Free the Nipple (2014) Reviews

• Massive hypocrisy

  krool19692016-09-30

  To be fair I turned this movie off almost at once. If you want to make a film about women's rights to be legally equal to men, and you title your film after a political movement to show breasts are not offensive, sexual or shameful you don't blur out the women's breasts. By doing so you are sending the exact opposite message. By blurring out the breasts this film is saying that they should stay covered because it might offend someone. This film is a waste of time and money. It works in direct opposition to women's rights. If you want to make a film like this you must have the courage to actually free the nipple. Otherwise, don't bother.

• Self indulgent garbage

  joeponto2015-06-14

  The people exclaiming this was somehow about more than just the right to have bare breasts in public - where exactly was that in the plot? You, like the movie, are romanticizing and over thinking very petty things. I think it's a great cause - women should definitely be allowed to walk around topless in any state of this nation. However, to say that they were somehow pushing for some grander agenda that went as far as being called a revolution? Come on. Their agenda didn't even register as a microscopic piece of dust on the radar of "revolution". There wasn't much of a plot to this story, other than "let's get super insanely cool looking shots, mostly in slow-mo, of us girls looking insanely cool and counter-culture like", to that end, they did that in spades, and is the only reason I gave this film one more star than 1. There is a tiny love story between the two protagonists, which never exactly reaches an arc, and is just forgotten about by the end of the film - there were too many shots of women looking empowered and cool in slow motion to be had, I guess. The whole film is just a self indulgent "look how cool/edgy I am" montage, with barely any kind of a story behind it. Three of the main characters you sort of connect with, and the rest are almost non-existent. The funniest part about the whole story, is that they never even achieved any of their goals, but the ending ends like they indeed created some sort of cultural revolution. No, you just wasted a bunch of money that was invested in you, by spray painting and stickering public property. No legislation was changed, no social movement started to gain momentum. If I had invested money in those girls, I would be pretty angry - just like whoever invested money in this worthless film.

• A Small Film about a Big Issue

  atlasmb2015-06-18

  This low budget production is based on a true story. It was produced by, directed by, and written by Lina Esco. The story is about activism in New York City to establish the right of women to show their breasts in public. The courts already said that women have that right, but local police still harassed women who go topless. By the end of the film, the cause is broadened to emphasize all censorship, including film censorship. This is how it should be, as the display of female anatomy is part of the larger issue of self-expression and the libertarian viewpoint that we all have the right to act however we wish as long as we are not hurting another. As the film rightfully points out, religions play a central role in the creation of taboos and the exercise of censorship. But the best part of the film is Lina Esco, whose presence as the central character of this film has an energy that reminds me of Angelina Jolie or Katie Holmes. I did find it confusing that the film sometimes pixelates the topless women. Obviously, this was done for artistic reasons, because the film does not shy from the display of nudity, per its purpose. But this is a minor confusion; it does not dampen the film's enthusiasm for its cause.

• Don't trust the trolls!

  frba-778652015-08-23

  If you look carefully at the demographics of the people who rated this movie, you will see that it has received very negative reviews by men and older people. It is a shame. I am a man but I liked it and I admired the effort of the women who created this movie and the campaign that it wants to publicise. Does women's freedom to decide about their bodies seem trivial to you? If so, you have a serious problem, not them. I strongly recommend this movie to anyone who believe in campaigning for what they consider important. It is an uplifting story that reminds us how to believe in the possibility of winning against the odds.

• Making a clean breast of things...

  natashabowiepinky2014-12-13

  Now, I believe in fighting for a cause. Abolishing child poverty, I'll be right there in the trenches with you. Banning nuclear arms, I'll stand outside a government building for hours, waving placards. Freedom of speech? Need you ask? But campaigning for the right for women to go topless publicly? THIS is the basis for a feature film? SERIOUSLY?! Forget about the absolute chaos that would ensue from the thousands of pervs that would actively be pursuing them just for a picture or a quick ogle. And leave aside the concern that no-one wants to be caught between a mass of jigging body parts on the tube en route to work. Let's just focus on the fact they've made a MOTION PICTURE based on this flimsy premise alone... And treat it with the same solemnity as they would if it were about World War II. So, we get quotes from luminaries varying from Gandhi to Larry Flynt, plenty of philosophising about how America loves violence but yet is remarkably puritanical about nudity, and plenty of girls running round brassiere-free... All in a good cause, of course. This footage will be used to CHANGE THE PLANET, and won't just be jerking material for some sad little virgin in his parent's basement... I actually thought at first this was going to be a documentary... But when the cast started to try and act, I had a sinking feeling... Which unfortunately, stayed with me till the end. It might be 'Based On A True Story', but this kind of script has been rehashed, redone and recycled to such an extent it may as well form it's own genre. There's the ragtag band of misfits coming together for a common cause, they start off small but gradually get larger, then comes a minor setback which they navigate with difficulty... Followed by in-fighting, bickering... Which is also resolved eventually with a metaphorical GROUP HUG. Then, just when things are looking up... Then arrives the MAJOR crisis which threatens to end the entire movement. But not to worry... Thanks to the magic of bumper stickers, posters and endless montages, a happy conclusion is inevitable. The performances are amateurish to say the least, but I'm sure they weren't expecting any Oscars from this project. The attempts at comparing this 'struggle' to great travesties of the past is a LOT more embarrassing than walking around Times Square with your breasts hanging out. The use of the annoying theme song 'Free The Nipple' throughout is repetitive and distracting. Oh, and there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it lesbian kiss between the two main protagonists. I'm not sure why they stuck that in there, since it doesn't lead to anything and is never referenced again. Target audience, anyone? It's fantastic you believe in something, it really is. Go shout about it from the rooftops. Harangue them on the streets. Spread as much propaganda about it as you want. Just don't bother making a rather pointless, sterile film about the subject. No-one watching it is going to be converted to your way of thinking, one way or the other. Perhaps the money spent making it would have been better put towards trying to establish more nudist beaches. There, you can swing your bits to your hearts content... And not cause pile-ups or waste police time in the process. You know it makes sense. 4/10