20 May Men Review

MEN

dir. Alex Garland, starring Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear, Paapa Essiedu, and Gayle Rankin

Men, the latest film from visionary writer/director Alex Garland, follows Harper, a widow taking a vacation in the English countryside after the death of her husband. While secluded in her massive countryside rental, Harper is plagued by the small town’s residents, all wearing the same face. After it becomes apparent that something isn’t right, Harper’s attempts to leave are repeatedly foiled by the town men.

As a psychological horror, Men excels on almost all levels. Garland manages to create a mood and atmosphere that will leave the audiences in a constant state of edginess, as the director takes the time to build the suspense and the sense of wrongness throughout. Jessie Buckley’s Harper isn’t the final girl, she’s the only girl, a woman determined to soak in a quiet stay before everything goes wrong. Rory Kinnear is terrifying, playing multiple versions of men of all types and backgrounds. His Jeffrey is loveable if not a bit odd; his priest is downright terrifying. All the elements of a successful horror movie are there, and they all play well off each other to create a film that, for a horror movie, might end up being one of the year’s best.

As a movie with a message and a theme, however, Garland isn’t quite as successful. The phrase “not all men” is shouted from the rooftops of almost every corner of the internet as social media repeatedly exposes men for their manipulative and predatory behaviors. These criers, these men determined to not get lumped in with society’s rotten apples, tend to stop short just after “not all men” without realizing that while women know this is true, by the time they’re able to discern which ones the bad ones are, it’s often already too late. Therefore, some women tend to paint men with a broad brush of generalization, seeing them as mostly the same until they’re able to figure out which ones to trust. A defense mechanism, to be sure, but women live in a world where such a defense is a necessity to their own well being. Its with this in mind, I think, that Garland has decided to have the same actor play every male in the village; to Harper, no matter their age or occupation, none of them are to be trusted. This, combined with the rampant amount of gaslighting directed towards her by every male character she encounters, makes Men Garland’s most heavy handed thematic film yet. Where the subtlety is apparent in Ex Machina and a bit more sly and open to interpretation in Annihilation, here in Men, the subject matter Garland chooses to tackle is on full display and while it’s ambitious are a bit more lofty than the final product, Garland takes an honest shot at it.

Jessie Buckley is, in a word, masterful. Commanding almost every frame of the movie, Men puts her talents as an actress in full spotlight for the world to see. She’s more than game for the role, deftly moving through a wide array of emotions. As the story unfolds and we see Harper’s reasoning for taking a lonely holiday in the English countryside, Buckley’s performance deepens and enriches the film as the avatar through which the audience is drawn into this unexplained world. In most horror movies of this kind comes a moment in which the final girl decides enough is enough and takes the fight to the big bad. A similar scene exists in Men, but with Buckley’s Harper, that scene comes with less fiery passion and more a resigned sigh. As the key to making the film work, Buckley’s performance is on par with a successful Broadway one-woman show; all things revolve around her and she rises to the challenge admirably.

The only other consistent face in the entire film is Rory Kinnear, playing the part of every man in the country village that Harper visits: the landlord, the town priest, the bartender, even the asshole town kid (every town has one). Mostly known for his support role as Bill Tanner during the Craig-era Bond films, Kinnear comes into his own here, displaying a Peter Sellers-esque knack for exhibiting different mannerisms and various accents and speech patterns for his different characters. Mostly appearing as Jeffrey the landlord, Kinnear weaves through each character with the help of the makeup department; no two characters look or move the same.

Written and helmed by sizzling hot filmmaker Alex Garland, Men continues the director’s exemplary level of craft to detail in the technical aspects of filmmaking. Featuring some of the best cinematography of the year, Garland makes full use of the beautiful UK landscapes to paint a picture of serenity before the nightmare begins. Garland’s mastery of tense scenes and uneasy sequences serve the audience well here, as that feeling of something not quite being right without being able to figure out what or why pervades a majority of the film’s first act. Pacing is no issue for Garland; at 100 minutes, the film starts creepy in its first act, moves into unsettling in the second, and full on horror in the third. The film’s last sequence of events flies headlong into Harper’s final decision, which up for any number of interpretations. While Garland is no stranger to opaqueness in his works, Men is full tilt Inception levels of attempting to decipher the final shot. Cinematographer Ron Hardy (who also shot Ex Machina and Annihilation) returns to Men to provide the best visual experience of the year, possibly outside of another A24 release, Everything Everywhere All At Once. Men shows Hardy flexing his abilities to film in naturalistic settings, giving viewers dazzling imagery amidst the warped reality in which Harper finds herself.

Overall, Men is a film that the viewer will get out of it what they put into it. For those willing to accept the full scope of weirdness presented (the ending of Annihilation seemed to be Garland testing out just how much his audience is willing to accept), Men is sure to engage, maybe even delight. For those who are more comfortable with well concluded stories that have more or less everything wrapped in a neat bow by the end credits, this particular film likely won’t sit well. A visually lush and masterful movie, spearheaded by the superteam of Garland behind the camera and Buckley in front, the performances in the film outpace the narrative intent. While never one to be subtle about the themes in his films, here in Men, Garland bashes the idea that all men are untrustworthy at best and duplicitous at worst over the audience’s head with all the delicateness of a head on train wreck. While still a dense film, able to be appreciated for Garland’s talents in creating dread and suspense, Men, for me, sits at the bottom of the director’s filmography (even though the lowest ranked Alex Garland is head and shoulders above a number of other filmmakers). Men is currently in theaters.

Review by Darryl Mansel