Men (2022) Movie Review
Alex Garland has quickly become one of my favorite directors. Ex Machina (2014) and Annihilation (2018) were both phenomenal movies that kept you on the edge of your seat. I expected Men to be the same style of psychological thriller that touched on important and intricate themes and ideologies. Men begins when Harper (Jessie Buckley) plans a getaway to the English countryside and rents a charming cottage to stay in for a week. She goes alone, to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and to reflect and recover. Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear) is the somewhat awkward but well-meaning keeper of the cottage. He shows Harper around the grounds and makes some comments that are borderline inappropriate including one about her not being married anymore.
Soon, Harper’s idyllic getaway turns into something else entirely. It is slowly revealed that there is something supremely off about this place. The nearby “town,” if it can even be called that, has no women at all. And all of the men bear a striking resemblance to Geoffrey. There’s a creepy vicar of course, a bartender, a deranged nudist who follows her when she goes for a walk, and a little boy who slings curse words at her when she declines to play with him. Each of these iterations of men hurts Harper in some way. Garland lets this discomfort build for a long while before reaching the crescendo of the movie and the plot. The tragedy Harper had endured before arriving on her vacation comes fully into play here, culminating in one of the oddest scenes I’ve seen on film this year. I would try to describe it but it’s honestly something you really need to see for yourself.
The technical aspects of the film are all excellent with beautiful cinematography and wonderful sound design. Buckley and Kinnear are both magnificent, with Kinnear in particular showing off his range playing multiple roles with ease. Where Men falters is the message. Garland’s metaphor is both incredibly transparent and extremely convoluted which is admittedly strange. It’s been well documented and established that men pass down toxic traits from generation to generation that affect women in negative ways. Garland touches upon most of these in the movie, making it even more apparent by having Kinnear play all of the men in the film. The odd birthing scene gives you a visual representation of the horrors of childbirth and the even more horrific knowledge that you might give birth to a man who will only continue this cycle against more women as he journeys throughout the world. Sprinkle on top the idea that men blame women for everything that goes wrong in their lives alongside a handful of biblical references and you have the recipe for this film down perfectly. None of this is new information and Garland seems to be one step away from delving more deeply into this material. It seems very surface-level, especially when considering his previous works which was a bit disappointing.
Patriarchy is bad for everyone, but Garland fails to really say more than that or if he does we don’t get the message. Despite this, Men is one of the more interesting movies of the year and will certainly make audiences scratch their heads and have a ponder about what on earth they just watched. I’d recommend it for that alone. Just make sure to watch this one with someone, you’ll need a friend to discuss it with. Trust me.
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like Alex Garland as a filmmaker
2. You enjoy psychological suspense
3. You want to see one of the most bizarre birthing scenes ever
