While “The Forge” deserves credit for wanting to address the real problems of struggling men and boys, it fails to speak to the very people it says it wants to help. Christian parents of such boys would be better off passing on this movie and following other sources for their boys, and following the example of the movie’s Cynthia by praying for them instead.

(REVIEW) The focus of “The Forge” on the modern plight of young men in society is laudable. But the film’s inability to empathize with these men, or offer a compelling vision for their lives, will turn them away from Christianity more than draw them to it.
Before we had the Erwin Brothers (“I Can Only Imagine”) or Dallas Jenkins (“The Chosen”), the undisputed kings of the faith-based film industry were the Kendrick Brothers. With films like “Facing the Giants” and “Fireproof,” Alex and Stephen Kendrick were Christian household names throughout the 2010s. At their height, The Kendricks’ movie “War Room” was No. 1 at the American box office.
The Kendrick Brothers films pioneered the “faith-based inspirational drama” that still defines the Christian film industry to this day. Their films would typically center on a social issue, whether it was marriage (“Fireproof” and “War Room”), fatherhood (“Courageous”) or abortion (“Lifemark”).
READ: Christian Movies A Useful Tool When It Comes To Discipleship And Evangelism
They would then have a character preach the gospel to the protagonist dealing with that problem and show them that the answer was to repent and make Jesus Christ their lord and savior. The Kendrick films were often accused — I think rightly — of being more sermons than movies. But there was no denying their popularity within Christian circles. Even now, with them being eclipsed by more popular Christian filmmakers, they still have a loyal audience.
Now, with their latest film, “The Forge,” the Kendrick brothers turn their attention to a social issue that has dominated social media in recent years: The boy crisis.
“The Forge” follows Isaiah, a high school graduate living at home with his mom, Cynthia (Priscilla C. Shirer, playing the sister of her character from “War Room”), with no plans for the future. After his mom threatens to start charging him rent to live there, Isaiah is taken under the wing by a man who promises to help him become the man God is calling him to be.
The film deserves credit for tackling the problems of wayward young men. Men in our society are falling behind in school, dropping out of the workforce, abandoning marriage and parenthood and increasingly ending their lives. So it’s great to see faith-based industry films trying to address helping men achieve their potential. Furthermore, the empathy shown to moms of such sons is vivid, with Cynthia struggling with wanting the best for her son but being unable to draw it out of him because she’s not a man and “it’s hard for a woman to call out the man in her son.”
The scenes where she responds by seeking support from her friends and praying to God about it together are honest and heartfelt. And when her son does turn around, her shock and gratitude for how God has turned things around is genuinely moving. Once again, the faith-based film industry does a great job of giving a far-too-rare voice to the experiences of Christian moms.
But therein lies the problem. This is clearly not a movie for the men who are lost; this is a movie for their moms. Worse, it’s a movie that will probably not inspire lost men to turn around, but rather push them further away.
The film largely ignores putting us in Isaiah’s point of view or understanding his perspective. The movie starts out with a parade of scenes where Isaiah is a stereotypically frustrating young man. He plays video games instead of doing his chores or looking for a job. He rolls his eyes at his mom when she confronts him and whines when she threatens to charge him rent. He obnoxiously tries to hit on a girl at a coffee shop and is disrespectful to her dad. Each of these scenes ends with an eye roll or a lecture from the adults in the room, whether that’s his mom, the coffee girl’s father or an office receptionist.
Why does Isaiah play so many video games? Why does he have so little ambition? Why doesn’t he listen to his mom? The film either ignores those questions or reduces them to “because his dad left” without digging much deeper.
The thing is, we have pretty good information on why men today are struggling. Dr. Jonathan Haidt points out in “The Anxious Generation ” that overprotectiveness of children has undercuts boys’ confidence growing up by keeping them from going on adventures without supervision — which they can’t gain confidence without having.
Schools reward girls’ natural sit-still-and-listen style of learning while punishing boys’ active, hands-on learning style, as The American Psychological Association points out. Add that to men feeling stigmatized for their masculinity, as Dr. Richard Reeves’s book “Of Boys and Men” unpacks, and many men don’t see the point of trying to succeed.
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There’s one piece of masculinity that the movie misses. This missing piece I think is the key to why the movie has flown under the radar for so long: a compelling purpose. Men long for a compelling goal and purpose for their life which justifies sacrificing themselves, whether it’s their God, their country, or their family. First Man puts the question “Is this mission worth it?” front and center, with politicians, reporters, and activists asking the question “is the mission worth it, in money and in lives?” So it’s not a question they ignore in the story. The problem is their answer.

This great guest post by New York filmmaker Joseph Holmes is a look at the film First Man, a biopic about Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. It’s a film that’s seen a revival of interest as a positive portrayal of classic masculinity. I’ve been thinking of adding more cultural coverage like this to my newsletter, so please let me know what you think – Aaron.
The movie First Man has gone through a minor revival of interest lately. Both with film enthusiasts on X and–more interestingly–in conservative and pro-masculinity circles. Conservative commentator Matt Walsh called it “perhaps the best biopic ever made” and Lomez called it a great film “about masculinity, and the costs and requirements of great civilizational achievement”. The consensus is that it promotes a positive view of traditional masculinity that we rarely see in a post-Barbie landscape.
The revival of interest in the movie is well-deserved. The film is deeply underrated, and there is a lot to recommend it to those who are interested in great filmmaking and traditional masculinity. But there is also a good reason it didn’t generate this level of enthusiasm when it first came out.
Directed by Oscar-winner Damien Chazelle (La La Land), First Man follows the true-life story of Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling), the first man to set foot on the moon, in 1960s America as he and NASA risk death and disgrace to try to put a man on the moon before the Soviets do. He must do this while trying to repair his relationship with his wife Janet (Claire Foy), which has struggled since the loss of their daughter.
First Man is undeniably a stunning piece of filmmaking. Damien Chazelle is one of the best technical directors working today, having the mastery of the craft to capture a perfectly choreographed musical (La La Land) and the chaos of Hollywood debauchery (Babylon). Here, he deftly balances a grounded human drama with a quiet epic scale that puts you in the shoes of the first people to cross the lunar threshold. He seamlessly switches between wide shots of giant spacecrafts and the vast reaches of space with tights and mediums on Neil’s face and his family, making us feel like these tiny normal people inside this big experience. 
Ryan Gosling gives one of his finest performances as he puts us deeply in the feelings of a man who doesn’t like to show his feelings. The brilliance is in that the more overwhelmed he is emotionally, the less he shows. Chazelle guides our interpretation of his inner life in these moments as well, giving us a wide view of Armstrong alone, or holding tight on his face to show how his emotions are shutting him out from other people.
What stands out when you watch the film today is its affirming portrayal of many traditionally masculine traits. Neil Armstrong is a “traditional man” in almost every sense of the word. He’s the breadwinner for his stay-at-home wife and kids. He risks his life with his male colleagues to beat the Soviets to the moon. He’s an engineer far more comfortable with numbers and machines than people. When he’s overwhelmed, he rushes to work rather than talk about what’s troubling him–even when his wife or friends are pushing him to talk.
And yet, unlike Ryan Gosling’s more recent role as Ken in Barbie, these parts of his character are not deconstructed. His role as the provider or his wife’s as a homemaker is never questioned. His engineering skills save his and his friends’ lives when their ship malfunctions in space. When Janet Armstrong admits to her friend she wishes her husband took fewer risks, her friend tells her that her friends with safe husbands are unhappy. Neil works through the death of his daughter by achieving his goal of going to the moon––not by opening up about his feelings. His success silences the voices–from the media, journalists, politicians, protestors, and his friends–who say the journey to the moon isn’t worth the cost.
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