'Men' Movie Review

In the latest from Alex Garland, Harper (Jessie Buckley) decides to rent a house in the country to get away for a while after the death of her husband (Paapa Essiedu). While there, she encounters various odd, off-putting male characters (all played by Rory Kinnear), and she begins to get the feeling that she’s in danger.

Alex Garland has written and directed two other very thoughtful and spine-tingling films, Ex Machina and Annihilation. I love both of those films, and while some found them perhaps a bit too philosophical, I've never found them to be pretentious on the level of filmmakers like Christopher Nolan or Lars von Trier. Men is a definitely not going to change anyone's minds on this, because it's easily his most blatantly allegorical film thus far, but I found it to be incredibly compelling. The overall message isn't particularly subtle, but it is an important one, and it's unfortunately timeless. Toxic masculinity takes many different forms, and the way in which it is engrained into society isn't addressed as thoroughly as it ought to be. It's a cyclical, systemic phenomenon, and the environment it creates is genuinely scary. Garland's film simply builds upon this and adds a dose of surrealism in order to emphasize the real-life horror of it all. The discomfort was especially visceral, and while I'm sure there will be people who bitch and moan about it being too "woke" (because it's pretty much unavoidable at this point), I found it to be a great reflection of a disgusting aspect of the real world, which is something that the horror genre is great for.

This is yet another film that rests upon the shoulders of two actors: Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear. Buckley is our lead, and she is exquisite. It's a very emotionally taxing role, and she brings her A-game. It's the kind of fearless performance that is more common in horror than one might think, with one of the best examples being Toni Collette in Hereditary. As I stated above, horror fiction is a great way to address painful real-life situations, and this allows for some very engaging (and not always pleasant) leading performances, and Buckley absolutely nails it. But of course, the true tour de force here is Rory Kinnear. He plays a variety of bizarre characters, including the owner of the rental property, a creepy vicar, a mean kid, a smug cop, and a silent, naked homeless man. Each one of them is skeevy in their own way (and some more than others). I will say that the first time we see the young boy, the effects don't look particularly convincing, especially since it's in broad daylight. This was a bit distracting, but I guess since the movie is already supposed to be unsettling, I can only gripe about this so much, as it does end up making the scene even stranger. Geoffrey, the owner of the house, is probably the most distinct of the bunch, as they have Kinnear in some great facial prosthetics, including some very amusing fake teeth. He does a great job of distinguishing all of his characters from each other, despite some of them being more physically similar than others. The things they say and do are all various forms of abuse that thousands of women deal with every day; not just stalking or domestic violence, but "subtler" things like victim-blaming, gaslighting, downplaying claims of harassment, etc. These harrowing depictions of numerous manipulation tactics are not only haunting, they did something even more powerful: they inspired self-reflection. As much as I try to be a good ally, I know I've exhibited some of these behaviors at certain points in my life, and it led me to look inward, think about how harmful these sentiments can be, and grow from this. To me, that's one of the most important things a movie like this can do.

Now, the ending is where the film will lose a lot of the audience. I know I mentioned Lars von Trier above, but this is probably the closest Garland has ventured into Antichrist territory. It's where the film gets unapologetically absurd and surreal, and while I was put off a little at first, once I realized what the movie was going for, I found it pretty interesting. It will probably illicit some laughter from viewers (as it did in the theater where I saw it), and I'm sure Alex Garland knew this, but if you're able to stay with it, the commentary is very effective, if a little on-the-nose.

Men is yet another cerebral chiller from Alex Garland that deconstructs toxic masculinity and emotional manipulation in a way that is equally potent, haunting, and downright bizarre. Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear both give career-high performances, and though it goes into some outlandish territory in the final act, it's consistently unnerving and never uninteresting.

SCORE: 4.5/5

TRIGGER WARNING: domestic abuse (obviously)