“Soy Boy” follows Tim, who lands at a positive masculinity workshop. After radical feminists raid the retreat, Tim and fellow attendees must reckon with the gap between the men they’re performing and the men they actually are.
Writer-director Atticus Orsborn doesn’t waste time on backstory in “Soy Boy.” There are brief flashbacks of Tim’s past, but the film begins with him already heading to the masculinity workshop. Once you see the “Communiomen” flyer, it immediately sets the tone for what’s to come. But that’s just a precursor. Orsborn has many tricks up his sleeve, shifting this from just weird to outright bizarre. What follows is lots of screaming and lots of learning — in very obtuse ways.
“Now, feel your c-ck. That’s right, I want meat-to-meat heat.”
Part of this comes from Orsborn and director of photography Noah Fowler’s handheld approach to the camerawork. Outside of static environmental transition shots, the visuals are full of shaky movements, almost turning the camera itself into another character in the room. On top of this, you get crash zooms and extreme close-ups that are in sync with Orsborn’s score. It’s full of flute melodies, hums, drum beats and other strange noises (including moans). This is akin to Christopher Schlechte-Bond’s musical compositions from an equally strange 2026 movie about masculinity: “Man Baby.”
The characters add another layer of absurdity, with each having their own unique quirks. Leo Kim’s Connor is obsessed with his mom’s boobs. Charlie B. Foster’s Buddy loves to tell everyone that his name is “like a friend.” Julius Reese’s Dustin is a pump-and-dump crypto scammer. John Selby’s Jaxon acts like a dog. Taylor Gray’s Tim was cheated on. Then you add in Marie Faustin (Alpha), Claire Mack (Chess) and Joyce Keokham (Ash) as the “radical feminists” along with Jake Hart’s Father Eagle. All of the actors are on their A-game to bring such abstract personalities to life.
Amid all the laughs are very real messages about toxic masculinity. Social expectations have made it so that men often feel ashamed to look “weak” — whether that means showing emotion, not being physically strong or having feminine traits in general. The film itself shows the foundational flaws of workshops like this, where men (or women) are told to fit under strict umbrellas. When forced to actually confront all of their built-up feelings rather than being part of a group echo chamber, the characters’ true personalities begin to shine. Virtually everyone has fallen into the trap of stereotyping others after a bad experience. “Soy Boy” challenges the audience to escape that mindset and instead embrace the idea that one bad moment doesn’t define everything. By delivering this message through humor, the themes land all the more effectively.
At only 70 minutes, Orsborn flies through all of these concepts in rapid fashion. The film doesn’t feature any time jumps, with the workshop unfolding in real time. Because of this, viewers will practically go through a group therapy session with the characters. While some of the developments feel too short-lived, it’s this fast-paced nature that keeps “Soy Boy” nonstop fun.
“Soy Boy” is a relentlessly hilarious dive into toxic masculinity. While other movies would be hindered by this level of heavy-handedness, Atticus Orsborn turns it into comedy that everyone can relate to.
Rating: 4 out of 5
