One of the most anticipated films from A24 this year, Men is a horror film written and directed by Alex Garland. Garland’s resume speaks for itself. For the unfamiliar, Garland wrote the screenplay for arguably the best zombie movie in history – 28 Days Later. He also wrote and directed Ex Machina, one of my favorite sci-fi films of the past twenty years. So, I was eager to see how he would approach the ideas of misogyny from the horror perspective.
Men follows the story of Harper (Jessie Buckley), who rents a country home to escape her marriage’s previous trauma. Harper is trying to process emotions resulting from her late husband’s apparent suicide after telling him she wanted a divorce.
Getting out of the city and going somewhere to clear her head seems like a great idea. It is a beautiful country home in a small village that appears separate from the world. Even the Wi-Fi is sketchy, almost unbearable for most in today’s society, but welcomed when you are wanting to get away.
However, this town is weird. The men in the village look eerily similar as if the whole town’s population is a result of massive inbreeding. Also, all of these men display the worst traits you can think of: gaslighting, misogyny, toxic masculinity, needless aggression – you name it. To make matters worse, Harper has a disgusting stalker in the village.
Look, this movie is CREEPY. The tone, score, and visuals take the horror to another level throughout the film. Jessie Buckley does a great job of displaying how frightening, exasperating, and infuriating it can be to deal with men in certain situations. Also, Rory Kinnear, who plays almost all of the men in the film, does an excellent job of inducing everything from unease to outright terror as you move from character to character.
Unfortunately, Garland seems to overthink both the plot and tone. Halfway through act two, the movie begins to transform almost into a folk horror,, with hints that there may be a supernatural presence at work.
The climax is great… until it isn’t.
The climax is great… until it isn’t. At one moment, you fear for Harper’s well-being, and the next, you are questioning what in the hell is even going on. It is like Garland cannot help but introduce more imagery, analogy, and metaphor, even though none is needed to get the movie’s point.
It is a shame because the film’s ending completely ruins all the hard work done to highlight the evilness and absurdity of sexism.
I do not believe in spoon-feeding audiences, and I love when directors and movies make you confront and discuss complex themes and subjects. Even so, I think writers and directors shouldn’t unnecessarily cloud social commentary to such a degree that it becomes ambiguous.
A film that tackles social commentary perfectly is Get Out. Writer and director Jordan Peele was able to give us a film that places the horror and absurdity of racism front and center. Still, he does it in a nuanced way that does not insult the audience’s intelligence. Men was heading in the same direction. Yet, Garland overplays his hand, leaving half of the audience annoyed by the unnecessary white noise created and the other half missing the point entirely.
