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Review of ‘Men’: terror in the English countryside

Alex Garland directs this intimate drama with touches of folk horror that, starring Jessie Buckley, dissects the universe of toxic masculinity.

    The good thing about metaphorical cinema is that, no matter how simple the message, it makes the creator more complex and artistic than if he sticks to the narrative and representational contours of realism. The bad? Not finding the right point of symbolism and legibility, that you are half understood or without the nuances that a normal brain asks of any non-preachy film, and end up like that smartass who preaches to the convert, with a strident look, yes, but confident that his speech in favor of the current will not cause stoning.

    Scary movie with the aroma of an episode of the ‘Hammer House of Horror’, that brings to mind titles like ‘Ana y los lobos’ (C. Saura, 1973), ‘I’m thinking of quitting’ (C. Kaufman, 2020) –also with the Buckley, by the way– or the modest but effective ‘ Lucky’ (N. Kermani, 2020), films all of them metaphorical and also with pocha masculinity embedded there, ‘Men’ narrowly escapes from what was pointed out above thanks to its audiovisual brilliance and punctual burlesque flashes. But it also verges on allegorical nonsense (‘Are all men equal?’ Really?), exposing itself unnecessarily to misinterpretations that, from interested ideological maximalisms, amend the entire proposal (‘Get woke go Broke’, and such) . pity, since Garland, whose sensory formalism drinks as much from the oppressive rigor of Kubrick as from the neurotic flash of Aronofskyif something dominates, it is the filmic entities with a bubble effect where what is left over are precisely the doctrines of the real world.

    For lovers of arty, deranged and allegorical horror

    The best: a Jessie Buckley, colossal again.

    The worst: how easy it makes such an elementary reading that it embarrasses a bit.

    DATA SHEET

    Address: alex garland Distribution: Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear, Paapa Essiedu Country: United Kingdom Year: 2022 Release date: 22–07-2022 Gender: Terror Script: alex garland Duration: 100 minutes

    Synopsis: After suffering a personal tragedy, Harper retreats alone to the beautiful English countryside, hoping that she has found the ideal place to heal. But something or someone seems to be stalking her. What begins as a latent dread will end up becoming a true nightmare, inhabited by memories of her and her darkest fears.

    Source: Fotogramas

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