Film Review: Middling ‘Mansome’ Suffers From Skin-Deep Insight

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CHICAGO – Morgan Spurlock is an awfully likable guy. I’ll never forget the day when he held a special screening of “Super Size Me” for an auditorium full of college kids. After participating in an extended Q & A, Spurlock spoke with every single student that wanted to shake his hand and pose for a picture. When the building finally had to close up for the night, the Spurlock love fest spilled out onto the sidewalk.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

The amiable, often meandering nature of his work directly reflects the agreeable personality of the filmmaker himself. While confrontational documentarians like Michael Moore embrace their fearsome reputations like a badge of honor, Spurlock is so approachable that you’d hardly expect him to have anything up his sleeve. Yet as entertaining as his films can be, Spurlock could certainly benefit from borrowing some of Moore’s shrewdness.

Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “Mansome” in our reviews section.

Though “Super Size Me” left no trace of doubt that McDonald’s is profoundly unhealthy, its message was weakened by the contrivance of Spurlock’s self-destructive experiment. Eating too much of the same food will always lead to negative physical repercussions, regardless of whether it’s made at McDonald’s or Jimmy John’s. When it comes to serious subjects, such as the search for Osama bin Laden, Spurlock falters terribly. He’s more comfortable when in playful mode, and his vignettes about lovable eccentrics can be both endearing and poignant. 2011’s “Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope” was easily the most satisfying film of Spurlock’s career, but his latest effort, “Mansome,” feels like a step backward. It addresses the topic of modern perceptions regarding masculinity by merely scratching the surface of its subjects’ bearded skin. Some of the biggest names in comedy—Judd Apatow, Paul Rudd, Zach Galifianakis, etc.—are brought on merely to deliver quippy asides in between episodic segments that are benignly humorous at best, tedious at worst. There’s no reason to see the film in a theater since its production values are anything but cinematic. As a mildly diverting trifle, the film works perfectly well, but Spurlock’s perspective on the material just appears to be one of cheerful bemusement. We get no sense of what Spurlock actually thinks about the issues he raises. His message in “Mansome” seems to be, “Men must obsessively groom themselves in order to have a better chance at procreating—or not.”

Continue reading for Matt Fagerholm’s full “Mansome” review.

Morgan Spurlock shaves off his trademark mustache in his new documentary, Mansome.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Paladin