How to Be a Man

How to be a man, with Gavin McInnes is a simple comedy. Funny simple.

McInnes plays himself as Mark McCarthy and it shows. He is a former comedian who thinks he is dying, so he wants to leave his unborn son with a few life-lessons. We follow McInnes and the cameraman Bryan, played by Liam Aiken, as they go through various experiences that are supposed to teach McCarthy's son what to expect of life.

I saw this film without any expectations, not having seen or heard of it before. I have seen McInnes personality in some work, so I knew what to expect of him. That was to my advantage.

If you have seen some of his work, and didn't like it, chances are that you will not like this film. It carries a lot on him, and to be honest, few other actors could have made this film tolerable. The cast is excellent, and Aiken does a very good job as supporting actor.

The reason why it didn't get a better rating from me is while it was a very entertaining movie, the plot was simple and I doubt it will stick with me. Not necessarily a bad thing, I think I could watch this several times more.

Worth watching, IF you like Gavin McInnes.

How can that guy teach how to be a man if he isn't one? Forced jokes, amateur movie, awful acting. Theres noting good about this movie. It's probably the worst movie I ever saw in my life.

Very heartwarming movie with a good amount of laughs thrown in. It deals with a former stand up comedian with a pregnant wife coming to terms with his mortality after getting diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He sets out to make videos showing his future son how to be a man but finds out he might not know as much as he originally thought.

"How to be a man" is a film that was recommended to me by one of my friends. And i figured "why not?". It seemed like an interesting movie to check out after reading a quick synopsis. I was never a fan of Gavin McInnis(never even heard of him before seeing this). After watching this, not much changed my mind. Gavin plays a former stand-up that decides to document raw footage of "how to deal with the world". Because, he believes he's going to die soon from his breast cancer. He gets the help from a young man he jokes to be his "son"(which goes nowhere by the way). The first 45 minutes of this movie seemed like it was heading towards a good direction. But, after the second act. It falls off a cliff like a giant rhino driving a truck. The awkward jokes may seem funny. And there were good jokes. But, the reactions were so bad. This felt like the straight to video American pie movies. But, i held out hope. Just hoping that the ending would save the whole thing. I was incredibly disappointed. The ending betrays everything leading up to it. And i felt I've wasted my time. On the plus side, this movie is only an hour and twenty minutes. By the hour mark, i was checking my time code just waiting for this end. 4/10. Not a horrible movie. But, very skippable.

It's always fun to watch a movie filmed on location in a place that you're familiar with. All the more when that place is Brooklyn.

It is safe to say that most of the movies I start these days, I do not finish, and safer yet to say that I was quite surprised to make it to the rolling of the credits for How To Be A Man.

Within the first thirty minutes I could make out a solid (if absurd) plot, a charismatic lead, strong writing, and at least two corners I had puked into in recent months (RIP Trash Bar).

HTBAM is more or less a stand up comedy routine in the disguise of a movie, showcasing the comedic stylings of the film's lead, Gavin McInnes. Gavin is a force, and carries 92% of the weight of a production that could likely have not been made possible without him.

It was good enough that I later did some research on McInnes, and found that he had written a book titled 'How To Piss In Public'. I bought it, read half of it, and that was good enough for me. There is some arguably interesting stuff in there, particularly for those that might hold 80-90s American punk history at all nostalgic. But I'm not here to sell books.

Less than one month after watching HTBAM, I bumped into Gavin himself at the corner of N5th and Bedford Ave., in the heart of Williamsburg. I give him a hearty hello, praised his fine work, and we ended up chatting for nearly thirty minutes. I still have a series of selfies I took of the two of us in that span, including one of him kissing me on my cheek with his greasy yet perfectly manicured handlebar moustache.

And that was that. Until...

Three years later I was living in Arizona, and the story of how I met this no-name star of this forgotten movie came into conversation at a party. When I mentioned Gavin by name, one person in attendance uttered something along the lines of, "holy sh#t", you made out with the founder of the Proud Boys." I had no idea what that meant at the time. But I do now.

If you're fortunate enough to subscribe to the 'death of the author' philosophy, then you might be able to enjoy this genuinely funny film, starring the human personification of a leaky douchebag.