Liberated: The New Sexual Revolution (2017) User Reviews

I am a young adult and I am not the target audience for this film

[thesameasitwasbefore · 5/10 · 26 February 2018]

But I know exactly who the target audience is.

This is alarmist propaganda targeted towards members of the older generation who no longer have their fingers on the pulse of the younger generation.

Yes, people like the people depicted in the film exist. Yes, people exist who have attitudes like the people depicted in the film. But the film lies the second it tries to tell you that this is the norm. It lies when it makes sweeping statements about the attitudes, behaviors and culture of our youth. Statements irreverent of context and proportion. The worst thing you could do is let this documentary inform your opinion of the younger generations and the culture they inhabit.

Explain to me how a snapshot of a beach festival over spring break is a valid litmus test for the sexual behaviors and attitudes of an entire generation comprised of millions of people?

I am 22. I have been to three different colleges/universities in different cities. Since high school I have been to hundreds of house parties, pub crawls, nightclubs, etc. I was on tinder through most of those years. Guess what? Most of the behaviors and attitudes depicted in this film are still looked down on. "Sexual liberation" is a lot more nuanced than this film will have you believe. Sleeping with a girl five minutes after meeting her is not encouraged or commonplace in the least. Most people still view that as pretty disgusting.

I have serious doubts regarding the authenticity of the people interviewed. Not only are some of them acting, but some of them have seemingly been fed lines that align with the bias of the interviewer.

This documentary will have you believe that this is the culture you are sending your children towards. If I had a kid going to university, and I didn't know better, this documentary would terrify me. The man in the beginning coerced the woman into having sex with him. It's horrible. But unlike what the film says, no, this isn't representative of the culture as a whole. To believe that is to characterize an entire generation based on the actions of a group that isn't even close to a majority.

A beach festival really isn't a microcosm of the attitudes, and actions of the youth in the west.

Some people...

[kmfrob · 7/10 · 1 March 2018]

My review is not so much about the documentary (which is fine, if unspectacular), but about some of the people in it (rightly or wrongly that's what I want to talk about).

As one reviewer mentioned above, this is not reflective of all young people and the ones who were interviewed were clearly chosen for being at the extreme end of even the culture it is exploring, but seriously though these people make me cringe so badly.

Firstly, the English crew need to take a look at themselves. Their ring leader is superficial to the point of farce and how people consistently fail to see through his bullshit is beyond me. The truth is they probably do see through it but don't care... But still come on... guys and girls... you can do better than this idiot.

And then his mates all hanging off him like a bad smell. Lads, stop fawning over this idiot like he's some demi-god (I genuinely don't care that he has a big d**k) and find your own path in life. You look pathetic all sitting outside the room while he has (probably) shitty sex with the last random girl who happened to walk by just so you can all leer at the girl when she comes out.

I'm not here to moralise... If two consenting adults both WANT to have sex then go for it... What depresses me about this documentary is the shallow people almost certainly having bad sex with other shallow people and then going round talking like they are something to envy... I don't envy you... I pity you!

Oh, and to the guy above saying this was feminist propaganda.........................lost for words.

Informative and Transformative for our Youth

[clydetibbett · 7/10 · 22 February 2018]

I watched this movie in a screening hosted by the producer and one of the young men from Australia.

My gut was turned at several points in the movie by the callousness of our society that objectifies women as so honestly illustrated in the documentary.

As the movie progressed I heard a message of why are we tolerating this behavior in our country, and the media.

There are lessons for parents to learn from this film that would be valuable for sons and daughters to learn from a healthy perspective. Hopefully once people begin to not respond to the social media influences that rive our society our children can be protected from the behaviors that are depicted in the film.

A great documentary, I am excited to see what the producer does with the feedback from the movie in the future.

If all college kids are like this, humanity is doomed

[bettycjung · 8 February 2018]

2/7/18. Wow, what an eye-opener. If today's college-age students are all like this, humanity is doomed. Obviously, spring break is not the time to look for love because the only thing everyone is interested in is just sex. So sad on so many levels that these young people have given up on love and respect for others and themselves. They show no respect for their own bodies either, as they abuse them with alcohol, drugs and unsafe sex. The boys denigrate one another and expect girls to put out and then call them sluts. All parents with high school and college kids should watch this together and discuss the consequences of such immoral behavior. With all this hedonistic activity, the inevitable happens, and a gang rape occurs and the police gets involved. Fortunately, there were responsible adults who offered more mature and informed perspectives to what is going on. This is worth watching by everyone.

Please don't extrapolate spring break to entire humanity

[perlshop · 6/10 · 24 May 2019]

While fun to watch this movie is too far removed from reality. It's like you visit a bad neighborhood and then extrapolate that experience into the entire world being like that. Then you bring in experts and cherry picked excerpts to fit your narrative and spread fud.

Limited: The Pretense of The New Documentary

[Manders905-240-470529 · 2/10 · 11 May 2019]

Documentary film makers have a responsibility to its audience, to get to the bottom of a story, to be accurate in the story you're presenting. Simply, to tell the truth.

Not only does this film negate any of the above qualities; the first half hour plays out like an episode of Jersey Shore. Scripted scenes, presented as "reality" included. A good documentary contains an objective and broad overview of a subject, while zeroing in on its macro and micro societal implications and their effects. The objective of the film makers own notions, is made obvious, with their chosen location and time period. Panama resort, during spring break. Somehow this small world and time period is meant to represent an entire generation and their belief and value system around sex?!

This film does make some valid points surrounding the media's influence on sexuality. However, not enough to lend an validity to the films subject.

The level of integrity, ethical responsibility, and accuracy, for what constitutes a documentary nowadays, is well depicted, in this films shameful direction, about an entire generation.

Horrifyingly True to Today's Culture

[purposepanda · 7/10 · 12 February 2018]

I watched this documentary two times this past weekend. What I am really have a difficult time coming to terms with is the scene towards the end of the movie where all these guys have this girl surrounded, and they have grabbed at her bikini-clad breast and then the guys are all around her in front and one in the back and her bottoms are undone and the movie producer asks what just happened. One guy responded, that her "fun box" was out and everyone was touching it, and grabbing it, etc. There was not a single girl in that mob. The girl was obviously being sexually assaulted but yet, minutes later the Bay County Sheriff comes on to have a news conference about an unrelated gang rape of a girl on the beach in a lounge chair by 2 or more men while her boyfriend stands by and watches while her legs are held down and people are saying, "she isn't going to remember." Oh and not to mention the hundreds of people milling about less than 10 feet away to where it is happening. I understand that they had to address that because they recovered several cell phone videos of the incident, but what about the poor girl that the movie blatantly recorded because she was obviously sexually assaulted by several guys mins before???? That didn't deserve news? Why wasn't that reported?

It's sickening to me and makes me terrified to be the mother of two young girls who have to grow up in this culture where violation of women's bodies is the norm and no one does anything to stop it.

An Extremely Deceptive Look at Young Adults

[snakeye808 · 1/10 · 11 February 2018]

The filmmakers desperately search for people who will tell them what they want to hear (and many seem to be joking and duping the filmmakers) in order to portray young adults as sex-crazed maniacs. In reality, research has repeatedly shown that young adults are increasingly having less and less sex than previous generations. As such, a better documentary would examine the reasons why young adults are no longer engaging in sex and why they are having trouble dating, maintaining relationships and connecting with their peers on an intimate level. Instead, the film tries to deceive us by interviewing spring breakers on a beach and making it sound like they have casual sex on a daily basis, but there's no actual evidence of this being true even as they try so hard to find morally casual people letting loose on vacation, and in reality, the people in the film may be virgins who are being depicted in a misleading manner. Ultimately, even if you can find a few rare instances of people engaging in casual sex, they certainly are not representative of the majority of people in this age range.

A look behind the warm beaches, tanned skin and heavy drinking of Spring Break

[evan-vetter · 9/10 · 1 February 2018]

I had the opportunity to see the film Liberated: The New Sexual Revolution at the Newport Beach film festival last Spring - it premiered on Netflix today. The documentary is entertaining, informative and heartbreaking all in one breath, a difficult task to pull off for any filmmaker.

The documentary follows different college students as they experience the annual party of spring break. As the film unfolds we see how men and women view the experience differently as it investigates the deeper ramifications of this annual rite of passage. The film is a raw experience (definitely NSFW/TV-MA) - but is a critical story that needs to be seen.

I remember sitting in the theater the first time I saw the film behind an older couple. For the first 30 minutes of the film, the laughter from them was audibly jarring as male students at spring break plotted their way into sexual encounters with any girl they could find. And while it's disturbing to see, we've been culturally desensitized to the kind of male behavior so IT IS entertaining. I found myself laughing too.

45 minutes later, there was no sound from the audience. No laughter from the couple in front of me. Because you begin to feel your own complicity, whether intentional or not, in the creation of a culture that relegates sex to a transaction as opposed to a meaningful experience. It's deftly edited, balancing the ups and downs of the spring break experience with a didactic look at how we culturally arrived at a place where women are seen as objects as opposed to individuals. How do men and women perceive themselves? How do they truly perceive each other?

These are big questions presented through the lens of the warm beaches, tanned skin and heavy drinking that is the spring break experience. As the entertainment industry deals with its own skeletons of past sexual abuses, abused power dynamics and the rising MeToo movement the film is more timely than ever. I hope that you check out Benjamin Nolot's film, it is on NETFLIX starting today (Feb 1) and share it with someone who you care about - especially if they are a college student.

Surround yourself with decent humans?

[strande-68815 · 6/10 · 3 November 2018]

Ironically enough I met my boyfriend of 7 years in PCB and moved to Milwaukee to continue our relationship (where the main characters, but really expats..are from).

...So basically take everything with a grain of salt, these types people definitely exist, but you can still go on a trip like this, enjoy your youth and not be a part of this hook up culture if you don't want to be.

Narrow look

[kosmasp · 3/10 · 8 August 2018]

This could also have been called "The Spring Break phenomena" amongst other things. Sure enough it all seems to be focused around that event. Of course it is something that really makes an impact on many lives. And the overall theme (the title of the movie can be called missleading, on purpose to fish and bait a lot of viewers) is really an important one. Unfortunately it does get drowned a little bit under a lot of noise.

You also have just a look on straight sexuality and there is a clear focus on giving us a view. Even without commentary, it does portray men a certain way. And it's almost unfortunate that we don't get more experts as in psychologist or analysts of social behaviour. There are a couple thrown in between from time to time, but too little to make a real impact and also not really revealing anything you wouldn't have guessed on your own. So yeah, how much can you put into one documentary? There is a limit, but when you have a title like that maybe you should have thought about that before ... shame because there is something to it and it could have just go ahead and bring the point it wanted to make from the start ...

Sexual Revolution or De-evolution?

[jegarvey · 10/10 · 7 February 2018]

Liberated: Hookup Culture and the New Sexual Revolution was a very enlightening and empowering documentary for both men and woman who have participated in or have been subjugated victims to this new sexual revolution. Essentially the participants are the victims of the brainwashing narrative that pop culture has elaborated the sexuality of today's age as something admirable. In order to be a real man, a role model or even an icon, men must objectify women into vassals of pleasure with little to no value beyond this given purpose. In order to be an iconic woman she must fill the status quo of being physically fit, beautiful, and above all else: willing. As portrayed in the documentary the women not willing to be more revealing are boo'd and slandered for the slender modesty shown.

Women are indeed the primary victims to this new age of sexuality, however the consequences of this epidemical mindset trickles down across the masses to both men and women. Pop culture exemplifies the objectification of women and standardizes a deplorable behavior for men to follow. Anyone not participating in such behavior is shunned and outcast. As seen on the beaches of Panama Beach, men were groping woman any which way they wanted and woman were displaying their bodies and extenuating mannerisms to make themselves as desirable as possible.

The documentary provides solid examples of the evolution of the new sexual revolution with movie clips from iconic films, hit music videos and celebrities that champion the agenda of this sexual revolution like Instagram tycoon Dan Bilzerian and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. With role models like these who are steering the culture for a young and impressionable generation, one can see the detrimental course that is being taken. Liberated: Hookup Culture and the New Sexual Revolution provides hope as it shines a light on the real issues and obstacles while providing solutions to steer cultural evolution into a new direction which would be the opposite direction in which it is heading now. By emphasizing the values of womanhood and the beauty of relationships that carry more depth than what is seen in the media, real change can be had. By calling boys to be men rather than raging hormonal slaves of pleasure, a generation of influential and culturally sophisticated gentlemen will be the outcome. The issues are known and have been exposed. It is time to fight the narrative of objectification of human beings and call humanity into an honest composure of self worth and value.

The biases and stereotypes of the Director/Producers bled through the film

[kexume · 2/10 · 21 March 2018]

I will be honest in that the film was good through the first hour or so. However, the last 30 minutes really disturbed me. The documentary was filmed in Panama City Beach and naturally the attendees were a diverse group of college students. The first 50 minutes of the film would have you believe that the attendees/crowd were predominately white college students, which is fine and likely very accurate. However, when the film begins to talk about sexual violation, sexual misconduct, and sexual aggression (last 25-30mins of the documentary) there is a drastic change in the faces and the crowds being displayed. Instantly, there were mainly black and brown faces in almost all the frames. It was not even subtle. I can't say whether this was intentional or not, but it was shockingly obvious.

The first 50 minutes minutes were upbeat (even the background music used) and you see the general culture of spring break being represented by mainly white college students. Once the film takes a more serious tone and the experts are talking about sexual coercion, men thinking it's ok to sexual assault women, sexual deviance, being entitled to women's bodies, now the film is represented by mainly black and brown faces. There were astoundingly more black and brown faces shown after the section on "A Culture of Sexual Violation" then in the first 50mins of the film.

This turned me off to the film because I couldn't tell if this was the intent of the film, but ultimately the representation is out there and people will watch the film and take in this messaging whether they know it or not. I expect more from the film makers to ensure their personal bias do not show so obviously in the film (unless this was intentional). This imagery has repercussions and reinforces false stereotypes on viewers.

Wow. Just wow.

[lmouradian-94124 · 1/10 · 19 August 2018]

I am FAR from a prude I partied with the best of them in college. After watching this, I was absolutely disgusted. "3 percs, a couple beers and a vicoden and they drop their panties"??? he should have the crap beat out of him. And the girls getting groped, fondled and almost raped in public?? What am I missing here? Who raises these boys? THEY should be ashamed, embarrassed amd locked up. I'm not saying some of these girls are blameless, but in all honesty, if I were in a situation like that, (and I have been) those boys would have gotten their dicks cut off and shoved up their asses. The arrogance and complete lack of respect is utterly mind blowing.

Not Your Average Documentary On Sexuality

[caliballerina · 22 February 2018]

Who knew liberation looked like... THIS. This film will challenge everything within you as the colors, characters and high energy pulls you into this story of love, lust, sex and honestly, our meaning in life! I was glued to the screen in the midst of cringing and tearing up and finally smiling with a hopeful glimmer in my eyes of what could happen if we all decided to confront the twisted ideas that have been woven into what masculinity and femininity should look like and instead, rewrite our own stories of humanness and individuality. You may cry, but in the end, it is a MUST WATCH!! The story closes with a hope and promise that will inspire us to change our world!

Milwaukee is not in England

[sportsjon-15157 · 1/10 · 20 November 2018]

Being from Milwaukee, all of these foreign dudes on this film are definitely not from my city. I was actually in PCB that year and was in MKE but never saw those fiends

Modern Sex as Described by Ourselves

[cuzmulder · 9/10 · 5 February 2018]

What Reviewer Lupus_22 has called feminist propaganda and grossly misreported is actually a refreshingly spot-on cultural snapshot. What's more is the entire snapshot is provided by candid interviews of Spring Break partiers, from complete dude-bros to stoners to college gals and even students from foreign countries. Instead of anyone's propaganda, the film puts Spring Breakers front and center to explain exactly what sex means and doesn't mean to them; what masculinity and femininity mean to them; and where love does or doesn't fit into the picture. Most men and women under 40 watching this who attended college can relate to everything described by each person interviewed-they are describing our own realities.

The raw descriptions, protocols, and attitudes of the Spring Breakers are contextualized by American and foreign social scientists and media experts. The overall stories and analysis provides a complete picture and leaves the viewer reflecting about our own experiences and hopefully thinking critically about how they make us feel and what we might prefer to change, if we could.

I found this to be accessible and constructive. Mature viewers able to think critically about our culture and how it shapes us may be best suited for this film.

Modern Day Religious Propaganda

[tnilssen · 3/10 · 22 August 2018]

I dare anyone to try to find the difference between the message being portrayed in this film and the same message spouted in christian documentaries that discourage pre marital sex.

The film is actualy very well thought out, shot and put together, so I need to give them credit where credit is due. However, halfway through watching I realized the talking points were becoming eerily familiar to the point I had to check IMDB to see if I was indeed watching a religious film. The overall message throughout the film is the devaluation of sex - women are depicted as being weak and submissive and men are portrayed as having no self control. However the message is not conveyed under the veil of religion, but instead through the thoughts of feminist scholars all of which show no understanding of youth culture and instead base their findings on what they see on TV or hear in music.

The film, in its oddly scientology-esque conclusion featuring a cinematic shot of a little boy playing in the ocean leaves you to question where "love" falls into what the filmmaker thinks is a "new sexual revolution" rather than an evolution of the free love movement hippies were pushing as far back as the late 60s. Kids aren't looking for love at this age - they are looking to explore. Hopefully we as adults can empathize with them, and not forget where we came from.

Fantastic Documentary - Must See and Share

[russ-77200 · 10/10 · 10 February 2018]

This timely documentary provides insight into our hypersexualized culture that has created the need for #MeToo and #TimesUp. It's a must see for everyone. While the documentary focuses on young adults in college, students much younger are vulnerable to being sexually exploited as well. Watch this. Share this. Then let the compelling stories within this story guide your discussions about solutions.

Another American gender studies propaganda film.

[pehatome · 4/10 · 11 August 2018]

While the subject is good the execution is not, and it does not shy away from hiding the ideology it is based on. It separates the sexes and yet again portray women as victims of the hookup culture, and not the willing participants they actually are.

Why is it men are out there for bragging rights and excerting power while women are victims of media images and being told they need to be validated for their bodies? Women actually also want sex. Idk if this is somehow unknown to the "experts" in this movie.

The motivations behind todays behavior is not as separated between the genders as this movie tries to portray. Women also gain social power from being "high-status", wanted, scoring the "top" partners, just as men. And men are also under pressure of body stereotypes and media messages and peer pressures. Women also generally only pick the top 20% of men and circulate them. They also judge men by appearances and social status.

Stop this old tiresome propaganda of making the man the predator and the women the victim. And stop being so afraid of sex America. Its not the 18th century any more.

Moralist Christian propaganda disguised as sexual exploration

[siderite · 1/10 · 6 January 2021]

The documentary starts with a few good looking children, all perfect and blonde and white skinned, loving to play together on a paradisiac beach. Then we fast forward to a beach in California U.S.A. where young people come to party. We quickly go through some of the young there, mostly males who boast their sexual prowess and some women who validate that behavior as the new normal. In this place, people meet and have sex 15 minutes after, then forget the other exists. Young people were drinking and having sex and loudly and communally enjoying themselves while honestly talking to the film crew.

I was a bit put off, but OK, let's see where this goes. Let's discuss the historical and economical reasons why sex has become as it has. Let us understand the people involved as well as the forces that created this sexual liberation. Let's discuss benefits and consequences. Let's talk about the frustration of being denied something just because old people don't feel like having sex anymore, then reaching an age when no one can do anything about it anymore. But no, after a while of exposing the pressure from everywhere for these kids to have "meaningless" sex, it goes into full blown feminist agenda and some old people who were deploring the way being sexual somehow makes us less human because all of us, but especially women, need that special connection.

I just couldn't believe the bait and switch! They went from almost soft porn to gospel preaching in a few scenes. To make it all worse, they end the whole thing with a gang rape and some girls crying that their little sisters were going to be put through the same pressure that there were put through, to go to a beach and have sex as much as they want.

The message that the way young people interact changed over what we knew as kids is important, but this documentary was not trying to send any other message than that sex is bad, you need to wait for "the one" and embrace the dignity of women, especially if they want to bone you silly. It blew out of proportion the pressure that these kids feel, blamed society without suggesting any solutions, and completely ignored (and denied) the right of young people to choose for themselves. Somehow, in the mind of writer/director Benjamin Nolot, all young people were subsumed as part of the crowd of drunk idiots that came to that particular beach in California for the specific purpose of letting it all out.

And then it ends with the beautiful children again, lost in their manufactured paradise, loving the sea and the beach that was rented for filming by the makers of the documentary and where they wouldn't be allowed to play even if it were empty and available because of people like the makers of this film.

And why did they focus in particular on California? Why did they make this horrid propagandistic and deceitful piece of garbage? Because Benjamin Nolot is an American CEO and founder of Exodus Cry, a Christian social activist group focused on the issue of human trafficking and an IHOP ministry based in Sacramento, California. Yes, it was all self serving, a Netflix paid Christian promotional material.

Avoid and warn others.

Shocking and hard to watch in some parts but a necessary peek into hookup culture!!

[amandap-62221 · 9/10 · 22 February 2018]

I recommend watching this to see the effects of pop culture media in the young adult culture. I'm 24 and I remember growing up watching Spring Break shows on MTV. We can't pretend like "pornified" TV shows, music videos, movies, billboards, ads, magazines, books, have ZERO effect on culture because they do. Unfortunately today we are experiencing the after math of what we chose to watch and produce.

Some of the people interviewed were asked very open questions about what masculinity or femininity means to them and their answers were heart breaking.

I challenge you to not be removed from what's happening but to dig deep.

Amazingly Shocking

[pollardjonathan · 10/10 · 8 February 2018]

I can honestly say this movie paints the most honest picture of the dangerous culture that is in the world of "hooking up." A loss for human dignity, a loss of respect of the other sex, all is brought to the forefront of our eyes in this film. It takes us on a journey of the way young adults are being taught to think by modern culture, the mind sets of young men in this film is simply scary. Women are not people but objects to be obtained and left. Parents watch it first before you allow anyone in your family to watch it. It's in your face truth about the culture that has been created in America, the sexual violence that is influencing our young adults. It has cussing, it has imagery. (No nudity) So use discretion. However this is an extremely important film that can help all of us be aware and take steps for change.

I wish I saw this doc 10 years ago!

[melissaalida · 10/10 · 9 February 2018]

This doesn't just happen during Spring Break. I saw the same thing at clubs, bars and parties in my 20's. Although the desire for love and relationship is not completely snuffed out of our culture, this documentary accurately depicts our broken attempt to sooth our unmet needs to feel wanted and important through recreational sex. The guy in the film may not be all men, but he sure is an accurate picture of the one guy we all knew who openly bragged about running a tab of the girls he slept with getting tested for STDs every 6 months or 10 girls, (whichever came first). As a girl, you kept your distance but were also hoping you weren't with a guy that was trying to compete or had his own score card.

Gripping, Shocking, Powerful

[nathanphammer-96126 · 10/10 · 11 February 2018]

One of the best documentaries I've seen lately that has opened my eyes and emotions to such a large extent. This is an extremely powerful look at how hyper-sexualized our culture has become and how it negatively affects both females and males. This is a film that should be watched and shared. We all have something to learn, in order to better help younger generations avoid being sexually damaged.