In what feels like all-too poignant timing given the recent headlines about Andrew Tate, the world of toxic masculinity heads to the Berlinale this year with John Trengove’s competition entry Manodrome. Described as a “nihilist thriller,” this tense and troubling dive into incel culture and male fragility is led by a perhaps unlikely guide, Jesse Eisenberg.

Often seen playing insecure men with a more jittery, nervous disposition, Eisenberg’s Manodrome character Ralphie — a gym-obsessed Uber driver and soon-to-be father struggling under personal and economic burdens — sees such anxieties manifest themselves into pure anger, anger which violently erupts after he’s inducted into a libertarian masculinity cult (led by a typically charismatic Adrien Brody).

While Ralphie — a beefed-up young man who appears constantly on the verge of starting a fight — might not seem a typical Eisenberg role, the Oscar-nominated star of The Social Network, Zombieland, Now You See Me, as...