Manodrome: A 90 hour crash course on Eisenberg portraying the current state of toxic masculinity.

 Movie : Manodrome.

Year of release: World Premiere in 73rd Berlinale 2023.

Director : John Trengove.

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Adrien Brody. 

We are living in a world where a lot of toxicity exists and it has become a big debate in the recent years . A lot of toxic masculine people nowadays are raising voices and with the advent of social media influencing a lot of teenagers on making them stand up and be relentless on their mannerisms and values. A fairly recent example is the boxer turned influencer Andrew Tate and the whole incident surrounding him. Mandorome is a movie which is exactly portrays this current state of mind and shows what drastic consequences this leads in and around the person's life. The movie makes this issue more clearer involving cult ideas, men hitting gym to be in their most muscular shape and the sexual dominance. This movie is the first movie I managed to watch in 73rd Berlinale among thousands of people in the amazing Verti Music Hall. The intense tone and ambience along with the audience and groundbreaking sound system just amplified my experience making it a memorable experience. 

The movie revolves around the emotional struggles of a cab driver Ralphie (Jesse Eisenberg) and his struggle with his masculinity and him standing up in the most unimaginable ways. A major part of  his transformation of him joining the cult by Dan Dan (Adrien Brody) which is a support group on idea of being more masculine by entering in the "manosphere" and not being afraid on problems in everyone's life. Amidst being low on money on the idea of raising his child, Ralphie struggles on this and tried to get money in various ways. It keeps the audience grabs to their seat as they this horrifying transformation of this character which dawns on all the recent topics in the present world. It has been a week and the impact of this movie is still fresh in my mind.

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Trengove really shows the transformation of Ralphie in very subtle ways. The first scene is him being not helping the child in the cab and stealing his mobile phone and getting money from his pawn shop. He does not easily join the cult of Dan Dan but the quote by him on his first visit at the mansion makes him believe in himself. He really gets disturbed by the pressure from his partner on the pregnancy and just ignores her more and more. The occasional visits to the gym makes him becoming more and more stronger and leading him to facing Ahmet (Sallieu Sesay) who is controlling his dominance in the gym. The turmoil in his head builds up and he eventually joins to the cult which is the best scene in the movie of him still not being fully convinced but it was too late for him to back off. The star symbol engraved in his hand makes him more stronger and believable leading him to taking the gun and leaving the mansion to create a mayhem in his life. The homosexuality tension symbolizing dominance gets over his head leading to a steamy encounter with Ahmet and killing him, taking his clothes and jewellery which gives him more money. He really gets joyful and comes back to take care of his newborn baby and raising him but his partner Sal (Odessa Young) leaves (possibly on the news of police searching him). He gets devastated and returns back to the mansion with his child on event of raising him. The convoluted thinking in his mind leads him murdering Dan Dan, injuring police officer and takes shelter in an old age home under the care of Sachiel (Gheorge Murensan). To me this already symbolises the end of his life and kind of him being a baby under the hands of the God (symbolized by the giant physique of Sachiel). 

Eisenberg really knocked off this role and showing his versality and coming out of the stereotypical nerdy roles he is being associated too. Brody really makes the cult leader role really impactful and was a nice addition in supporting role. The other star casts also make the perfect contribution in the movie. Christopher Stracey's intense synth based music was used in the perfect moments to amplify the emotions in the scene. 

Overall, Manodrome is an intense drama thriller movie which shall make you ponder on many aspects of masculinity in general at the end. If you manage to watch it, please give it a go.