The Doctor’s Diagnosis: D
Alex Garland directed two of my favorite films of recent years, Ex Machina and Annihilation, so I had high hopes for his latest effort, Men. Sure, the trailers weren’t particularly inspiring and the title warns of identity politic bullshit, but I still had faith in the man. Unfortunately, that faith was misplaced. Men is the kind of pretentious, theme-over-coherence bullshit that has come to plague the modern horror genre. While the stellar performances and atmospheric cinematography are reminders of Garland’s potential, the film is too bogged-down in its condescending intellectual ambitions to be an effective horror tale or even a cohesive narrative in any sense.
Harper (played by Jessie Buckley) is taking a vacation in a small village in the country, hoping to emotionally recharge after the suicide of her husband. We learn in flashbacks that her husband was a dickhead that threatened to commit suicide if she made good on her threat to leave him (is this “gaslighting?” The Film Nurse has tried to explain that term to me a half dozen times and I don’t get it). Well, he makes good on his word and tosses himself off the roof of a building.
Back to the present day in the village, Harper finds herself stalked by a creepy, naked man in easily the most effective moments of the film. As she spends more time in the village, she gradually realizes that not only are all of the men sinister, they are all oddly similar (in fact, every man in the movie is played by Rory Kinnear). If you have questions such as “Who is the naked guy?” or “Why do all the men look the same?” or perhaps even “What the fuck is happening?” then you have more ambition than this film’s script, as we get answers to none of these things. Or the script is just so smart that you shouldn’t expect pedestrian things like logic or a story arc, you plebeian. Yeah, that’s probably it.
Upon leaving the theater, my friend compared Men to mother!, Darren Aronofsky’s pretentious dumpster fire from 2017. The comparison does make sense (which should give you an idea of what you are getting yourself into with this movie), but I would say that Men is the superior film because it does have an actual character and decent buildup before degenerating into an art student’s senior thesis. The locations and cinematography ooze gothic atmosphere and a sense of dread. The early scenes of Harper being stalked by a mysterious, naked figure are legitimately creepy, even if they are highly reminiscent of the far superior It Follows. There is a buildup to a good movie here, but Men is unfortunately not that movie.
The last act of the film burns all of that goodwill in favor of a showcase of random images that have little correlation to any discernable plot. The different men start transforming into each other in a motif that I’m sure is meant as some though-proving commentary on patriarchy (or toxic masculinity or whatever the buzz term of choice is at the moment), but it never amounts to anything but vague commentary because it has no grounding in the story. There is a flower-faced man/monster that appears periodically for no apparent reason. Yes, I’m aware of Green Man mythology, but I’m also aware of Greek mythology and it wouldn’t have made sense if a fucking minotaur showed up either. A reference and a plot point are not the same thing. This all builds to a sequence where the male characters literally give birth to each other in a very graphic sequence. I would like to give points for the graphic effects here, but it is just another sequence with zero narrative context. A young couple got up and left the theater during this sequence; I’m not sure if they left because it was gross or because they were tired of the movie having no plot, but I like to think that it was the latter.
The nonsensical script wastes not only the beautiful camerawork, but also two great performances. Jessie Buckley carries the entire film as the sole focal point for the audience and has an emotional weight to her performance that suggests that she read a different script where she had an actual character arc. Rory Kinnear should also be applauded for performing every man in the village, making each of them sinister while also making them different enough that one doesn’t notice at first that it is indeed the same man over and over again. That is quite an accomplishment that is, unfortunately, left without any validation by the meandering screenplay.
Alex Garland (who also wrote the excellent Dredd) had become one of my favorite young filmmakers for making smart movies that balanced intellectual ambition with genuine entertainment value. That is an old-school approach, but Men unfortunately sees Garland take an unfortunate step into the modern school of jerking off to your delusions of grandeur and social commentary, entertainment be damned. I hope that he can rebound with future films, but Men is an absolute slog that spends its running time beating you over the head with a message without even having the decency to tell you what the message is.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_(2022_film)#/media/File:AlexGarlandMenPoster.jpg
