Men is a bloody, perplexing entry into the style of apocalyptic horror. It's also an elaborate, surreal exploration of misogyny throughout the past two millennia through a microcosm of one woman's struggle within the aftermath of a tragedy that's scapegoated her as its cause. Its finale transcends conventional narrative in favor of delivering an emotionally-rooted thematic catharsis that'll go away viewers with a lot to chew on. Writer-director Alex Garland (2014's Ex Machina and 2018's Annihilation) is a grasp at intellectual genre play, embedding heady ideas about power, need and technology inside stories that lean towards science fiction and horror. In his third movie, a psychological thriller about the evils of man, he elevates these emblems to their nightmarish extremes. Garland's star, Jessie Buckley, performs Harper, a woman on the run after the mysterious death of her husband. She rents a country house in England, and it is not lengthy before she runs into bother. There's a dead animal in the backyard, an apple tree littered with apples—a clear reference to Adam and Eve and the original sin of patriarchal misogyny—and a slew of creepy and inexplicable happenings. Soon, she's a hostage of the estate's proprietor, Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear), who retains her in a locked room whereas peppering her with dumb quips and invasive questions about her marital status. Men doesn't make it a secret that its primary topic is sexism, nevertheless it makes an even larger point by depicting these forces as malevolent creatures who need nothing more than to harm women for their very own pleasure. For most of the film, it's hard to determine whether or not Garland is critiquing misogyny or merely displaying it in its gore-ish grotesqueness. But the final act, which appears to be a full-on gorefest, finally reveals its true intentions. It's a misguided try to use Harper's story as a way to point fingers at male power and violence, but it degenerates right into a slew of low cost thrills and lively, infuriating contempt for ladies that's rooted in millennia of biblical teachings and patriarchal custom. There are moments in Men that will cause the breath to quicken and the heart to pound, however they're far too few and scattered throughout a muddled and unsatisfying movie. ซีรี่ย์จีน is too gifted as a filmmaker to do one thing so rote, and his movie finally fizzles out under its own weight. Adding up all of the missteps, Men is perhaps Garland's most flawed work to date..
ซีรี่ย์จีน
