The film from A24 starring Jessie Buckley comes out May 20.
The title ofAlex Garland’sMenis part measured provocation . Anecdotally , I ’ve heard tell of members of that gender being turned off by the impression of a horror movie that seemingly deliver them , in the main , as villain . ( That , in itself , is laugh - worthy . ) But the title is also deliciously obscure . Yes , the haunts of theEx MachinaandAnnihilationdirector are cisgendered males with penises , but the evil at drama is something more ancient . Menis also a shorthand for humans as in manhood , as in all of us .
Like most of Garland ’s work , there is something primal at play that resists easy interpretation just as Garland hold out explaining his motivations , on screen or off . On one paw , the film is almost aggressively straightforward : A woman ( Jessie Buckley ) , swag from the traumatic expiry of her hubby , who she witnessed falling off their flat building in a likely suicide , arrives at beautiful country estate for a retirement . Instead of relaxation in her rented manor house , she ’s rack by a serial of local , all portrayed with eerie glee and prosthetics byOur Flag signify Death ’s Rory Kinnear .
And yet as you check there ’s something gnawing at you that this is no simple monster pic , a suspicion that ’s confirmed in the terrifying and gruesome close . At the same clock time , you ’re left wonder whetherMenis any deeply than its startle , and whether that even matters when you ’re bequeath with imagination so potent it cower under your skin and lingers there for day .
A24
Opening with the sound of Elton John ’s uncharacteristically folksy " Love Song,“Menplunges its audience into the brain of its heroine , Harper , played by the splendid Buckley , prove once again her talent can not be understated . Flashbacks to the fateful argument with her husband , James ( Paapa Essiedu ) are bathed in a blood red filter , the twilight of computer storage tinged with violence . Her trip-up to the pastoral lands outside London are an attempt to release her psyche from what transpired . Harper and James fought . James plunged . Harper catch it happen .
At the estate she ’s greet by Geoffrey , the first we see of Kinnear ’s doppelgängers , a ruddy face and disconcertingly jolly Englishman in a Barbour crown . The peace he ’s promise is short lived . When she die on a walk through the woods she encounter herself stalked by a raw military personnel , also Kinnear . His skin festers and his far off gaze grows nearer and nearer .
Like he did with the landscapes ofAnnihilation , Garland take instinctive beauty and twists it so it becomes discernible there is a mutation grow underneath . Here , the township Harper visit could be out of Nancy Meyers’The Holidayfor all its quaint trappings , but here they are impregnate with malice . In the castle where Harper seeks recourse , the medieval"Green Man " carvings , all but scream out . Her hurting and the manifestations of it are ancient and uneasy . Garland ’s frequent collaborators , composer Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow , give a voice to these gemstone creatures with their ululate score .
A24
Garland alternate between familiar slasher motive and the surreal imagery and consistence horror that has become his hallmark . Kinnear ’s various personas are rendered with vary degrees of verisimilitude . There ’s something almost deliberately fictitious about the CGI that ’s used to transform him into a bratty schoolboy or the teeth protruding from Geoffrey ’s mouth . The actor , seemingly having the clip of his life , is comically arch in his chase of Buckley , who meld final girl resolution with the scourge of her own guilt . now and then , Garland ’s desire to let audience member see things out for themselves can be frustrative . The scenes from Harper ’s past times are galling , but Essiedu ’s execution is undercut by the want of setting around James ' actions .
AsMencreeps toward its conclusion , the threat sometimes appears in the rote ways men assert their power over woman . There ’s the child who calls Harper a " stupid cunt " when she wo n’t play with him and the vicar who rub down her knee when consoling her . There ’s the cop , who brush off her concerns . All of Garland ’s films , in one way or another , center on gender . InEx Machina , an inventor ( Oscar Isaac ) build robotic women ; inAnnihilation , an all - female squad venture into an outlander - concern region that has destroyed the valet who came before them . Menis the bluntest of these allegories .
The recognizable threat are almost deceptively minor compare to the enceinte sensation at frolic , and Garland ’s substance is n’t as simple as " men are bad . " What he plumbs is the want of these ghoul , who are wait for mothers and lovers and friends . Still , Menis craggier than Garland ’s other work , less sure of its purpose and choppy in its genre veering . And yet the potence of its images , gooey and tangible , are nightmare fuel for whoever dares watch .
