Parents' Guide to The Sidemen Story

The remarkable success of British influencer group Sidemen is a testament to the effect that YouTube and social media has had on popular culture in recent years. This documentary, The Sidemen Story, takes us inside the collective's world, both by showing us how they've grown their vast media empire over a decade and allowing the group's members to talk about their lives and work. Thankfully it avoids being a simple PR piece, as the group's members all make an effort to talk openly and honestly. They frequently show themselves to be smart, hardworking, and ambitious, while keeping one another grounded. Although they do move quickly over the issue of KSI's short-lived departure from the group and never really addresses some skepticism that it was all a publicity stunt. Where the documentary falters further is perhaps inevitable: it can't provide much that Sidemen's own channels don't already, because so much of their appeal is their tendency to blog their personal thoughts and lived experiences. And it can only give glimpses of their increasingly big-budget escapades, which range from Jackass-style practical jokes to recording diss tracks and organizing charity soccer events.

A broader question also goes largely unanswered, which is to what extent the group can control the one-sided relationships that some of their audience form with them. But perhaps that's an unfair question to expect them or any other influencers to be able to answer. The Sidemen Story does attempt to discuss its subjects' success in the context of the broader media landscape and how this is changing in real-time. On this topic the documentary is at its strongest, the Sidemen becoming our real-time guides, their irrepressible energy and commitment likely to at least hold the attention of older generations who prefer more traditional forms of "content."