'Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere' Review : Theroux Enters the “Manosphere” With Expectedly Terrifying and Funny Results
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Dan Bremner - March 17, 2026
It’s been eleven years since Louis Theroux last made a feature-length documentary, and the wait has been painful (We've had many one-off TV specials, but a real film is what I've been waiting for). Thankfully Inside the Manosphere proves it was more than worth it. Theroux has spent decades interviewing some truly disturbing people, from far-right Christian extremists to Israeli settlers and even his infamous encounter with Jimmy Savile, but the characters he meets here might be the most deranged yet: a collection of online “red-pill” influencers (people who spectacularly didn't understand The Matrix) and masculinity gurus who have built entire careers monetising anger, insecurity and misogyny.
The film dives headfirst into the strange ecosystem that emerged in the wake of figures like Andrew Tate in a bizarre digital underworld of podcast bros, self-styled “alpha” coaches and lifestyle influencers promising young men wealth, dominance and unlimited women if they simply reject empathy and basic social skills. Theroux embeds himself among a handful of these personalities, including various disciples and imitators who have turned outrage into a lucrative business model. He manages to find a nice variety of different sorts of influencers without things getting stale or repetitive, even if all their ideals are offshoots from one and other.
As always, Theroux’s approach is what makes the documentary so effective. His trademark awkward politeness and quietly probing curiosity remain the perfect tools for this kind of subject matter. Rather than aggressively confronting his subjects, he allows them space to talk, often revealing contradictions, insecurities and absurdities simply by letting them explain themselves out loud. Watching these hyper-confident influencers slowly unravel under the gentle questioning of a softly spoken British man with a notebook never stops being satisfying and compulsive viewing.
What makes the film especially compelling is how clearly it lays out the mechanics of this world. Terms like “red-pilled,” which have drifted into mainstream discourse through the internet, are unpacked and contextualised without ever feeling like a lecture. Theroux shows how these online communities function, how their rhetoric spreads through social media algorithms, and most importantly how they attract young men who feel isolated, angry or directionless.
The documentary is also surprisingly nuanced at times. While many of the influencers come across as deeply unpleasant, Theroux occasionally uncovers flashes of vulnerability or personal history that hint at why they gravitated toward this ideology in the first place. These moments don’t excuse their behaviour, but they do add a layer of complexity that prevents the film from becoming a simple hit piece, although they do lead to a fantastic crash-out towards the end from “HSTikkyTokky” in front of his conflicted mother. These people are really just products of their environment, morally reprehensible ones, but ones who are given a platform and allowed to climb their way up the algorithm no matter the cost.
What ultimately makes Inside the Manosphere so effective is how disturbing it becomes the deeper Theroux goes. The bravado and macho posturing of these influencers slowly reveals itself as something darker, a cynical industry built on outrage, insecurity, the radicalisation of young audiences, and the only value of being a “man” is wealth and influence. Seeing the scale of that influence laid out so plainly is genuinely unsettling. In many ways it’s more horrifying than most horror films likely to be released this year.
At a tight ninety minutes, the documentary moves briskly while still feeling thorough. It’s thoughtful, funny in Theroux’s understated way, and deeply alarming in equal measure. More importantly, it feels like an essential piece of reporting on one of the most influential and toxic corners of modern internet culture, and it gives these people a chance to show off what sad, pathetic losers they are through their own actions and words, and the results speak for themselves.
Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere is another excellent documentary from the greatest living documentarian. A scathing hit-piece on a disgusting online culture fuelled by outrage, vapidness and a desperate grab for wealth and fame over any morals as Theroux allows these people to freely talk and dig themselves into deeper contradictory holes.
'Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere' is streaming now on Netflix.
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