Tobey Duncan, chief strategy officer at Uncommon, explores how the studio’s new short film, Losing It, joins a wave of cinema redefining masculinity, turning silence into dialogue and taboo into cultural conversation.
Film is finally cracking open one of the most understated but urgent stories of our time by delving into the interior lives of men. Not the loud parts, like violence, bravado, and pride, but the quiet shame beneath the surface.
From Adolescence and Aftersun to Close and The Last of Us, recent cinema has begun illuminating boyhood and manhood through a more emotionally attuned lens. Losing It – a new short film written and produced by Uncommon, which tackles male hair loss – joins this cultural shift, holding up a mirror to a taboo that 61% of men still say is too embarrassing to talk about.
Some of the central themes are value, vulnerability, and the invisible emotional code men are taught to live by; we wanted to delve into the very real effects of this.
Social media is flooded with slick, hyper-masculine influencers, reinforcing outdated codes. This, with the fact that 45% of Gen Z men believe feminism discriminates against them, and boys are three times more likely to be excluded from school than girls, is a recipe for disaster.
It goes beyond the younger generations, too, as one in ten men would rather confess to an affair than admit they’re balding. What appears to be stoicism is often merely an uncomfortable silence that has been taught, reinforced, and expected.
We’re witnessing masculinity being unpicked on screen in real time, and films like Losing It aren’t just part of the conversation; they are a part of it. They’re actually helping to create space for one, because when we stop laughing at men and start laughing with them, something shifts. They start talking.
Crucially, when men start talking… about hair loss, about mental health, about heartbreak, about anything they’ve been told to keep hidden – culture shifts. As our latest film work demonstrates, these shifts can begin in the dark, in front of a screen, with a story that refuses to look away.
Creating work that spotlights important conversations has always been the ambition for our growing relationship with the world of entertainment at Uncommon. From short films like Losing It to our upcoming drama The Thing with Feathers (the second feature film we have executive-produced, which explores the complexities of grief), we strive to tackle subjects that provoke discussion and inspire change. Projects like this are just the start of things to come, as we hope to continue to grow the studio’s presence in this space.
If the future of storytelling is about making the unspoken speakable, then Losing It is a signpost for where we’re headed. We want to have a hand in creating bolder, more emotionally intelligent cinema that not only meets audiences where they are, but nudges them somewhere better.
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