Review: Men

-


Harper (Jessie Buckley) heads on a solo trip to the English country side after her husband's (Paapa Essiedu) death. The caretaker of the property she's staying at, Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear) seems a bit off, but it doesn't bother Harper at first. Now she's suddenly seeing many different men, all with the same face and her vacation doesn't go how she planned.

I'm a huge fan of director Alex Garland's work, and when I saw the trailer I was immediately sold. Well, even the mighty must fall at some point, because this was Garland going full Von Trier and I am never heard for that. This feeling is familiar. I felt the same way when I watched Duncan Jones' Mute, a movie I have not thought about since watching it until I sat with my disappointment after watching this. Being so excited for something from a filmmaker you love, only to watch it bomb is the worst.

Garland doesn't trust his audience to understand his symbolism. He has to flat out explain it at first, then it keeps reusing certain frames throughout the story. It's redundant and overlong. Many scenes go on for several beats too long here. Yes, the cinematography is gorgeous and you can't help but linger, but it goes overboard.

It's a shame because this has one of the most memorable endings I've ever seen. He goes full body horror and I will never get those images out of my head. The tension and creepiness is what this film does best. But when it was finished, the first thing that came to mind was "that's it?"

Buckley is of course wonderful and I'll stop referring to Kinnear as "the dude that fucked a pig on Black Mirror" after this because he really gives it his all. I wish this script had more fine tuning, because I think it could've been wonderful.

Grade: D+

Comments

  1. Candice FrederickMay 23, 2022 at 9:46 AM

    oh wow... i mean, i liked more about it than i didn't. i liked it's audacity, though not everything came together for me. of course i loved the body horror too. i think i liked more of what it was trying to say more than what it actually did say

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMay 24, 2022 at 7:41 AM

      That's a good way to think of it, but I had such high expectations that I'm to bitter to consider it that way. Though I agree, the audacity is a higher point.

      Delete
  2. thevoid99May 23, 2022 at 4:53 PM

    Aw, I wanted to see this. I'll guess I'll have to wait for it on streaming. I'd cut Duncan Jones a bit of slack on Mute considering that he was still going through his dad's death. I'm still not over it and watching the trailer for Moonage Daydream made miss Bowie even more. *cries*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMay 24, 2022 at 7:42 AM

      I suppose but that was another one I was so excited for then absolutely hated.

      Delete
  3. keith71_98May 25, 2022 at 8:38 AM

    I'm 'holding' my review as I impatiently wait for the newspaper to let me know if they're running it. But I'll say I'm mostly with you. I really loved the setup to this. But the payoff didn't work and felt more indulgent than meaningful. As you mention, it's so blunt and doesn't let us do much thinking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMay 26, 2022 at 3:50 PM

      I was surprised you hadn't reviewed this yet! I'm super bummed about this. That's why I was so harsh with my rating.

      Delete
  4. AnonymousJune 5, 2022 at 7:55 PM

    I've read a couple of things about this movie and though I like Jessie Buckley + Rory Kinnear, I'm just not interested in this. Sounds like my gut is right about it. I did love Ex Machina, which is still my fave Alex Garland movie.

    ReplyDelete
  5. RuthJune 5, 2022 at 7:56 PM

    I just realized I forgot to change the comment setting, so the previous comment was from me ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJune 11, 2022 at 9:36 PM

      Thanks for letting me know! I'm really annoyed with Blogger's settings lately. I have to use a different browser if I want my name to show when leaving comments now. It's dumb.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Batman

-
Image
Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) has quietly been trying to make a difference as The Batman in Gotham. He can't be everywhere. He works closely with Lt Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and they face a puzzling crime by a masked murderer going by The Riddler. (Paul Dano) As the stakes get higher, they realize just how deep corruption runs in Gotham.  The Batman is first and foremost a detective story. Director Matt Reeves obviously took inspiration from films like Se7en and Zodiac when he crafted this story. S e7en is one of my all time favorite films, so that worked well for me. I loved seeing Batman and Gordon work as a team. Same with Batman and Selina. (Zoe Kravitz) They ooze chemistry. As much as I love the Nolan trilogy, Christian Bale only really had good chemistry with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Here, Pattinson and Kravitz click together instantly.  I'll admit I was worried about Pattinson as Batman. His Bruce is VERY mopey, which fits with the story. My main issue with the movie,
Read more

Thursday Movie Picks: Wedding Movies

-
Image
How fitting that Wandering Through The Shelves has us start the month of June with movies about weddings. June brides are a thing, right? At least that's what people kept telling me when I got married in June. I just picked it because it was warm. To be honest, I don't like many wedding movies, so this was kind of tough, but here's a few I can tolerate. 1) Wedding Crashers This is one of my favorite comedies until the last 20 minutes or so when it falls flat on its face. But it's so hilarious and quotable before all of that, I can forgive it. Lock it up. 2) Rachel Getting Married I used this one for a pick last year but it's easily my favorite movie involving a wedding. The acting is fantastic. I 3) Corpse Bride Truth be told, I wasn't crazy about Corpse Bride, but like I said. Slim pickings in the wedding movie world for me. I'd watch this over a "classic" like My Best Friend's Wedding or Runaway Bride any day.  click th
Read more

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing Bobby, and the
Read more