White Ribbon
"My Friend, Max Hate"
2 February 2025
3 mins 07s

Bad role models.
This well-meaning but ultimately flawed film for White Ribbon addresses the issue of male toxicity, and the role played in it by 'influencers' like Andrew Tate. It's unclear who it's aimed at... there's a suggestion at the end that it's not directly seeking to influence the young boys prone to this kind of exploitation so much as the adults around them. It's naive to imagine the boys about whom we're collectively worried will not see this... so what will they make of it? Will they see themselves in this depiction? And, if they do, will they reject the values he adopts? Or will they empathise with him and feel he is justified in his responses to those who, as he sees it, provoke him? White Ribbon don't need us to remind them of the importance of what they do, or the responsibility that comes with it, and - in the grand scheme of things we can be hopeful that this film will achieve its objectives - but it feels like a risky construct, and we can't help wondering how much better it would have been to spend money on their grass roots activity, rather than trying to make a big splash with this.
Canada
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