what is going on to all my a24 horror fans out there and welcome back to my channel movie files
elliott back again with a brand new movie review and today we're breaking down the new alex garland
written in directed film by the name of men which i saw in theaters last week and i'm not gonna lie
it took me a couple days to process the film still kind of processing some things but this
is definitely one of those challenging films that stays with you for a few days now is that a good
thing or a bad thing we'll be discussing that and so much more in today's spoiler free review
but before we get into all the details make sure you're checking me out on all my other
social media accounts if you all are new to the channel and love early movie reviews tv breakdowns
and live streams will come and join the community today by subscribing and hitting that notification
bell and as you all can see on the screen now if you enjoy what i have to say about this film
make sure you all are liking and sharing this review but more importantly in the comments share
your thoughts on the film of course once you've seen it from your pros your cons your thoughts
on the direction the score the cinematography the performances the motifs the metaphors the
symbolism did it all work for you all at the end of the day were you left disappointed let's
discuss that but if you're like a fan of alex garland like i am why don't you rank all three
of his featured films in the comment section i'll share my list at the end of this video so stick
around and see my rankings but hey going into this film it checked off all the boxes a24 horror
alex garland jesse buckley rory kaneer i was here for it did it live up to my expectations is this
film worth checking out well let's get into my positive starting off with the things that really
stood out to me number one the cinematography was absolutely breathtaking the luscious greens the
beautiful scenery of the english countryside were so stunning and mix that with the terror and the
horror and the atmosphere that's created in this film which we'll talk about here in a little bit
but tying that into the score which i thought was a character within itself it was haunting
it was primal it was just so mesmerizing but i also love how they allowed the ambient noise
the natural noise to kind of mix into the film which i thought was just mixed so beautifully
but let's talk about the writer and director alex garland i love his scripts from 28 days dread
him writing in director films like ex machina annihilation devs he's such a risky filmmaker
and i have to say for me personally i think this is undoubtedly his most ambitious but also
riskiest film to date he creates such an unhinged and unsettling atmosphere that's truly amplified
by the emotions in this movie of dread now get into some of his choices which i'm not gonna lie
not all of his choices work for me but getting into the positives i can't thank him enough for
taking the willingness to take the extra step that i applaud as a filmmaker he truly brings
a terrifying element towards his film especially when you get in the third act so again there were
some choices i wasn't a fan of and i know there will be some people that see this film's like
why did he go that way but it is a24 that allows him to make the swing for the fences which again
doesn't always work but i applaud the efforts but getting into the performances here starting
off with jessie buckley who i am such a big fan of i fell in love with her as an actress when i saw
her in netflix's i'm thinking of any things in her role in fargo she's so underrated but she is given
everything in this role she is so welcoming her engaging screen presence is just there
her character goes by the name of harper who's taking this mental vacation after witnessing
a very traumatic experience and you're seeing her character navigate this experience and she
is taking responsibility to what's happened to her in this experience that she's going through
and she has to confront her past through this very trippy and terrifying experience that literally
comes to manifestation and what i love about jessie she's just spectacular she is just so
great in this role and when you're seeing her in this film she is just giving you everything and
then max that with her co-star rory kinnear who if you've seen the trails of this movie no spoilers
he's doing a lot he is playing a lot of characters in this movie and i thought that he was also
spectacular as well he's playing jeffrey the landlord the minister the terrible teenager
the supernatural character that stalks our main character and what i love about rory in this role
he's such a great actor because he provides you with different layers to each of these characters
some of them are a little bit more welcoming than others some of them are menacing he just gives you
just like jesse does he gives you everything in his role and i thought they were just fantastic so
getting into a little bit of the narrative a little bit of the themes without giving too much
away because it's a24 it's alice garland the less you know the better but touching on some things
that really stood out to me in this script number one when you look at it from just a service level
it's very understanding from a story of a woman dealing with grief and anxiety and all
the emotions while experiencing this literal idea of the title of this film which is men
which i thought the idea of men in this film was handled beautifully and what i mean by that is
the men in this film view our character harper and they place their religion on her they place their
opinions on her in the matter but more importantly which is so interesting the men are traumatized
by their experience and they're blaming harper for their emotions which i found to be handled
pretty well in this film but getting back into it all when you really dive deeper into the film
it tackles themes such as gender roles domestic violence it is very prominent religious undertones
and just to name a few and there's a particular religious angle that is very supernatural and
i won't get into the details but i really enjoyed the elements of surprise that this
film had to add especially when it tackles some of those more supernatural elements but i don't
want to leave out being a horror fan the body [ __ ] in this film is next level this is alice
garland's most terrifying as well as horrific film sedate he takes it to the next level and
one who is seen a thousand horror films i'm kind of desensitized towards certain elements of horror
but there are literally scenes in this film that will never leave my brain like saying that this
film is uncomfortable is an understatement there's some imagery that i found to be very disturbing
very grotesque very disgusting and there's a sequence in this film i'll just say there are
different versions of something going on that will stay in my brain forever and as a horror fan
i was pretty pleased by that but getting into my criticisms here now i'll say this about alex
garland this is one of the most disconnected films that i found from him uh from a personal level i
found that he focused more on emphasizing more of the symbolisms than he chose to stick with
the story now getting more into how i feel like this film was a mix between hereditary mid-summer
with a little bit of annihilation moments but the thing that i like about those films
in particular annihilation it never lost focus of the story while giving you the symbolisms in
this film i think it was the opposite in this film the first half to me did such a phenomenal
job of setting the stage with harper's mindset and all the emotional journey that she went to
and it heated up perfectly in a great way but as we transition more into the second half and
definitely when you get into the third act it takes a really left turn for some people
it might work but for me it just really kind of left me disconnected now getting back into the
actual kind of more minutia of what i didn't like about it i felt his choice to continue to repeat
like flashback sequences we get a sense of where harper's coming from and what she went through
but we kept revisiting that scene and now there was obviously alterations every time we visit it
but i thought it just could have been told to the audience in just one seat in my personal opinion
this is a nitpick but it was something that bothered me there is a and again if you've
seen the trailers there's a cgi character in this film and i personally thought they should have
left that cgi character in more of the nighttime scenes because when you see the character for
the first time in the daylight it came off very comedic and it kind of threw me out of the scene
if i'm being honest with you again if you've seen the trailer you know what i'm referring to and of
course when you see the film you'll know which cgi character i'm talking about but lastly i want to
talk about the third act without spoiling anything it definitely swings for the fences but it almost
strips away all the beautiful nuances in the performances in the first half that's displayed
and i felt like alex garland took such a shift in being more highlighting the more horrific elements
in the story and also it became less about the characters and more so about the motifs and
the metaphors in the very disturbing industry so i feel like he kind of missed the marks on
we went on this incredible journey all to be kind of put to the side to show you these striking
literal metaphors that kind of took me out of the film so before i give you all my overall thoughts
give you my score and of course my ranking of all three of his films make sure if you haven't
already to like share and comment below overall i can't deny the performances by jesse and rory
and the beautiful shots and some of the creative choices by garland was absolutely spectacular
but the hard shift in the narrative in his third act and that terrible cgi took me out
in the film at points this is without a doubt a very challenging film that i believe will be very
divisive amongst his audience now i still lean more towards the positive because the brilliance
of the first half and some of the creative choices were really well handled so with that being said
overall i'm gonna give men a three out of five now i do plan on revisiting this film once it
becomes available on you know demand or vod or on netflix because i think this is one of those films
you have to see it multiple times uh and i will be watching it multiple times i know
there were some things that i probably missed in my first viewing but i want to talk more
about this film so we'll see if the schedule allows it but when this film comes out keep
an eye out for maybe a spoiler discussion about some of the things that really stood out to me
what was going on with the supernatural why were there multiple of the same characters and also
we're gonna be talking about that third act more in depth in regards to
the multiple versions of characters and how they were brought to the screen so keep an eye out
for that video if times allows it but again three out of five for me give it a watch it is 8 24. so
again expect the unexpected some of them might work some of them might not work but give it a
chance and when you do let me know your thoughts in the comments again from pros cons thoughts in
the direction the performances the motifs the metaphors did it work did it not work and let
me share my ranking of alex garland's film so far for me number one ex machina number two
annihilation and then number three for me is men and i hope that he continues to work in horror
but focus more on the characters not so much on the symbolism but hey there's my rankings there's
my review if you stuck around to this point of review i thank you so much before you all leave
make sure you're liking the reviews sharing the review leaving your thoughts in the comments and
subscribing and hitting that notification bell thank you again for watching this review hope
you're staying safe as you can see on the screen now come and join the community check out my most
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