Although noted film theorist Laura Mulvey coined the term “the male gaze” back in 1973, in Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power, Mulvey admits that she assumed it would have less of a hold today. But Nina Menkes’s engrossing documentary explores just how far-reaching the male gaze continues to be. Drawn from the filmmaker and academic’s own impactful lecture “Sex and Power: The Visual Language of Cinema,” Brainwashed analyzes the patriarchal nature of cinema language and its pervasive effects: from widespread sexual abuse to ageism, toxic masculinity to pay inequality.

Illustrated with over a hundred clips from classic films throughout cinema history, Brainwashed also offers illuminating interviews from Rosanna Arquette, Julie Dash, Penelope Spheeris, Joey Soloway, Eliza Hittman, Charlyne Yi, Catherine Hardwick, and many other professionals eager to share their personal experiences in the industry. Menkes makes a persuasive argument for a necessary paradigm-shift in filmmaking culture, offering a subversive but accessible deep dive into the lingering damage wrought by the male gaze.