‘Manhood’ Review: Daniel Lombroso Sensitively Navigates Insecurities of American Masculinity While Breaking Its Taboos

While society’s unrealistic expectations for women and the impossible physical standards we are held up against are often discussed and critiqued, the similar pressures men face aren’t as widely talked about in culture.

That’s understandable, since the misogynistic toxicity women deal with has age-old ramifications. But that’s not to say that men are spared from judgment, especially in the narcissistic Instagram era, that can directly affect one’s inner self-worth and public treatment, a topic Celine Song’s “Materialists” smartly steered by mentioning the expensive limb-lengthening surgeries men opt for. About the most taboo — and yet, among the most common — of male insecurities, Daniel Lombroso’s “Manhood” explores another industry that promises a girthier sense of male pride: this time, by increasing, well, the size of one’s member.

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On the page, it seems like an impossible ask from a movie to walk a fine line when discussing the male obsession over penis size — how do you balance a gentle approach with serious contemplation and a sense of humor? Thankfully, Lombroso does so with ease, following the journeys of three different men, all with intriguing stories that the filmmaker navigates sensitively.

The first one is Dallas entrepreneur Bill Moore, a trailblazer in the penile enhancement field, which is a core part of the ever-growing sexual wellness industry. Operating out of a Texan strip mall in his early days, but now overseeing country-wide practices that employ board-certified urologists, Moore attempts to make penis enlargement via impermanent injections as everyday a practice as Botox. The Kafka quote that opens the movie, “I was ashamed of myself when I realized life was a costume party and I attended with my real face,” is more or less at the philosophical center of Moore’s business. He knows first-hand the shades of unspoken shame men can carry within themselves, and tries to do something productive about it.

Two of his clients that the film follows over the course of a couple of years are also at the center of the film. One of them is David Smith, a young, soft-spoken nursing student from Florida whose identity as a gay man and temporary job as an OnlyFans sex worker were unwelcome in the conservative family and community he grew up in. We learn that once David’s OnlyFans profile started growing, he felt the pressure to grow elsewhere, too. That’s when he found Dr. Victoria Loria for a permanent penis enlargement solution — the promise of permanence is the first red flag — and became one of the many botched jobs of Loria’s malpractices, with lumps and nodules appearing on his penis. Finding and meeting Bill Moore presents David with some sense of hope at last — one that comes with a dignified treatment in undoing the disastrous aesthetic outcome he’s suffered in the hands of Loria — and even a possible romance.

The other patient we follow is Ruben Ramirez, a married man, a father of five, and a comedian whose tired routine has clearly seen better days. Despite being strapped financially, Ruben gets addicted to the expensive process of injections, falling for a number of venomous right-wing podcasts about claiming one’s manhood. A sweet and supportive woman, Ruben’s wife doesn’t quite understand his obsessions, but doesn’t necessarily stand in the way, either. “He wants to have fun with it,” she claims. But according to Ruben, she likes the enhanced size more than she cares to admit. So he keeps spending the money that they don’t have to go up more sizes, nearing financial ruin as an end result.

Throughout, “Manhood” isn’t shy about putting both the members and the medical procedures on full display. So if the idea of needles going into carefully marked-up penises and organs getting stretched with painful-looking methods makes you a bit queasy, perhaps take this as a gentle heads up. But amid all that literal imagery, the film also never lets us forget what’s at the backdrop: a predominant ecosystem of cruel cultural clichés around masculinity and those who sometimes heal, sometimes exploit male fears and shame around feeling lesser as a result.

In that, we are reminded of the days when Viagra first dropped into the market, becoming Pfizer’s blockbuster drug overnight. A number of talking-head interviews with different urologists confirm that the filler injections Moore offers have the potential to become another hit along the same lines. There is also plenty of room for visual humor here, with an array of comically phallic objects, shapes and even buildings forming a tongue-in-cheek tapestry on the screen. (Such humor is so akin to Penny Lane’s smart witticisms that it wasn’t a surprise to this critic to see that the “Hail Satan?” filmmaker is an executive producer of “Manhood”.)

It’s a relief that all of Lombroso’s subjects are better off both personally and professionally at the end of the film, given the filmmaker makes the audience truly care about these men he portrays. David’s story is especially touching when he sees the results of his successful reconstructive surgery. His tears, like the rest of “Manhood,” empathetically remind us that the most hushed human anxieties are often the ones that need the most urgent attention.