‘The Misandrists’ Review

A telling moment of Bruce LaBruce's 2017 film The Misandrists comes 10 minutes in when a young woman, Ute (Victoire Laly), sits tersely on a bed, lamenting that men are the pigs of the world. Not the animal—God no, we like animals; men are the cops of the world. Ute is one of 13 members of the all-woman Female Liberation Army (FLA), a so-called army of lovers and the brainchild of the glamorous ideologue Big Mother (Susanne Sachße). They all live in a chic villa in the isolated German countryside. But their lesbian separatist idyll is threatened when a male political fugitive stumbles into their territory and one girl takes pity, secretly harboring him in the basement of their strictly no-boys-allowed homestead.

"When are we going to posit ourselves authentically as subjects?" Ute huffs, pacing beside the bed. Her companion smiles coyly. "I know how we can posit ourselves, authentically, as subjects," she replies, and they descend into girlish erotics. They must, because the sisters of the FLA are LaBruce's kitschy concoction; but instead of sugar and spice and everything nice, they're one part critical theory ("Don't quote Schopenhauer to me," one girl jeers at another), one part second-wave feminist utopian rhetoric and one part eye candy for the male voyeur, and markedly so; the girls don ass-flashing schoolgirl kilts, hold all-group pillow fights, and chase each other through meadows. White underwear flutters on the clothesline.

Despite B-movie acting and a low-grade cultish charm, The Misandrists troubled me enough to keep my mind grappling with its politics long after the credits—in large part because it's hard to know just what its politics are. The creators don't show their hands, at one moment giving the FLA a satirical treatment (their rhetoric is full of cringey jargon like "Ger-woman-y" and "womanual"), and the next elevating their ideals as real tools of justice. Gender essentialism is the group's credo, and violently anti-trans sentiment is sometimes condemned, sometimes rewarded in the movie's world. Perhaps in line with a feminist critique of authoritarian leadership, the "womanager" Big Mother is the story's most flawed and ultimately violent character (as to the violence, I seriously caution the squeamish).

The bad acting quickly becomes forgivable, and after that, endearing. The film is good fun for the viewer with a radical streak in her heart, since it's filled with bits of revolutionary dialogue and visual Easter eggs, like a mural of anarchist Emma Goldman in the background of one bedroom scene. Probably best to know: It's porn-heavy, and how much "good fun" that is will hinge on your tastes. Politically, it can be hard to resolve when to cheer and when to balk. Except for conservatives. Conservatives will definitely balk the whole time. True to title, if you can't stomach a little misandry, stay away!

7
+ Queer, cultish merriment
– Subpar acting; difficult politics

The Misandrists
Directed by Bruce LaBruce
Jean Cocteau Cinema, NR, 91 min.

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