Despite all the mystery that shrouds the new folk horror of screenwriter / director Alex Garland for A24, the story of the film about a woman with ghosts trying to find peace in a world full of vicious, lewd men is surprisingly clear. Men are often arrested for their brutality while spinning a stomach-churning story about the multifaceted monster, which is actually misogyny. But the Men struggle to keep their messages and all their dizziness in focus largely because of their frustrating obsession to make you wonder how much of his afterlife is real.
The men tell the story of Harper Marlowe (Jesse Buckley), a young widow who travels to the English countryside to retire after the sudden and horrific death of her husband James (Paapa Esiedou) by suicide. The men reveal little about Harper, or James as individuals, or what first brought them together as a couple, but in retrospect, the film details the toxic mix of violence and emotional manipulation that eventually led to the end. their marriage. Although Harper knows that leaving James was the right decision and that it was not her fault that James committed suicide, she cannot help but feel partially responsible and psychologically trapped by the traumatic circumstances of his death.
This feeling of being trapped and hurt by someone’s emotional violence, even after they have died, is one of the first manifestations of the malevolent creature to which the title of Men refers. The men illustrate that while Harper’s trip is something she wants to do for herself, most of everyone she interacts with – except her friend Riley (Gail Rankin) – readily assume she’s traveling with a man because she doesn’t. she might want to go out on her own.
“Everyone” is a busy concept in the context of men, in part because there really aren’t that many other people living in the remote and impossibly old-fashioned village where Harper has rented a luxury mansion all to herself. Apart from Jeffrey (Rory Kinnear), the awkward, awkward parody of an Englishman who owns the house where Harper is staying, the only other people who really live in the village seem to be a small group of male citizens – all of whom are also are inexplicably and disturbingly depicted by Kinnear. Whether Harper herself can see that every identified man she meets in the village has the same face as an elderly man is unclear, and the Men leave this question open for interpretation as his story becomes increasingly bizarre. and symbolic.
Although the Men direct you to the danger surrounding Harper, it only becomes apparent to her when she goes for a walk in the nearby woods and meets a naked man, Kinnear, again. Being chased through a secluded forest by a mad man covered in bruises and cuts is worrying in itself. But an important element of the horror that men cause is how easy it is for the men around Harper to dismiss her fear, no matter how unquestionably justified.
Although they are important feelings she experiences as Men unfold, neither fear nor guilt is what defines Buckley’s Harper, a woman who reflexively hides parts of being strangers more than caution than anything else. . As one of the few women to appear in Men, Harper unexpectedly becomes something of a last girl as the film mutates into a thriller about a home invasion that is equally brainstorming and clear. Male implicitly supernatural attributes invite you to question the mental state of his heroine. But Buckley is adamant in his performance as Harper, reinforcing the idea that the only person who could imagine just “being in her head” is someone who never knew what it felt like to neglect their freedom and bodily autonomy because of their gender or gender.
The strange energy that each of Kinnear’s various characters has at times plays a mysterious role, because Men don’t really tell you much about who they are, other than the fact that in different ways they all have bones to choose from. women. Jeffrey’s courage and emotional stuntedness can make it difficult for, say, a village priest or a bartender to see much of themselves in him. But the Men show you how the thing that unites them is almost elementary contempt and lust for Harper.
Sometimes – especially when his male characters enjoy their lowest sexual impulses driven by identification – Men have some narrative resemblance to Emerald Fennel’s promising young wife. But unlike the promising young woman, where you must have been horrified in part by how horrible all her seemingly “good” men really are, the Men leave little room for doubt as to how each of his main characters is an existential threat to Harper.
A24
Much of what happens in the final actions of the men is really mind-boggling and fucked up in ways that make you appreciate Garland for being ready to go there. However, the way Men Finish will also make you doubt the extent to which Garland has considered optics and the consequences of his story as a whole beyond their immediate ability to make you feel deeply uncomfortable.
Men want to make you think more deeply about what you’re trying to say, and many people who end up watching the movie are likely to feel inclined. But the same augmented reality that makes men’s fears so powerful ultimately has a confusing effect on the film’s message, so much so that you can’t be sure if Garland himself understood what he was trying to say.
The men also star in Sarah Tuomi, Zack Rotera-Oxley and Sonoya Mizuno. The film hits theaters on May 20.
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