In the aftermath of a personal tragedy, Harper retreats alone to the beautiful English countryside, hoping to find a place to heal. But someone — or something — from the surrounding woods appears to be stalking her, and what begins as simmering dread becomes a fully-formed nightmare, inhabited by her darkest memories and fears.
- Released: 2022-05-20
- Runtime: 100 minutes
- Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
- Stars: Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear, Paapa Essiedu, Gayle Rankin, Sarah Twomey, Zak Rothera-Oxley, Sonoya Mizuno
- Director: Alex Garland
Comments
- emiobrian - 10 June 2024
Great film, traumatizing ending (manginas...)
There are many mixed reviews on Men, as it includes a disturbing, but thought provoking plot, macabre scenery, which is, however, a cinematic triumph, and a traumatic and violent ending, which can be argued as a necessity to tying the story together, although I disagree.
My personal experience with the film required a second watch as I went into it with no prior knowledge my first time around. The result being a loud harangue to my entire family, particularly my dad who decided to put it on for my 14 year old sister and I.
My opinion of the film was mainly bittered by the birthing scene, those of you who have seen it know what I mean and for those who haven't, I urge you to check common sense media no matter how prepared you think you are.
Even now I see this as an unnecessary addition to the film that could only have been used to achieve a horror movie title for the film, rather than that of incoherent and artsy.
However, on second watch and when I overlooked the birthing scene, I was able to see "Men's" impeccable use of imagery and symbolism to reveal the harsh truths to the treatment of women by men. For example, the woman leaves to go on vacation and stay in a safe place to escape her problems. And although it is meant to be a safe place, it only causes her constant agony, as she feels inside.
Each man in the film represents a form of toxic masculinity, of which we can only assume are in the woman's head due to the identical appearances and mythical visuals of some of the men. These men were set in place by her conscious as a manifestation of her guilt. Why her guilt? Well, for some background the woman had been in an abusive marriage and when she asked for a divorce, her husband committed suicide. We are to believe that her conscious wants her to see that, although he died, the divorce was necessary to avoid the varying toxic tendencies of men, particularly her man. As, without the divorce, these toxic masculinities would still be harassing her in the present and when she faces them head on, she winds up back in her safe place.
So, without the birthing scene, I am able to see how this movie is a must watch, particularly for women as we have and will encounter toxic men at some point in our lives.
My takeaway was that regardless of how difficult it may be and the guilt that may ensue, handling our issues with men head on will help in the long run.
-I seriously want to know though, what was the purpose of the birthing scene? I am having trouble seeing what it symbolizes and if there is an underlying message at all? The manginas still haunt me to this day! - toonyjakes - 5 May 2024
Quality spoilers ahead for those thinking this was going to be amazing such as I did.
Alex Garland is typically awesome. I like his sense of realistic and effective dialogue combined with his aggressive yet focused ideas. This movie, to me, seemed like him taking a shot at being unfocused- more on the arthouse side of things. And honestly it ended up being a film I'd never watch again for any reason.
So I usually hate spoiling movies but to me this one is perfect spoiler material. A woman's husband threatens to kill himself if she proceeds with the divorce. She proceeds and he kills himself in front of her that very day. Quick cut to the woman retreating to a mansion air bNb type place to do.... who knows what? She basically doesn't do anything there. Then all of a sudden she runs into a naked man who looks identical to every other man in the movie (aside her dead husband) and obviously calls the police after she has been harassed. Literally all of the men look identical aside from the hairdo and she only gets weirded out by the naked guy that keeps appearing.
Lastly I'll finish this with the ending. A man starts giving birth to another identical man (we see this several times in full grpahic up-close vaginal detail) and then that man gives birth to another man, until eventually her deceased husband is "birthed" only to walk up and say "this is what you did to me." She asks "what do you want from me?" He says "....your love." THE END, credits roll. I mean it's a stupid pointless movie. It tries to represent "toxic masculinity" when in reality every gender can be toxic. Women would do the same thing this guy did- even down to being born again 3 times just to have his love back.
All in all there is quite literally nothing scary about the movie. Strange at points and unsettling, sure, but there's nothing here that will stun you aside the ending, which is basically a succession of multiple childbirth encounters. So yeah the movie has alot of crap happening for such a simple premise. To be honest I think it's unfair for a person in her position to face such bizarre circumstances as she tries to deal with the suicide of her fiance. Didn't add to the horror because it wasn't horrifying. Try again Alex. - ghopper-35896 - 19 April 2024
It's not a "movie"
If you're gonna watch the movie for the art House, individuals go for it. The movie itself basically had no storyline. It was basically a painting that moved for an hour and a half. It was more a message With no story. And I don't think The shocking scenes really helped the story at all. I think it was just gross people out and try to make a point by showing how gross it could be. I wouldn't watch it again and I think you could've done a lot better. I think he was his if I could make it controversial enough, make it gross enough that's like a real movie with the real real message. But in the end was gross people generally with no value and no story. - W011y4m5 - 7 January 2023
Me(a)n(t well but faltered in its execution.)
I'm a huge admirer of Alex Garland (both as a writer & director), find his previous contributions to cinema to be amongst some of the most consistently ambitious of any creative working in the industry & since he is responsible for additionally making one of my favourite movies of all time (the surrealistic sci-fi "Annihilation"), I went in to this with an open mind & fairly high expectations.
I say this in order to provide context for my review because I know I'll understandably be far more lenient with my opinions than others but regardless of my willingness to be generous with my scoring etc. I still can't deny I found this somewhat lacking, by the end. Yes, "Men" has an abundance of fantastic ideas (as per usual with anything he's involved in) but unusually, this feature seems to lack the focus of its predecessors, containing a plethora of fascinating, relevant themes to address (which could provoke interesting, topical conversations) but structurally, they sadly don't quite gel together in a way which feels cohesive. Hence, despite the bold choices made, since the narrative fails to establish any clear tone or purpose to its progression, it all culminates to form something less than the sum of its parts.
The cinematography is unsurprisingly impressive (aesthetically, very reminiscent to Marc Munden's signature, trippy style), the score & performances are all extremely strong & there are some wonderfully crafted moments of tension... But the potential isn't realised, for the majority of the runtime. - leehutchinson - 2 January 2023
A masculine horror fantasy that betrays a shallow understanding of human psychology and the natural world
Having watched the film Men in its entirety, its core messages can be summarized as follows: masculinity is toxic, characterized by domination, aggression, sadism, misogyny and masochism; inherent to masculinty is a cycle of abuse in which the abused inevitably becomes the abuser - a cycle that cannot be changed or averted; all men are wholly masculine and therefore genetically hardwired to be toxic; the Green Man archetype that permeates the collective unconscious of the British is evil - originating from a patriarchal mindset that seekes to deny the existence of the feminine in nature; the spirit of nature is entirely feminine; the feminine is the true archetype of fertility; women are wholly feminine and therefore pure in spirit, virtuous and worthy of unconditional sympathy.
And yet, for all of the film's seeming high-mindedness, there is an ultimate irony - it was conceived and directed by a man intent on circulating his own masculine fantasies (obsession with gender, sex and violence) and making you the viewer feel repulsed, neurotic and afraid.
On the basis of the concept alone I would have given this film two stars, but its cinematography and sound design are exceptional - it's beautifully shot and edited, with superb acting from Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear. - tcpkpjsy - 27 December 2022
Blah blah blah
Just watched this movie which by the way is NOT a horror or sci-fi film. It starts off a little scary. It has religious undertones and meaning. The gore factor is high and had a hard time getting through it at times. It's pretty gross and super sickening. It is a bit boring. I've notice this with alot of new horror films. There's alot of things this woman does that make no sense. Which is pretty frustrating. The ending is pretty climatic but was hoping for something better. If you want to watch something wierd. Go for it maybe this is your film. But we found it in no way scary more disturbing. - Neon_Gold - 15 December 2022
Pretentious
Oh boy. So I feel the exact same way as I did about Mother! (2017)- it wasted my time. There is nothing worse than when an allegorical movie acts like it is a regular movie for the first hour and then just gets arts for the sake of being arts. I cringed during the ending sequence because I could picture the writer thinking he was the most creative thing since sliced bread.
Shocker- the movie tries to dissect how men treat woman; use them, maybe? And i think it also wants to say that all men are the same? Or maybe they enable each other. I have no idea to be honest. It just devolved into a arty jerk fest by the end. There are so many different angles to tackle this from while also keeping it grounded. Have every man played by the same actor, something more concise.
The movie looks pretty and the house is gorgeous. I think the lead did a good job too.
Then the movie has the audacity to try give the movie a proper ending? Like now we are back to reality? Wtf?? I think someone to look at when making allegorical movies is Charlie Kaufman. His movies have such a natural way of showing the meaning as well as still having that grounded feel. This was a real movie for an hour and 10 minutes then it just became a absolute explosion of pretentiousness. - mariya_mirabella - 12 November 2022
Great Film, a Horror and a Feminist Commentary
The story is about a girl trying to mentally recover after her husband commits suicide right in front of her, as a blackmail/punishment for her wanting a divorce. She tries to get herself back together and decides to rent a house in the country, to have some me-time. Good idea, but it goes a bit wrong.
On the surface of it, its a horror film. And it works great as a horror film, with its spooky English countryside - think Wicker Man - and some very unsettling scenes , like the tunnel encounter and the first appearances of the naked man. The re-birthing sequence at the end is completely insane and terrifying but also hilarious, with manginas aplenty.
But if you dig a bit deeper, its clear that the film is a commentary on the expectations both men and society have of woman as a keeper and maintainer of the relationship, in charge of looking after men who forever remain helpless, demanding and selfish... It made me think of the dating sites and of the incel culture - unattractive, badly adjusted, desperate and needy guys, parading their genitals, pathetic, childish creatures, wallowing in self pity and horny to the point of losing any mental capacity, demanding sex because they think its their right. I'm no man hater, and I understand that this is an extreme view, a caricature- but still, a very effective one. As girls, we've all been there at one point in our lives, with that one guy stalking, demanding, blaming...
The acting was great, as the choice of actors. I loved the country guy character. Very authentic. - arated-96629 - 1 November 2022
Profoundly Disturbing, Impactful Surrealism
While watching Men I found myself on edge. Not just because of tension written into a scene, the whole film has an inescapable feeling of deep down fear.
The narrative around the husband was harrowing to watch. It was perfect in how it interacted with the narrative of harper going to the rental house. The more we see the husband get aggressive, the more hostile the entire world feels.
Now onto the ending (no spoilers). Which was both highly disturbing and also quite sudden. I found it to be a culmination of the films main themes and harpers reaction fully explains her characters arch of the film, through no words at all. It's very impactful. The disturbing nature of this ending is as if the director wanted us to feel his disgust he has towards the patriarchal norms pushed by religion.
I also found the film before this body horror style ending to be simply fantastic. Nothing felt right, nothing was ok. And I really admire the film for going straight up insane at the end.
I'm glad I have seen this film, it was a lot better than I expected. Beautiful cinematography and amazing acting all the way through. It's message was delivered in a admirably strange way.
I recommend watching alone and giving yourself time to process afterwards. Like Garlands other work, it's a very confrontational experience. You are made to see some very disturbing things, not just the body horror but also mental and physical abuse.
The more time i give this film to settle the more I admire it's attitude towards the audience. That being; I want you to feel this trauma, not just witness. I fully feel the film excels at that.
