Jessie Buckley as Harper in Alex Garland’s “Men.” (A24 Films)
*sigh* Men.
The same could be said about men in general. The movie Men, however, is something that, even days after seeing it, I still struggle with. For all its visually appealing, morbid fever dream execution, something about it just didn’t fully click.
Maybe it’s because it doesn’t go beyond its basic message of “Men really suck sometimes.” Something that’s been proven since, well, the dawn of time. Either that or its overt ambiguity regarding the villain’s origin or, shall I say, villains since all the men in the countryside village Harper (Jessie Buckley) travels to aim to terrorize her. The question is, why? Why should we be scared of these men? What is their motivation for antagonizing a strange woman in their midst beyond the fact that, they’re simply men and are awful? Contrary to what Billy Loomis said in the end of the original Scream, sometimes, villains are actually scarier if they possess a motive.
If anything, the various Rory Kinnear performances as these awful townsmen are eerily effective. Sometimes, his different characters appear in the same scene and with sly precision, Kinnear makes it easy to forget he’s playing multiple roles. That being said, the real star of the movie is Jessie Buckley. As Harper, Buckley brings the same severity she’s shown in her previous work despite her character being a cipher with slight interiority. Along with Harper’s troubled marriage to her deceased husband James (Paapa Essiedu), her bond with her sister Riley (Gayle Rankin), who is mainly seen through Facetime chats, is a small fraction of backstory we get from our main heroine.
Alex Garland’s direction is another highlight as he initially structures the banal setting like it’s a paradise. The luminous forest shots accompanied by a serene score from the composing duo of Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow make it seem like Harper has been welcomed into an Eden-esque utopia before that facade gradually unfolds. That being said, Garland still goes a tad on-the-nose with the whole Eden metaphor once Harper eats the so-called “forbidden fruit” from her lawn tree.
Minus the small religious allegory, there is disappointingly little that the screenplay has to offer beyond the “men are awful” theme. Not even the blood-drenched climax was enough to incite any chills. If anything, Men proves Garland is as much of a solid director as he is a screenwriter. But ultimately, his direction, along with Buckley and Kinnear’s performances, are what prevent Men from slipping further into disaster territory.
Grade: C