The last time a major filmmaker ventured into a nightmarish Garden of Eden amid a swirl of Christian and pagan warnings of the evil that men do, the filmmaker was Darren Aronofsky, the film was “Mother!” and the CinemaScore exit polls of moviegoers out for a good time awarded it a rare, how-dare-you grade of “F.”
Writer-director Alex Garland’s latest film, “Men,” may face a similarly harsh reaction, especially with multiplex audiences expecting an ordinary woman-in-peril thriller. This is Garland’s third feature, following the sleek satisfactions of “Ex Machina” and the mournful, methodical ache of “Annihilation."
The film is organic, all of a piece and, for Garland, somewhat on the nose and didactic. It’s also haunting in ways you can’t easily categorize. It showcases two kinds of excellent acting. One is offered by the splendid, searching Jessie Buckley (Oscar nominee for “The Lost Daughter”) in a performance almost entirely guided by watchful, justifiable paranoia. The other is a portrait gallery of male animals curated with extreme craftiness, by Rory Kinnear.
