Andrew Myers is 37 years old and is the youngest man on the planet.
No Men Beyond This Point is the mockumentary from Mark Sawers that follows Myers as the last potential man on Earth. We learn the back story about how women are getting pregnant without semen and are having girls, leading slowly for the supply of men to dwindle.
In 1953, there were a series of pregnancies without semen being involved. At first, the women are not believed. It's not so much that the women are eventually believed but the reality sets in that girls are being born and not boys.
In reproduction, the man determines the gender of the child since women are XX and men are XY. If XX reproduces by itself, there never is a Y.
Myers is the youngest but there are still plenty of men. Most of them live in camps in the middle of the woods. Their basic needs are met but they live meaningless lives.
Myers works as a nanny for a female couple and their 4 girls. He develops a relationship with one of the mothers, creating tension in the house.
Though women couple up, if you were hoping they would be lesbians, turns out that no needed sex means no sex. That leads to its own tension.
Sawers also gives us an insight to how women would run the world. The overall government is patterned after the United Nations. Myers and the family story feel like lone wolves in an ever-changing society.
The film explores the impact of femininity ruling the day as masculinity slowly fades. Myers is a nurturer and that is the only reason he isn't in the camps.
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The story and mockumentary are weaved into each other. The mockumentary gets a bit clinical especially in the beginning of the film. The story is much more intriguing with several sources of tension in the family dynamic.
The film spends a lot of time with separating gender yet the underlying tone is that we all need each other. Sawers weaves a lot of social points into this film and certainly gave this thought elaborate considerations. Though the clinical back story felt long, the 80-minute film feels too short.
The acting is pretty believable and deadpan. The fact that no one is distinctly recognizable, though they may be better known in Canada, helps the cause.
There is just enough British Columbia in the Vancouver-based film to catch your eye if you notice, but not too distracting if you don't notice such things.
The idea of strong femininity and women getting opportunities sounds especially great for those hoping Hillary Clinton would be the next president of the United States. For the American audience, this might feel like even more of a pipe dream. The film played at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival so the 2016 election in a different country likely wasn't a concern.
This is a film that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would love being a feminist. If you sway in that direction, you will enjoy the film a lot more. If not, treat the film as fiction but still an engaging premise and well-executed story.
video credit: YouTube/Sony Pictures Entertainment
photos credit: No Men Beyond This Point
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