Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere (2026)
★★★ — Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere (2026)
The so-called "manosphere" has been one of the more persistently discussed corners of online culture throughout the 2020s: a loose, overlapping network of forums, podcasts, livestreams and social media accounts broadly organised around a hyper-masculine worldview, often tipping into open hostility towards women, LGBTQ+ people and what its adherents tend to label "mainstream" society. Figures like Andrew Tate brought the phenomenon to wider public attention, but the ecosystem runs considerably deeper than any single personality, producing a rotating cast of influencers, coaches and self-styled "red pill" gurus whose reach, particularly among young men, has attracted serious concern from educators, psychologists and policymakers alike. It is, in short, exactly the sort of subject that the British documentary tradition has long been well-placed to examine, and exactly the sort of subject that Louis Theroux has spent three decades making his name on.
Produced by Mindhouse Productions, the company Theroux co-founded, Inside the Manosphere arrives in 2026 and runs to 89 minutes. It is directed by Adrian Choa, working alongside Theroux rather than simply behind him, which gives the film a slightly different dynamic to some of Theroux's earlier BBC work. The tagline, "Back and beta than ever," signals that the production is at least aware of the language it is walking into. Theroux himself needs little introduction on this blog (you can read my thoughts on his more recent work in Louis Theroux: The Settlers), but the short version is that his particular gift has always been a kind of disarming, apparently guileless curiosity that gets people talking who probably should not be talking quite so freely. Whether that gift translates cleanly to a world built on performance, clout and constant self-documentation is one of the more interesting questions the film raises. Among the figures Theroux sits with are online personalities HSTikkyTokky, Myron Gaines, Sneako and Justin Waller, each occupying their own particular niche within the broader manosphere ecosystem. For audiences who haven't encountered these names before, the film serves as a reasonably thorough introduction; for those who have, seeing them in conversation with Theroux's brand of polite, probing scepticism offers its own kind of friction.
As a documentary subject, the manosphere presents a specific structural problem that most other subcultures do not: its participants are, almost by definition, already performing for an audience at all times. These are people who have built their entire identities around being watched and reacted to, which means a documentary camera is not an intrusion so much as another platform. It is a tension that sits at the heart of what Mindhouse have put together here, and one worth bearing in mind when thinking about what a film like this can and cannot do. For a sense of what documentary filmmaking looks like when its subjects are rather less camera-conscious, it is worth a look at something like Island Soldier, or the stripped-back intimacy of Amazing Grace, both of which I have covered previously on the blog.
Fatherless kids growing up to scam and "influence" other Fatherless kids. Selling and promoting onlyfans girls only to then claim it's disgusting and ridiculing those same girls. Telling young boys to "leave the matrix" by sucking them into their own pyramid schemes of financial scamming, rejecting mainstream morality in favour of alienating, antisocial behaviour. It seems money really is the root of all evil. Not the best Louis Theroux documentary because I could feel a sense of cruel irony in Theroux here. He wanted to explore the "manosphere", this misogynistic, sexist, homophobic space but in doing so he discovered that he himself would always be livestreamed during this process and his presence in turn gave more clout to these abhorrent posers. In that, it feels like Theroux is doing less journalism here and a little bit of voyeurism in a way.
That tension between journalism and spectacle is something I keep turning over. There is a version of this film that could have leaned harder into the structural critique, spending more time on the young men being pulled in by this content rather than giving the influencers themselves another stage to perform on. When Theroux is at his best, you feel him getting genuinely under the skin of his subjects. Here, I found myself wondering at points whether the camera was pointed in quite the right direction. It is not without value, and there are moments that land with real clarity, but it left me wanting a little more rigour and a little less spectacle. Sometimes the most revealing thing you can do is look away from the man in the spotlight.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2026 | Watched: 2026-03-14
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere (2026) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More with Louis Theroux: Louis Theroux: The Settlers (2025)
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More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023)
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