Spoiler's are included in this review.
No Men Beyond this Point is a light science fiction mockumentary that uses documentary style techniques to show an alternate history world in which females solely reproduce only females by spontaneous self-impregnation, making males both obsolete for reproduction and doomed for extinction. The premise is expertly revealed in documentary style, with short expositions, while weaving in a personal conflict that brings a satirical conclusion to the movie.
The movie can be viewed as a multi-layered satire that humorously exposes socialist views about government, economics, history, and gender and/or a multi-layered satire that humorously exposes government classicism, societal sexism, and perhaps even lampooning the male hubris of movements such as MGTOW. The movie is either perfectly executed or accidentally crafted, so as to create a situation where the viewer has many interpretation options.
For those that believe it's a dark humor version of the feminist screed "The Hunting Ground", I'd ask if the movie positively propagandizes third wave feminism in some way or did it in fact mock third wave feminism?
For those that believe the movie ruthlessly mocked males, did it really stereotype men or did it reveal the stereotyping of men?
Unless the creators provide their opinion, the brilliance of the movie is it satires all these beliefs and forces the viewer to consider the movie's caricatured versions of men and women, as well as asking simple questions about economics, government, and society. I'll provide a for instance for all of these:
Males: The movie caricatures men as mostly sexist, violent, unable to organize, solely responsible for every war, and motivated by the simplest of needs, making them all incapable of doing anything productive.
Females: The movie caricatures women as having almost no sexuality (except as it may have been a forced societal male construct), women cannot rise through competition with males - but only in the vacuum created by male extinction, females are ruthless manipulators of government with no recognition of individual rights, their massively superior intellects and demeanor effortlessly ends corruption, cures cancer and solves the age old issue of scarcity by hugs and sharing, while absolutely freezing all technological advancement (apparently that math'stuff is too hard and not wanted by all of female society). In a world without men, every woman is a ballerina. I recall that half-truth adage about women hating each other, because they know how each other thinks.
Economics: All scarcity disappears when: Women. Lots of fresh food, unlimited land for every possible use, and the world heals with tender loving care and runs on the energy created by girl- smiles and yoga classes. In a post scarcity world, everyone's daughter gets the best of everything all the time.
Government: As noted above, a one world government appears without pesky males in the way, women have no biases or bigotry (we all know women are not competitive with each other...at all), suddenly this one world government ends all religious conflicts, all territorial disputes, and ruthlessly violates individual rights with only harmony of the...ummm citizens. After all, government becomes based on hugs (and not the last arbitrator with the guns) when women are in control. Women are so much wiser and kinder than their predecessors and no women would use government for their own advancement and cronyism. They're all with Her!
Society: Apparently society was 100% male driven and with males out of the way women are free to be their asexual, non-competitive, and always loving selves. Women all like each other without men around. Just likes happens now, remove men from an office and all the women just can't get enough of each other. In women world, society and government are the exact same thing. There are no cultural influences, no historical norms, no biological imperatives, no self actualization, and everyone wants the greater good. The greater good is what the government says and the government is...benevolent and based on what society wants.
What's great about the movie is everyone can read as deeply or as shallowly as one desires. Personally, I see everything satirized. Beyond the mockumentary, the acting is superb. There is so much that passes without need for dialogue. Mostly, the movie is well organized and appropriately paced: editing is good. The movie is right sized, not too long and not too short. The dialogue mostly works, although I deduct a star for repetition with some of the male dialogue: they oversell and could have further textured the movie with some of the screen time allocated for repeating the same joke/same caricature. Overall, I had a hard time deciding between 7 or8 stars. Less fails to give the movie the credit it deserves, but 8 almost puts the movie out of its league.
No Men Beyond this Point is a light science fiction mockumentary that uses documentary style techniques to show an alternate history world in which females solely reproduce only females by spontaneous self-impregnation, making males both obsolete for reproduction and doomed for extinction. The premise is expertly revealed in documentary style, with short expositions, while weaving in a personal conflict that brings a satirical conclusion to the movie.
The movie can be viewed as a multi-layered satire that humorously exposes socialist views about government, economics, history, and gender and/or a multi-layered satire that humorously exposes government classicism, societal sexism, and perhaps even lampooning the male hubris of movements such as MGTOW. The movie is either perfectly executed or accidentally crafted, so as to create a situation where the viewer has many interpretation options.
For those that believe it's a dark humor version of the feminist screed "The Hunting Ground", I'd ask if the movie positively propagandizes third wave feminism in some way or did it in fact mock third wave feminism?
For those that believe the movie ruthlessly mocked males, did it really stereotype men or did it reveal the stereotyping of men?
Unless the creators provide their opinion, the brilliance of the movie is it satires all these beliefs and forces the viewer to consider the movie's caricatured versions of men and women, as well as asking simple questions about economics, government, and society. I'll provide a for instance for all of these:
Males: The movie caricatures men as mostly sexist, violent, unable to organize, solely responsible for every war, and motivated by the simplest of needs, making them all incapable of doing anything productive.
Females: The movie caricatures women as having almost no sexuality (except as it may have been a forced societal male construct), women cannot rise through competition with males - but only in the vacuum created by male extinction, females are ruthless manipulators of government with no recognition of individual rights, their massively superior intellects and demeanor effortlessly ends corruption, cures cancer and solves the age old issue of scarcity by hugs and sharing, while absolutely freezing all technological advancement (apparently that math'stuff is too hard and not wanted by all of female society). In a world without men, every woman is a ballerina. I recall that half-truth adage about women hating each other, because they know how each other thinks.
Economics: All scarcity disappears when: Women. Lots of fresh food, unlimited land for every possible use, and the world heals with tender loving care and runs on the energy created by girl- smiles and yoga classes. In a post scarcity world, everyone's daughter gets the best of everything all the time.
Government: As noted above, a one world government appears without pesky males in the way, women have no biases or bigotry (we all know women are not competitive with each other...at all), suddenly this one world government ends all religious conflicts, all territorial disputes, and ruthlessly violates individual rights with only harmony of the...ummm citizens. After all, government becomes based on hugs (and not the last arbitrator with the guns) when women are in control. Women are so much wiser and kinder than their predecessors and no women would use government for their own advancement and cronyism. They're all with Her!
Society: Apparently society was 100% male driven and with males out of the way women are free to be their asexual, non-competitive, and always loving selves. Women all like each other without men around. Just likes happens now, remove men from an office and all the women just can't get enough of each other. In women world, society and government are the exact same thing. There are no cultural influences, no historical norms, no biological imperatives, no self actualization, and everyone wants the greater good. The greater good is what the government says and the government is...benevolent and based on what society wants.
What's great about the movie is everyone can read as deeply or as shallowly as one desires. Personally, I see everything satirized. Beyond the mockumentary, the acting is superb. There is so much that passes without need for dialogue. Mostly, the movie is well organized and appropriately paced: editing is good. The movie is right sized, not too long and not too short. The dialogue mostly works, although I deduct a star for repetition with some of the male dialogue: they oversell and could have further textured the movie with some of the screen time allocated for repeating the same joke/same caricature. Overall, I had a hard time deciding between 7 or8 stars. Less fails to give the movie the credit it deserves, but 8 almost puts the movie out of its league.