Men

Directed by Alex Garland, Men follows Jessie Buckley’s Harper Marlowe as she attempts to get over a devastating breakup by traveling to a remote village for some rest and relaxation – with problems ensuing once it becomes clear that there’s something rather off about said village’s various denizens. Filmmaker Garland, working from his own screenplay, kicks Men off with a very quiet and deliberate opening stretch that effectively captures the viewer’s initial interest, as the movie boasts an exceedingly (and impressively) stylish atmosphere that’s enhanced by its various hard-to-dislike components – including Buckley’s engrossing performance, Rob Hardy’s atmospheric cinematography, and Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow’s moody score. And although the mysterious vibe is, for a little while, fairly difficult to resist (ie it’s impossible to guess where all this is going), Men eventually does segue into a progressively off-the-wall and avant-garde midsection that slowly-but-surely drains one’s enthusiasm and attention – with the picture’s excessively slow aesthetic compounded and exacerbated by a  growing emphasis on entirely nonsensical elements. The inclusion of a few admittedly striking sequences occasionally allays one’s growing boredom and disinterest, and yet it’s equally clear that the flat-out surreal closing stretch, which essentially feels like one long nightmare sequence, ensures that the whole thing concludes on as underwhelming and anticlimactic a note as one could envision – which does, in the end, cement Men‘s place as an undeniably ambitious failure that might’ve worked as a short (but feels endless as a feature).

*1/2 out of ****