MANSOME

The Oscar-nominated documentary film-maker Morgan Spurlock has had a good run with some excellent entertaining movies (‘Super Size Me’, ‘Where In The World is Osama Bin Laden’, ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold’ etc) and now that he seems to be churning them out at an almost indecent speed, it was inevitable that eventually one would be a dud.  This is it.

It is meant to be his take on the topic of the men’s grooming and how it’s now considered masculine, and adopted so enthusiastically by men.  Straight ones that is, as gay men would have never ever made such a fuss like this.

The movie starts off well enough with an amusing piece on how moustaches can make a man look like a 70’s porn star, or simply hide an unattractive face.  Spurlock shaved on his own hallmark one which resulted in making his scared young son just burst into tears.    It progressed to beards, and the really big ones that are worn by some very odd guys who are totally obsessed with dominating the Best Beards in the World competitions.  (Who knew?) They were such an irritating bunch of what can only be politely described as weirdos, that I so wanted to get my clippers out and cut off the pride of their masculinity there and then.

From then on Mr Spurlock got sloppy and repetitive and the movie featured Will Arnett and Jason Batemen undergoing various treatments in a Spa whilst bantering away about little in particular but still remembering to remind us that they were not just straight, but also happily married!  Really gents??    

There was a hairy Arab wrestler that spent most of his time out of the Ring shaving EVERY bit of his body, and an old Italian Hairdresser who made some rather impressive custom hair rugs.  The final sector of the film featured a narcissistic young 30 year old Sikh gentlemen who is a clothing buyer in NY, but I’ve no idea when he ever got a chance to do any work at all as he had several beauty treatments every day, many of which, I had never heard off. 

The film was neither funny or informative: just fluffy and meandering and with all their insecurities about their masculinity, somewhat annoying to say the least.