Will be genuinely educational to some viewers – the key word being “some“.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 23, 2023

Concluding with opposing examples, films where the images pass Menkes’ muster, the film’s lasting impression is one of condescension and distrust toward its audience.

| Jun 14, 2023

It will make you see the way women are portrayed on screen differently.

| May 18, 2023

It's a dense and indulgent film, but what it has to say is urgent and essential.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 17, 2023

What could have been an informative and insightful look at film history, the way women have been presented and how our understanding of sexuality has changed is an accusatory documentary that leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 17, 2023

Menkes delves deep into Hollywood’s obsession with the female body and its continued sexist representation of young women as objects of desire.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 12, 2023

Political, economic and social factors are all conveniently, outrageously, ignored while movies such as Vertigo, Raging Bull and Blade Runner are blamed for everything from body fascism to rape culture.

| Original Score: 1/5 | May 12, 2023

[Nina Menkes] sets aside the often tortuous lexicon of modern criticism and scores lucid, telling points about the vexed state of cinematic art.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 11, 2023

Menkes’ accusations against other women directors border on misogyny.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 10, 2023

As a basic film studies primer, Brainwashed has some value, but combatting one form of myopia with another isn’t the most helpful way forward.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 9, 2023

The learning experience watching Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power is truly incredible. It’s needed, brilliant, and breaks down the whys and hows of gendered visual language in a simple, gut-punching way.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2023

If you’ve ever puzzled over the meaning of Laura Mulvey’s phrase (also the title of a groundbreaking essay) “The Male Gaze,” director Nina Menkes’ authoritative documentary will clarify it for you.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 3, 2023

Hollywood has a long way to go in terms of parity for women and there absolutely must be a discussion about the way women are portrayed onscreen... but Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power isn’t doing it the best way possible.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 1, 2022

Menkes illustrates in no uncertain terms the motion picture code and detriment of the “male gaze”. No secret that women have been objectified in film across the board in ways you won’t be able to ignore once you see this doc.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 28, 2022

Viewers are meant to wrestle with this film, not passively consume a simple message -- and they’ll leave invigorated.

| Oct 27, 2022

Densely packed as this film is, only so much can be squeezed into an hour and 47 minutes. Menkes succeeds, however, in delivering a pretty thorough primer.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 26, 2022

This documentary should be required viewing for anyone who cares about how manipulated images in movies can play a role in enabling sexism against women in society.

| Oct 22, 2022

Relies on bad faith arguments, ahistorical information, and cherry-picked scenes used out of context.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Oct 21, 2022

As a substitute for a Feminist Film Studies 101 class, “Brainwashed” gets the job done a lot more quickly and cheaply than if you registered for grad school.

| Oct 20, 2022

Limited to a mere pointing out of which kinds of images are empowering to women and which aren’t, the documentary ultimately does a disservice to the art form, feminist or otherwise.

| Oct 20, 2022