Men

Starring: Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear, Paapa Essiedu, Gayle Rankin, Sarah Twomey, Zak Rothera-Oxley, Sonoya Mizuno (voice)
Directed by: Alex Garland
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Horror
2022

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: To escape a tragedy, a woman (Jessie Buckley) takes a solo vacation in the English countryside, but soon discovers a chilling threat all around her.

Review:

Tim: I've been on an incredibly high Alex Garland kick for a while. I loved Ex Machina and Annihilation, and Devs was one of the best miniseries I've seen in a while. So, no doubt, I couldn't wait for his next feature. Unfortunately, Men is a mess of a movie, Garland's first misstep. Now, to be fair, Men is never a bad movie. However, it never gets better than decent. For a guy who directed two great films to start his career, then delivers an exceptional miniseries, there's no way to look at this film other than a major disappointment.

I read that the story is one Garland has been kicking around for a while. I'm glad he was able to see his vision through to reality, but this isn't a good film. Yes, it has his trademark horror elements and it's somewhat intellectual, but the story comes across as pretentious, unnecessarily convoluted, and ultimately, lackluster. It's obvious what Garland is trying to communicate through the film, but his message comes across clumsily. Garland's script isn't very good and the film itself never weaves together its individual scenes into a compelling narrative. It feels like our heroine stumbles forward as odd event after odd event happens to her. None of it feels especially interesting, none of it makes enough sense. We're left with a film that feels unfinished, a rough draft forced into being final. I enjoyed the start of the movie and the intrigue in wondering where Garland was going to take us, but I soon grew fatigued with his tone and approach to the movie. It does not work.

I've been a big Jessie Buckley fan and I love that she partnered with Garland for this film. I think Buckley has the talent to do anything and I really enjoyed her horror film heroine here. She plays the drama side up, taking everything seriously and displaying authentic-seeming emotion throughout the film. It's a good performance and I left the film even more impressed with Buckley as an actress. She works well, even when the film does not. You also have to give immense credit to Rory Kinnear. He plays multiple roles in this film (nearly all of them) and does an outstanding job bringing these various people to life. It's a wonderful role that Kinnear fully embraces. His performances are offputting, creepy, and occasionally, downright frightening. I love that Garland went with an actor like Kinnear- obviously talented, but not really on many people's radar. His performance was a marvel here. The rest of the supporting cast was fine, but this movie truly focuses on Buckley and Kinnear. I had zero complaints with either of their performances. They're both so strong and are a big reason why I found the film decent.

It's perplexing to me that Garland had such a strong cast, but the movie was so underwhelming. Even great directors will have missteps, though, so I won't fret too much about it. Sometimes a passion project doesn't quite turn out as expected, which is what I believe happened here. Garland got so wrapped up in wanting to tell this story that it limited his effectiveness in telling it. The actors were in place, but the story felt unnecessarily pretentious. That hurts the whole thing. The film works with heavy symbolism, some of which I picked up on as the film progressed, much of it I didn't initially grasp. There's not much here to suggest a repeat viewing, though. Even if it made more sense and more things emerged upon a second viewing, all the symbolism in the world won't make this movie better. It's too obtuse at times.

The visuals were decent, but I didn't always love them. The movie might have been helped from a bigger budget, but more money wouldn't have made the film that much better. Garland has always had a knack for delivering uncomfortable sequences and he absolutely does that again here. I wouldn't say the film is especially frightening, but it's quite discomforting. The "birthing" scenes at the end felt like way too much for me, but I give Garland credit for forcing audiences to watch something so unsettling. It never quite looked real, but it was perfect body horror that makes you cringe and grimace.

Men isn't a bad movie, but it's clearly a film with a major disconnect between what the director wanted to deliver and what he actually did. In some ways, this movie is less ambitious than his previous two films- the scope is definitely smaller. Interestingly, he bumbles this one in a way he didn't with the more ambitious ones. I don't feel a lot of concern, though. Garland is clearly especially talented and he has a unique vision for his films. I'm disappointed this one failed to meet expectations, but I hope he learns from the experience and bounces back with his next film. That being said, while understanding, I have to admit that in a year with a new Garland film, but one that so fails to live up to expectations, well, that hurts.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Ex Machina, Annihilation, Devs (television), I'm Thinking of Ending Things