The film opens with a line from Kafka about attending life’s costume party with your real face. It is a grand way to begin a documentary about penis enlargement, but Daniel Lombroso’s Manhood earns it. Behind the jokes, the needles and the unforgettable close-ups is a serious, surprisingly gentle film about shame.
It follows a Dallas entrepreneur who wants to make male enhancement as ordinary as Botox, and two of the men who come to him for help. It is funny, often excruciating, and much kinder than its subject might suggest.
Funny, frank and squirm-inducing, it finds real tenderness in the one insecurity men almost never talk about.
Movie at a Glance
- US release: In selected US cinemas from Wednesday 28 October 2026 in Los Angeles, and from Friday 30 October in New York
- UK release: No UK release announced
- Distributor: WOW Presents Plus / World of Wonder (US)
- Director: Daniel Lombroso
- Featuring: Bill Moore, David Smith and Ruben Ramirez
- Executive producers include: Sheila Nevins, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato and Penny Lane
- Runtime: 91 minutes
- Content: Contains explicit nudity and graphic medical procedures
- Genre: Documentary
Viewer Match
- Best for: Fans of offbeat, character-led documentaries such as Hail Satan?, and anyone interested in modern masculinity.
- Maybe skip if: You are squeamish about needles, or explicit nudity is a deal-breaker.
- Mood and pace: Wry, warm and occasionally wince-making, moving briskly between its three subjects.
- Cinema or streaming? It will work at home, but the shared gasps in a cinema add to the fun.
- Spoiler level: Spoiler-free. We only describe the people it follows.
The Botox of the Trouser Department
Bill Moore is a showman. Proudly treated with fillers himself, he built his business from a Texas strip mall into a network of clinics staffed by qualified urologists, offering temporary injections to increase girth. “Every man wants a bigger penis,” he declares, and the film lets you decide whether that is a diagnosis or a sales pitch.
Lombroso, whose earlier documentary White Noise got close to the American far right, has a talent for gaining people’s trust without endorsing them. He watches Moore with curiosity rather than judgement, and that open stance is the film’s greatest strength. It also allows plenty of ethically murky moments to speak for themselves.
Two Very Different Patients
The heart of the film lies with two of Moore’s clients. David Smith is a soft-spoken Florida nursing student and former OnlyFans creator, rejected by a conservative family, who comes to Moore after a disastrous procedure elsewhere. His story is the most moving in the film, and his tears when he finally sees the results of reconstructive surgery are unexpectedly powerful.
Ruben Ramirez is his opposite: a married father of five and struggling stand-up comedian who keeps going back for more injections even as the bills mount and his family’s finances suffer. His story is funnier and sadder at the same time, and it hints at a wider culture of online voices selling men a very narrow idea of what being a man means.
Not for the Squeamish
Be warned: Manhood does not look away. The procedures are shown in full, and some of the medical images are genuinely hard to watch. But Lombroso balances the explicitness with a mischievous visual wit, slipping in a running gag of phallic shapes, objects and buildings that will make you laugh despite yourself.
If there is a weakness, it is that the film does not reinvent the documentary form. It is a straightforward, well-paced portrait, and some of its biggest questions, about the ethics of Moore’s business and his relationships with patients, are raised and left hanging. Some viewers will want more challenge; others will appreciate a film that trusts them to make up their own minds.
Small Subject, Big Heart
What lingers is the compassion. Lombroso treats insecurity as something real rather than a punchline, and he makes you care about men whose fears are usually only ever the subject of jokes. For more of the latest new films, see our latest Weekly Cinema Pack, and for tonight’s TV and streaming picks, try What to Watch Tonight.
Spoiler-Free Verdict
Manhood is a frank, funny and genuinely empathetic documentary about the pressures men rarely admit to. It is not formally daring and some of its ethical questions go unanswered, but it has a big heart.
- Performances: 7.5/10
- Direction: 8/10
- Screenplay: 7/10
- Score: 7/10
- Cinematography: 7/10
- Entertainment Value: 8/10
- Overall score: 7.5/10
Star rating: 3.5/5
Verdict badge: One for Fans
One-line verdict: Bizarre on paper, tender on screen: a taboo-busting documentary that is kinder than you expect.
Watch the Official Trailer
Meet Bill Moore and his patients in the official trailer.
Why do you think men find body image so hard to talk about? Share your spoiler-free reaction to Manhood.