Summary
- Academy Award nominee Jesse Eisenberg stars in the intense thriller Manodrome as Ralphie, an out-of-work Uber driver struggling with his masculinity.
- Ralphie joins a cult-like group of men who embrace physical dominance, leading to a newfound empowerment that brings along its own set of problems.
- Director John Trengove drew inspiration from the book Kill All Normies to explore themes of internet culture, the alt-right, and the rejection of societal roles in the film.
Lionsgate has dropped the adrenaline-fueled first trailer for the upcoming thriller Manodrome. Academy Award nominee Jesse Eisenberg stars in the film as Ralphie, an out-of-work Uber driver who is expecting a baby with his girlfriend, Sal (Odessa Young). To add to his struggles, Ralphie goes through life feeling disrespected and ridiculed by other men. Cue a charismatic older man named Dan (portrayed by Academy Award winner Adrien Brody) who appears at just the right time and implores Ralphie: “What are you doing with those feelings?”
Shortly after, Ralphie is invited to join Dan’s mysterious chosen family. The cult-like group consists of all men who seem to share a penchant for physical assertiveness and dominance. As Ralphie aims to take his power back, he immerses himself in the group, but his newfound empowerment brings along a new set of problems; his relationship begins to suffer, and he becomes increasingly violent. Check out the intense trailer, courtesy of Lionsgate, below.
Manodrome stars Eisenberg (The Social Network), Brody (The Pianist), and Young (The Staircase). It is written and directed by John Trengove and serves as the South African filmmaker’s English-language feature film debut. Trengove’s previous film, 2017’s The Wound, earned critical praise. Manodrome is produced by Gina Gammell, Ben Giladi, Ryan Zacarias, and Riley Keough.
John Trengove’s Inspiration for Manodrome
Manodrome’s trailer is reminiscent of an earlier film that tackled toxic masculinity: Fight Club. David Fincher’s 1999 adaptation of Chuck Palahniuks’s award-winning novel of the same name starred Edward Norton and Brad Pitt as members of an all-male group who dealt with their emotions through physical altercations.
As it turns out, Trengove was also inspired by a book when crafting Manodrome. Before the film’s release at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, the filmmaker discussed how Angela Nagle’s 2017 non-fiction book Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right, paved the road for Manodrome. He told Deadline:
“There was a moment around Trump’s election when I had this sense that the world had just gotten out of control. I couldn’t understand what was happening anymore. The culture was moving so quickly and things that were unthinkable were happening,” He said. “I was clutching at straws trying to understand what was going on. Somebody gave me Angela Nagle’s book ‘Kill All Normies.’ It sparked something so powerful that here we are five years later and I’m talking about a movie that was inspired by it.”
The non-fiction book dives into the development of internet culture, the alt-right, and the election of Donald Trump. Ironically, Trengove says that he found something “inherently gay or queer in this idea of men rejecting women and forming new movements.”
“The idea of chosen family is very much a queer one. When you’re rejected or traumatized by the roles that society inflicts on you, then you find others like yourself and your chosen family. I brought these two ideas together, of men feeling disenfranchised and needing to reinvent themselves in a homogenous way,” he said.
During the same interview, he later added:
“It remains to be seen whether Manodrome is actually a Queer film. I’m not sure that it’s necessarily going to be embraced by Queer cinema. But for me, that’s the starting point of thinking about it and the reason for doing it for sure.”
Manodrome lands in theaters on November 10. It will be available on Digital and On-Demand beginning November 17. Check out the film’s poster below.
Lionsgate
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