Men

UK Release Date. 1 June 2022
Certification. 15
Running Time. 1 hour 40 mins
Director. Alex Garland
Cast. Jessie Buckley, Papa Essiedu, Rory Kinnear.
Rating. 31%

Review.

As a film distribution company, A24 has a reputation for pushing boundaries. The back catalogue of films includes the likes of Enemy, Under The Skin, The Witch, The Lobster, The Killing Of The Sacred Deer, Hereditary, Midsommar, The Lighthouse and Everything Everywhere All At Once. Men is no exception.

Directed by author-turned-director, Alex Garland, the film tells the story of Harper Marlowe (Jessie Buckley) who is clearly processing the grief surrounding her husband's recent death in an isolated country house. With no exposition, a stunning, opening scene reveals how stylish Men intends to be. An evidently distraught Jessie Buckley - illuminated in a harsh bitter-orange light - watches as a man's body falls, in slow motion, past her high-rise flat window. 

As Harper begins to relax and explore her surroundings, it becomes apparent that this is not the idyll originally presented. The director initially positions Men as a horror story, perhaps in the mould of the 1970 British folk horror films such as Blood On Satan's Claw or The Wicker Man, as he wryly toys with well-established horror tropes. But it is evident, Garland has something deeper, something infinitely more surreal planned for the audience.

Amidst the imagery and symbolism, Jessie Buckley's performance is fiercely authentic. The story is told entirely from Harper's point of view so the audience is never fully convinced about the reliability of the narrator. How much of the storyline is her imagination? How much is reality? With the trauma of grief, and underlying guilt how much is a fight for her sanity? 

Technically, the film is impressive. Alex Garland skillfully crafts an opening chapter with indelible visuals and eerie cinematography that grips a receptive audience. The early sense of unease and foreboding builds to a frenzy before the film chaotically sprawls into a ridiculous spectacle and downright bizarre conclusion. There are moments in Men, particularly early on that will make your heart beat faster; others that will leave you bewildered and one or two that will almost certainly result in you stifling laughter at the absurdity of what just happened. Men is a film that left me wishing desperately to make some sense of it.