Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: THE PINK PILL [DOC NYC 2025 - New York, New York - Virtual]

The idea of a double standard has always necessitated idea of perspective. With "The Pink Pill: Sex, Drugs & Who Has Control" (Investigations), director Aisling Chin-Lee follows the story of Sprout Pharma CEO Cindy Eckert who spearheaded and shepherded what is considered the new female Viagra. What the documentary shows is the boys' club mentality and the inherent stigma at times around female sexuality and what it means to society versus actual application. The documentary doesn't hold back is showing what the science thinks because, of course, chemistry is different between men and women...but also perspective takes on a specific part of the conversation as it relates to age old inequalities and what determines pleasure or lust in the idea of modern society's perspective which is still vastly unbalanced in many ways. The reasoning of course in how the idea plays out in the doc is less commercial than it is political which is an interesting evolution in the changing perspective of women's liberation but also how the status quo has changed in some ways and not in others.

At one point after the pill finally gets FDA approval after Eckert's constant battling with the status quo, it is bought by a big conglomerate who says they will do a big roll out. However because of the pandemic, by the time it went to market it went to the wayside in terms of the push it was given and changing perspectives. The documentary moves between talking about the science of what it is trying to do, the understanding of the notion of pleasure and functionality as it pertains to the pill in the female body and the stigma of what it tries to place on its effect versus say Viagra which in many ways performs a very different biological function in the way it works. The documentary is a fascinating subject and analysis but it is just one pinpoint of a bigger discussion but with a catalyst that still has really yet to come to market. Eckert finally got back ownership of the pill and the way it works after more than 10 years of legal wrangling and it working it back to public consciousness again. A lot of things have changed in ten years while others haven't. "The Pink Pill" despite its uneven progression in sometimes moving back and forth between its focus really does bring to bear a continuing conversation that encourages both discussion and action in many different layers. B

By Tim Wassberg