Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
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.
Alex Garland's Men is a visually arresting folk horror that excels in atmosphere and cinematography — lush English countryside juxtaposed with creeping dread, beautifully framed. The central conceit of Rory Kinnear playing every male character is an effective and unsettling device that speaks to the film's thematic ambitions around male violence and guilt projection. However, the plot struggles to translate its symbolic intentions into coherent narrative satisfaction, remaining frustratingly opaque rather than meaningfully ambiguous. The body horror finale, while viscerally bold, collapses into excess that alienates rather than illuminates, leaving the thematic payload muddled. Acting is solid — Jessie Buckley anchors the film with genuine vulnerability — but the film's overall reputation reflects its polarizing nature: a filmmaker clearly reaching for something profound but not fully landing it.