This isn't a bad film, but for the first hour there were as many naive and unfounded claims as there were actually made points. Particular props to eeina Davis, Condi Rice, and Jennifer Pozner (who has a book I now need to read) for consistently nailing solid points -- without them, this film wouldn't have held together. Surprisingly absent from the interviews were Sigourney Weaver and Janeane Garofalo, both of whom are comfortable with cameras and can run solid and sophisticated points on issues.
After an hour, this documentary wanders to the periphery of its focus to tap media literacy and then pay lip service to "what does modern manhood mean?" which is unfortunate given the body of work it left uncovered.
The territory that is left uncovered is where Ariel Levy -- also not interviewed in this film -- went in Female Chauvinist Pigs: women as a demographic reinforce this nonsense as a social norm. (Levy didn't get into power relations a la Foucault, but FCP was still a better read than watching this film.)
There are two massively undermining flaws in this film: First, minorly, for all the critiquing of make-up culture, most all of the women interviewed are clearly made-up for the camera -- some far more than is suitable for the critique being laid out. (Kudos to Rachel Maddow for looking less made-up than TV-usual; it reinforced the sincerity of her position.) But more critically is that, not content to tell you how bad media is, this film actively subjects viewers to sustained barrages of the trash it complains about. It bemoans hyper-sexualized advertising and shows the hyper-sexualized advertising it's bemoaning, somehow missing that The Advertisement Exists to be Seen regardless of context. If you already know enough to want to avoid that kind of garbage, then you may want to avoid this movie, too: it will overdose you on the garbage you're trying to avoid.
In a strange bonus irony, the film rails Angelina Jolie as an image, ignoring the work she does in impoverished nations particularly for women exactly as Lisa Bloom -- also not interviewed -- documented in Think! when she (Bloom) railed against misrepresentation in the media. (I prefer Levy's work from an academic point of view, but Bloom's book is also good and more inspiringly practical than this film.)
Still, if you're an ordinary movie-and-TV watcher who will be surprised by the junk you're consuming, this film may be for you.
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