Review: ‘Unhung Hero’ documentary is often laugh-out-loud funny and avoids raunch

When Patrick Moote’s girlfriend rejected his proposal on the Jumbotron at a UCLA basketball game, his mortification wasn’t complete until later, in private, when she told him why: She wouldn’t marry him because his penis was too small. So in “Unhung Hero,” Patrick sets out to fix his problem, documenting the pumps, pills, exercises, accessories and procedures he’s willing (and not willing) to endure to increase his penis size in full-on Morgan Spurlock mode.

Director Brian Spitz’s documentary travels the world asking the question, “Does size matter?” From Patrick’s hometown near Seattle, where he was nicknamed “Pickle,” to the sexually liberated Bay to Breakers footrace in San Francisco to a condom factory in Malaysia, an oil-injecting tribe in Papua New Guinea and the plastic surgery capital of the world in Korea — what starts as a narcissistic endeavor becomes a larger examination of male insecurity. With a standup comedian at its center, the film is often laugh-out-loud funny while remaining relatively discreet.

Why anyone would subject himself to such an exercise in humiliation is a question Patrick asks himself, nearly quitting the project in a meltdown conveniently caught on shaky cam. His conclusion is not all that revelatory but affirming nonetheless.

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“Unhung Hero.”

MPAA rating: None

Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes

Playing: Arena Cinema, Hollywood.