Men (Alex Garland, May 20, 2022) Movie • Page 7

The only thing I'd take into consideration with the "you can tell it's written by a man" take, which I have heard a good amount and is valid, is that by writing her own dialogue, I do think Jessie Buckley was more involved creatively than many might know

 

I don't get that take, the movie is specifically about men (it's the title)

 

If the movie was called Women I might get that take

 

I think, unless I'm misinterpreting (I'm a man lol), that some women (again, just people I know/thoughts I've seen online) are taking issue with the story of woman's historical and everyday burden and struggles at the hands of men being told BY a man. I don't know how much I agree with it -- I don't love the idea of our identities keeping us from telling stories about characters that differ from us -- but given the subject matter, I completely understand where they're coming from. If they didn't relate to the fear/anxiety/guilt portrayed in the film or felt it was portrayed inaccurately, they'd know better than I would.

 

The other thing to remember here is that groups of people are not a monolith, so while I've heard from several women who feel that way, I'm sure the film has or could be very effective for others. It's a very personal story and that's why Buckley's direct involvement with her character makes it work even more for me.

 

It's a woman being traumatized for no reason which isn't really feminist, I don't blame anyone for not wanting to not see women experience physical and sexual violence given everything that's happening

 

I don’t know how interested I am in the ~*discourse*~ around this film’s male feminism, unless it’s part of a thoughtful written piece about the overall film. Valuable angles like that too often get flattened by online discourse, into a tedious war between “this means this is bad” and “this means nothing.”

All I’m personally curious about, as someone who hasn’t gotten around to this yet, is… Is this a Film which is Good, and why and/or why not?

 

I believe this is a good film partially due to its technical aspects and partially because the story, the meaning, and the horror of it all was very effective to me. That being said, I have understood most of the criticisms I've read about the film, regardless of whether I agree with them.

Might be worth noting that films that are this ~polarizing~ are often more interesting to me than ones that are outright Good™

 

Probably my least favorite of Garland's work so far, but I still really enjoyed this. I think it's worth seeing for the performances and disturbing imagery alone, and ymmv in terms of the story. I'm still not clear on what exactly was happening in the third act, so I need to do some reading.

 

Well this was a trip.

 

Unfortunately had a good bit of this spoiled for me, the final sequence in particular, which... definitely gave me Mother! vibes. I like Garland, Buckley usually blows me away, and I’m sure there are some accomplishments here but I’m way less motivated to see this now. Probably when it hits a streaming service

 

I remember having a similar feeling when I walked out of Annihilation for the first time where I was unsure about how I felt about it, but as I sat with it I realize how much I loved it.

Having thought about this, I can't say I feel the same but there are certainly aspects that I appreciate. The performances are great. In particular I loved what Buckley was doing and Kinnear with the Geoffrey character. The train path/singing tunnel/stalking sequence was a highlight.

But even if the performances were great, I didn't really feel like Harper was all that fleshed out of a character. And the film kind of hits you over the head with the message throughout (I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the eating of the apple). That being said, the final sequence was insanity and I love that it just kept going and going (even though the payoff was fumbled a bit as well).

Overall, I like it, but it's probably at the bottom of his directing work.

 

I have no interest to see this movie but I saw this article a while back and thought it was interesting enough to throw to you all.

Alex Garland on how Attack on Titan shaped his horror film Men

 

Just got out of a showing. What a genuinely phenomenal film. Very disturbing, very brilliant, and surprisingly hopeful.

staying very far away from any discussion about it online though, because I vehemently disagree with a lot of the takes I’ve seen. Mostly I think that saying it’s a film about 21st century feminism/rape culture/etc falls very, very short of the scope of the film’s themes, particularly the Green Man and sheela na gig imagery, the parallels to Zeus and Leda, and the green/white v. red/white folk color imagery. Definitely a film I’ll be thinking about a lot in the coming days.

 

This wasn’t very good and easily Garland’s worst (that last sequence would maybe have felt more impactful if it didn’t feel like a stylistic retread of the same thing he did in Annihilation but worse), but tbh the split hand was just so good that I’m giving it an extra star for that alone. Just imagining what that would be like…like would you still be able to move all your fingers? Someone find out for me

 

The split hand was very The Thing.

 

Uhhh


The fuck did I just watch haha

 

a disappointing movie!

 

it was still a good watch, scary as shit for a while

 

The biblical stuff was on the nose for sure, but otherwise, I thought this was really effective and creepy. I think about it a lot.

 

Still not seen it, but i want to. Based on the response, I’m expecting it to be my least favorite Garland project by a fair amount. But it’s good my expectations are low.

 

Didn't get much out of this

 

This is on Showtime

 

Finally watched this. Garland was really swinging for the fences with all the themes and metaphors.

Some good imagery, especially in the first half, but too much of a “freshman creative writing major” feel. Didn’t love it.

 

Will be revisiting this (and Ready or Not) before seeing Civil War and Abigail on Friday.