Movie review
October 7, 2024 · 116 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The Menendez Brothers.
Woke representation / casting
Real-life documentary interviews with no forced representation or casting choices.
Woke political dialogue
Minimal activist dialogue; primarily personal accounts of the case.
Identity-driven story themes
Noticeable emphasis on male sexual abuse trauma as central to the narrative.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Critiques the 1990s trials’ dismissal of male abuse claims against modern post-#MeToo standards.
Woke character or canon changes
Applies modern #MeToo framing to reinterpretation of real historical abuse claims and trial outcome.
Review
The Menendez Brothers is a 2024 Netflix documentary featuring audio interviews with Lyle and Erik Menendez from prison as they detail the 1989 murders of their parents and the trials that followed. It includes input from jurors, prosecutors, journalists, and family members while centering the brothers’ long-standing claims of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse by their father. The film repeatedly highlights post-#MeToo shifts in how society views male sexual abuse victims and frames the original trials’ skepticism as outdated.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Weak evidence of backlash claiming too woke; primarily factual debate on bias and resentencing.
Creator track record context
No relevant prior activist or identity-driven work cited.
Production
