders.

3 of 6 users found this helpful33

Facedruru

Nov 1, 2016

I tend to think of myself as a feminist... but after watching this movie, I'm kinda wondering if men are really getting a fair shake. This movie definitely makes you think. I don't know that it would change my stance, but it'll definitely get me to consider what men are saying more.

15 of 21 users found this helpful156

Chrissinho

Mar 12, 2017

So, essentially, Cassie Jaye is to feminism what Alan Colmes is to leftism. The Red Pill is a subreddit that proports to promote men's rights activism. The name comes from The Matrix, the red pill representing painful, brutal, actual reality, while the blue pill represents a blissfulSo, essentially, Cassie Jaye is to feminism what Alan Colmes is to leftism. The Red Pill is a subreddit that proports to promote men's rights activism. The name comes from The Matrix, the red pill representing painful, brutal, actual reality, while the blue pill represents a blissful illusion. For TRP, the normies have taken the blue pill while the red pillers face real truth. Quite how that manifests itself isn't really clear, though generally it seems the key is lifting weights and trying to pull as many women as possible. Or at least posting on an internet message board about doing such things. Cassie Jaye is a self-proclaimed ex-feminist, though it's not exactly clear how active she was in feminism. There is a brief segment of how she made video diaries about how long it took her to get dressed and how she attended feminist rallies but there's no actual evidence of her feminism.

The film starts with a brief overview of why she says she was a feminist. She then explains how she came across some MRA literature online and decided to talk to some of them in person, and then we get two hours of her talking to said men and a handful of sympathetic women, as well as the occasional token feminist to give the illusion of balance. We see a lot of Jaye. She's in front of the camera for most of the film despite offering anything beyond vague platitudes. Occasionally, she offers a meek counterpoint and then poses that to the interviewees for an unchallenged rebuttal, but even these counterpoints disappear quickly after the first part of the film, after her totally organic on-screen epiphany. We see a lot of her video diaries too, which would be relevant if the story was really about a genuine journey of a hardcore feminist meeting and challenging the men she opposes and her own views, but because of Jaye's robotic, passionless presentation, they just come across as entirely vacuous and unnecessary. Even when she cries in one of her entries, the result is entirely melodramatic and self-serving. Jaye says that she feels 'duped' by the MRA's incredibly strong, overwhelming pitch, even though it seemingly consists of a bunch of bearded dudes sitting around in nice houses whining about how discriminated against they are because of feminazis, using posters and flipcharts while the director sits as far away from the man as possible.

After said epiphany, the film basically descends into full-blown propaganda. A few issues are sporadically focused upon, though they aren't really given any serious attention or consideration though, and are all presented only to serve the overriding message that men are hard done by, because of women. Though that's a pretty accurate discription of MRAs in general, ironically. We also get to meet women involved in MRA, just to show that it's not really a bunch of moaning men blathering on about a range of disparate and unfocused issues. Honest.The opponents of the MRA movement are portrayed as rabid and irrational thugs who will stop at no end to aggresively stop their more reasoned counterparts, even if they have to take civility and free speech down with them. Feminists in this film are either cartoon caricatures shouting angrily and incoherently, or else cardboard cut-out intellectuals. It's not that there aren't legitimate issues that men face. The main problem is that feminism came from a position of genuine inequality. Some saw that women were not treated equally in many areas and sought to rectify that. The MRAs have started from a position of being against feminism, and worked to find issues to complain about to back that position up.

It's also intertwined with politics. Feminists have traditionally been leftists. It's doubtless that part of the opposition to feminism is political, it's an opposition to the left as much as it as a promotion of men's rights. See how many MRAs you can find who are leftist. They don't actually care about or even fight for the issues that purport to believe in, they only talk about them in an attempt to score points. Ironically, feminism does far more to address the issues that they talk about.The production values are mediocre, the score is particularly bad and quite distracting. The sound mixing and editing are pretty poor and even the camerawork is shoddy. The narration is robotic, entirely uninteresting, adds nothing to the debate and is horribly presented.

It's pure propaganda. It's worth remembering that it was predominantly funded on Kickstarter using donations from MRAs. All of this is a great shame as it might actually have been interesting to see a real documentary about the MRAs, to see how they arrived to the movement and to see their views actually challenged in a genuine way. This is a completely wasted opportunity to make an interesting documentary, though as propaganda, Goebbels would have been proud to make such a film.… Expand

7 of 37 users found this helpful730

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