I saw Erectionman in its U.S. Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. It is an entertaining example of the first person documentary-style that has mushroomed in recent years. It explores an important and often taboo subject in examining the growth of the erectile dysfunctional pill industry since 1998. It manages to explore this social phenomenon in a way that is funny without being offensive or disgusting.
However, in the course of 52 minutes, it jumps around way too much without finding a clear theme, direction or argument. The film touches on a wide range of issues: corporate marketing, changes in our society and its sexual language, male insecurity, pornography, the high cost of the pills, black market availability and the director's addiction to them. It never really arrives at a clear argument. The most interesting argument that it could have focused is on was that the pharmaceutical companies are playing on male insecurities in order to create a market for their products to many men who don't really need for any medical problem. Erectionman is perfectly enjoyable little film by Dutch filmmaker Michael Shaap, but it could have benefited from better editing and a clearer thesis about what it was really trying to say about our society, sexuality, and business.
