It is novel that this documentary follows a few men in the incel subculture over a period of a few years, but the film is mostly lacking narrative or statement.

Instead, we are presented with a collage of clips platforming the subjects' ideas. They do offer some insightful thoughts about consumer culture and the way young men are expected to behave in our society, but the men also spread some blatantly misogynistic or racist ideology, the latter presented caged in a flimsy veneer of "satire" (a term which those in the subculture misinterpret to mean transgressing for the sake of transgressing, rather than using irony to make a larger point).

Personally, I felt that the misogyny and racism were brushed off too easily in favour of humanising the subjects. That may be the best approach for reconciling these sorts of men with society, but it means that we end up with a fairly shallow look into the subculture that only briefly references the hate and extremism it has generated. You get the impression that the incel community is mostly a place for commiseration and that those within it eventually graduate to more typical lives. This is probably true of many, maybe even most, but it still misses an important fact.

At one point, we see a brief clip from the Toronto Van Attack (an act of misogynist terrorism that took place in Canada's largest city in 2018), but its roots in incel fora are not explained at all. The perpetrator was a member of the incel community, and he and other domestic terrorists like him have been idolized in some incel circles since. One could argue that this film is about the less extreme members of the community, and that the hateful acts of extreme factions are for another movie. Frankly though, to me it feels irresponsible to spend so much time in the subculture without directly addressing the fact that it has spawned domestic terrorism.

My advice: give this one a miss. If you want to know more about the incel subculture, listen to the CBC podcast about the Toronto Van Attack, I found it much more enlightening.

The portioning of one's online and offline personas, and the consequences of this, are well displayed in this documentary. It is a mirror for me in some ways, and probably a mirror for anyone who spends a good amount of time in online, pseudonymous communities.

On the one hand, these communities can lead one to be maladapted in the offline world where words and actions have much greater social consequences. Or these communities could really help you work through some issues and ideas that no one else wants to touch irl. The thing is, with a phone or pc, you ostensibly get to pick your poison. You can choose to follow nihilistic or despairing threads and accounts, or go in the opposite direction. But we do not always do what we want to do. Looking into the abyss has never been easier, nor more encouraged.

As anywhere else, there is a pressure to fit in, even when anonymous. So people, especially young, disenfranchised people, tend to take on the belief systems and attitudes of the strongest voices of in their online crowd. Boys are raising boys. There is an understanding and commiseration with one an others situation that is deep, but perhaps a lack of knowing how to improve that situation; an abundance of depressing data, and a lack of life experience. The typical old man mentor probably has plenty life experience, and forgot the data. Thesis, antithesis. Synthesis.

Ariel Pink did a good job with the score. Noticed some variations on a few classics. John Maus's music is always a treat.

You see what's in this documentary everyday when you've grown up with the internet. And not only does this doc cover the common mindsets and themes of this subculture well, it also sticks to the atmosphere of said subculture while explaining it. Its a painfully beautiful thing to see these people at these points in their lives but at least they're going through it together. But hey, we're all gonna make it. Right?