The Pickup Game (2019)

The Pickup Game: Directed by Barnaby O’Connor, Matthew O’Connor. With Robert Beck, Maximillian Berger, Linda Boisvert, Nikolaos Brahimllari. The Pickup Game is an inside look at the emergence of the ‘pickup’ industry – an business where self-styled seduction coaches travel the world, charging a small fortune to teach men skills they claim will guarantee success with women. For the instructors who are successful, it is a highly lucrative occupation, with many companies earning millions of dollars a year. It is also an industry rife with controversy and scandal. Several teachers have been deported from countries for their contentious methodologies and pickup businesses are often the subject of fierce public criticism. Despite this, men the world over collectively spend hundreds of millions of dollars to attend seminars, download online courses and have one-on-one coaching sessions with instructors they feel can give them the dating life of their dreams. In the minds of students, many of these instructors become more than just teachers. They become idols. From the glossy exterior, where courses are packaged as self-improvement, to the dark underbelly of sexual assault, pyramid scheme marketing and secret collusion The Pickup Game pulls back the curtain to reveal a world that is fascinating and horrific in equal measure.

“Iu0026#39;m no film critic but I honestly believe 20 years from now when this documentary has become the cult hit Iu0026#39;m sure it will be people are going to look at this movie and realize that it does something almost entirely unique in documentaries today – it leaves space for the viewer to make their own mind up.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI watched it (twice) with two different groups of friends and on both occasions each person had a different interpretation of what they had seen. Almost like when youu0026#39;re looking at clouds in the sky and making shapes out of them. Everybody sees something different. Likewise everyoneu0026#39;s reaction to this film was different.nSure, this film contains the usual devices to help create atmosphere and move the story along (music, the way itu0026#39;s cut, etc) but thatu0026#39;s kind of a given. What it does do, which is actually incredibly rare, is give the audience that little bit of space they need to bring their own interpretation to it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf you look up reviews for the film you will find a huge range of reactions. From outrage that the film even exists to shock at what goes on to gratitude at the people that made the movie for putting it together.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlmost no other film that I know of sparks such a huge range of opinions. Itu0026#39;s like the film becomes what you bring to it in many ways. Watch it. With friends. And then discuss it afterwards.”