Directors: Brian Fender and Chiemi Karasawa
Studio: Isotope Films
“Dick: The Documentary” opens on a group of men responding to director Brian Fender’s Craigslist ad. He wanted a group of men between the ages of 21-80 to come to his living room to discuss their relationship with their penis. Everyone from Marines to Transsexuals came and went full frontal to talk about their dicks. Honestly, I watched the documentary around Labor Day and it has taken me until now to find a way to phrase what I saw. If anything, this is a documentary about people process information as kids. Especially when it’s so coded to their biological makeup and how it relates to societal function.
To say that the film confronts you with the subject matter is an understatement. It’s a nearly hour long window of dicks dangling in front of the viewers, while the participants talk about serious material. But, it’s an endless cascade of floppy dicks trying to persuade you to understand the need to readdress the masculine relationship with their dongs. There is some talk about comparing dicks and how you age with your dick. The older men have much more to say on the subject, but again…you’re staring at a wrinkly old dick while it’s being said. Maturity is required, people.
Genitalia evokes such primal responses from most of the 1st World. I know that the Europeans like to act like they’re above it, but the numbers from the Fappening suggest otherwise. Everyone wants to think that they’re far more mature than they are when confronted with certain material. While I believe the shocking elements of the documentary will get it press, I still feel there is a side argument to be made. The dick itself has been ruined by a mix of Puritan bullshit and juvenile confusion. If the argument can be restated and given to younger men as a chance to speak honestly and open about questions, then we won’t have these problems later on in life. Thankfully, there was no helicoptering in this documentary.
RELEASE DATE: 09/12/2014