Parents' Guide to

The Red Pill

By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Unbalanced docu about men's rights movement.

Movie NR 2017 117 minutes
The Red Pill Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

  • The Red Pill Movie: Scene #1
  • The Red Pill Movie: Scene #2
  • The Red Pill Movie: Scene #3

Community Reviews

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age 13+

Based on 33 parent reviews

ktlangspec
ktlangspec Parent of 4-year-old
December 6, 2020
age 13+

Excellent film

This is a wonderful and balanced documentary and I think whoever put together the "expert review" on this site should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Do you really think it is in any way balanced to write a review peppered with words such as "venomous", "rabid" and "masquerade"? I find it quite bizarre that you think that Cassie Jaye "doesn't question" when the entire film presents her struggling with her own transformation - what do you think was meant by her saying "there is still some doubt" at the end of the film? If one makes a film about men's rights, they are not obligated to have to talk about women's right. Not doing so does not negate the existence of women's issues - it simply means that issues for men and women coexist and are not mutually exclusive, which is what your review appears to imply. I have a 5 year old daughter, by the way, so I am deeply personally invested in ensuring women are safe and are not prevented from achieving because of who they are (as you can see, one can actually care for both). Also, you cannot actually make a film and "give all the necessary facts" - this would make the film last longer than the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Or is it just that you can't stand anyone voicing any criticism against the feminist movement? But your questions for discussion section towers it all. "What does it mean to be a feminist? Why do you think so many people misunderstand or misuse the term?" It reminds me of some communist jokes from Russia I once heard, in the vein of "Who is your role model and why Stalin?" - in other words, why suggest a discussion or debate with children when you've already decided on the answer? Outside of the issue at hand (feminism), I cannot think of a more patronising approach to one's own children. Luckily, judging from the Kids Say section of the reviews, they seem to have more sense than the "expert reviewer". I think your review is not a review of the film, it's just a review (a restatement, rather) of your own opinion. You didn't like what Cassie Jaye is trying to do in the film, tried to present your opinion as a film review and thought we wouldn't notice. Well, we did.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
1 person found this helpful.
noidentity
noidentity Adult
November 2, 2022
age 10+

Great film, terrible expert review

SHAME ON THE PERSON WHO WROTE THE WEBSITE’s REVIEW OF THE FILM! The paid review by the employee is false and misleading. No matter who or what you are, your feelings and experience is valid. To subjectively undermine something that speaks out about an individual’s access or rights by favoring another side you are preventing viewers to approach a subject with an open mind. IF A GROUP OF PEOPLE ARE NOT GIVEN THEIR JUSTICE IN DUE COURSE THEN IT IS A TRAVESTY. Speaking from someone who was both physically and sexually assaulted by their spouse and was not given proper justice.
See all 33 parent reviews

What's the Story?

The term THE RED PILL has been adopted by the men's rights movement (MRM) from the Matrix movie to signal the choice we have between seeing the world as it really is -- in this vision, a hotbed of discrimination against men -- or taking the blue pill, which supposedly offers the blissful but false view that ignores terrible prejudice causing men's widespread suffering. In Cassie Jaye's documentary about the MRM, the advocates and leaders she interviews give moving examples of real-life individual instances of unfairness visited on good men. Some men get a raw deal from the justice system while trying to get custody of their children, and other innocent guys can't get the authorities to recognize that they've been battered and sexually assaulted by women. These accounts seem to be valid individual examples of true injustices, but notably absent from the film are comparisons to equally disturbing stories from women about abusive men and social systems long rigged to favor men. The MRM leaders Jaye presents are generally soft-spoken, likable, and articulate espousers of the claim that men are disadvantaged in society. Friendly, warm, and polite, they cite statistics showing that men die younger than women, visit the doctor less frequently, become addicted more often, and are arrested, convicted, imprisoned, and executed more often. Their sentences are longer than convicted women's sentences, too. Plus, men now attend college less often than women, and those who attend graduate even less often than that. Jaye's response to most of this is a renunciation of her previous status as a "feminist."

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (33):
Kids say (5):

This documentary tries to masquerade as a serious and fair look at the men's rights movement, but it doesn't give all the necessary facts. The information that documentarian Cassie Jaye omits here speaks volumes. She seems to accept everything her men's rights advocates say in The Red Pill but doesn't question what they write when her camera isn't trained on them.

While the men's rights interviewees are polite and soft-spoken, Jaye offers rabid "feminists" spewing venomous curse words in contrast. Jaye also fails to note that most of the MRM complaints are basically economic in nature and based on policies set by corporations run by men (95 percent of all CEOs) and legislative America (80 percent of all U.S. Congress members). She could easily have noted that published studies say that in 15 developed countries, men have died younger for two centuries, but, notably, since the 1970s -- when feminist ideas first began to take hold -- the gender gap in life expectancy has actually narrowed. Could feminism be good for men's health? While well-intentioned, this movie would be much better with the balanced information that's necessary to cover this complex and worthy subject of inquiry fairly.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about whether they see evidence in everyday life of the prejudices against men described in The Red Pill. Who gets paid the most at your or your parents' place of work: men or women? How many female bosses do you know?

  • What does it mean to be a feminist? Why do you think so many people misunderstand or misuse the term?

  • Do you think men face as much discrimination as women? How could you prove your point?

Movie Details

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