‘Big Boys Don’t Cry’ Review: Masculinity and Its Constructs Are Explored in a Revealing Docu-Fiction Study of Egyptian Bodybuilders

Muhammad Mustapha’s quest to understand his fascination with exaggerated muscle mass takes him on a 10-year journey of self-examination.

By Jay Weissberg

Jay Weissberg

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We seem to be in crisis mode when it comes to masculinity: the Tate brothers, looksmaxxing, Hegsethian obsessions with testosterone and TikTok videos awash in pumped bodies spouting unapologetic misogyny. The fear of effeminization has never felt so acute, which presumably is why Matt Damon’s Odysseus needed bulging muscles, to ensure his sensitivity was mitigated by pecs of steel. There are lots of theories one can subscribe to that seek to explain why being male at this moment in time is at the center of the culture wars, and while Muhammad Mustapha’s “Big Boys Don’t Cry” eschews the bigger picture, his personal journey towards understanding the highly artificial construct of masculinity, via a group of Egyptian bodybuilders, places apprehension at the very heart of the matter.

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