Director: John Trengove
Ralphie spends his days driving for rideshare fares and his nights chasing the perfect physique, and just as fatherhood approaches, an invitation into a tight circle of self-styled strong men pulls him toward something far stranger than the gym.
What is Manodrome about?
Money is already tight, and a baby is on the way, so when a stranger at the gym offers Ralphie community, purpose, and a philosophy built around discipline and dominance, he leans in without asking too many questions. The group's rhetoric about self-reliance and traditional strength gives him a language for feelings he has never named, but it also asks him to bury them deeper than ever. As the meetings intensify and his home life frays, Ralphie's sense of who he is starts to slip, and the film tracks that unraveling with unease rather than easy answers.
Cast & crew
Jesse Eisenberg carries the film's tension in a performance that trades his usual motor-mouthed energy for something coiled and watchful, opposite Adrien Brody as the group's magnetic figurehead. Odessa Young plays Ralphie's partner with a groundedness that makes his drift away from her land harder, and director John Trengove, working from his own screenplay, keeps the camera close enough that the character's paranoia feels physical rather than explained.
Context & significance
Released in 2023, Manodrome arrived alongside a run of films probing online radicalization and the marketing of masculinity as a lifestyle brand, though it stays fixed on one man's interior collapse rather than broader commentary. Its shifting registers, from workplace drama to something closer to psychological thriller, reflect a story more interested in dread than in delivering a tidy message about the men it depicts.
Where & how to watch
Manodrome streams on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, so viewers can choose whichever fits their evening. Reading about the film here costs nothing; watching it simply requires signing in with a free K-Time account, part of a library built around Farsi-friendly menus and search for the Iranian diaspora.