 Look, it's a pick-me-boy. I've never seen one so close before. You can just feel the air of superiority emanating from him. It's a bit gross, actually. SJW Cuck. Some number of months ago, a friend of mine posted on Facebook about the confusion she was feeling regarding her own sexuality. She's identified as bisexual for a long time, but given how her hetero relationships kept falling apart in spectacular fashion, she wondered if the problem was that she actually wasn't bisexual at all, but actually is just super gay. Certainly she likes women a lot more than she likes men, and she wasn't entirely sure that she likes men at all. Now, considering we met on Tinder, it'd be nice to have such a clean explanation for our romantic incompatibility, but it would also definitely be letting me off the hook for my own very clear failings. And so from that and other experiences as well as a general desire to be supportive, I commented, men are terrible. The next day, the comment was gone, and I had received a strike on my account for posting hate speech. I disputed this, of course, because that is fucking absurd, and upon a supposedly human review, this strike was upheld. And men wonder why people think they're fragile. Hello, by the way, and welcome to the weekly review. You can call me, hey, queen, I saw your tweet about how men are trash, and I just wanted to let you know that I agree. Although I myself am a man, I know, ugh, I am on your side. One of the good ones, as some may say. BTW, I never even noticed how fat your boobies are till now, but they're awesome. And today, I am talking about Alex Garland's latest feature, men. It's an interesting move for Garland whose directorial work has thus far been exclusively a series of excellent sci-fi stories. Ex Machina's take on AI and love is exceptionally well crafted, annihilation's use of an alien-born force that warps the world around it in beautiful and grotesque ways to explore grief and the human propensity towards self-destruction made for my favorite movie of 2018 that I saw in 2018. My actual favorite movie of 2018 is my favorite asterisk movie, Assassination Nation, definitely unrelated. My review of everything everywhere all at once will be coming sometime after I have performed. My review of the Anthropocene reviewed in London next month. And Debs is both a fascinating look at free will and a fun reminder that I planned to let my beard grow out for the duration of lockdown back when I was convinced the US response to Covid would be immediately nothing, instead of just eventually nothing. Man is different. For the first time as a director and arguably the first time as a writer, there is no science in this fiction. But that doesn't mean it's realistic. And I'd argue that this may be the least realistic project to date because there is no real attempt to ground its depictions. This is Garland's most overtly horror script since his cinematic debut 20 hecking years ago with 28 Days Later and like Annihilation before it, it's all about the metaphor. This is an A24 release and for better or worse, it feels like one. The gimmick here is that there are a dozen characters and most of them are played by one actor, Rory Kinnear, who I recognized as M's not-money penny assistant from the Daniel Craig Bond films, but more importantly as the prime minister who fucks a pig in the very first episode of Black Mirror. It's an intriguing choice. While we have plenty of instances of one actor playing twins or doppelgangers or whatever in serious roles, the whole one person playing a bunch of characters thing peaked in the early odds, right? Although this film comes out shortly after the new Mike Myers multi-character vehicle, the pentaverate, plopped onto Netflix. This is a very clever choice of words because plop is a word often used paired with poop and it's a show with a lot of poop jokes that most critics think is total shit and also Netflix is basically a toilet. Sort of related, fuck them for only hosting the Hindi dub of RRR and also Bahubali. Like why is it so hard to see Bahubali in Telugu? The ones that aren't the Hindi dub are intameel which was shot simultaneously with the Telugu one and so is definitely the better of the available versions and arguably equivalent to the Telugu but it's so weird that it can't just like watch the movie in its original language. I don't know, RRR is amazing and fuck Netflix. A scene in a town pub where every actor has the same face would typically be reserved for that kind of comedy or the occasional drama like an orphan black but men leans into the horror of such a moment. It's like being John Malkovich's restaurant of Malkovich's if one person wasn't actually of Malkovich and everyone was keenly aware of that fact. It's hard to imagine a more overt way of depicting an other. The other is Harper, played by I'm Thinking of Ending Things star Jesse Buckley. After a truly traumatic final encounter with her let's say ex-husband she goes upcountry to the village of Kotzen to get away from it all for a few weeks. Her landlord Rory Kinnear is certainly odd and apparently bothered by the fact that Mrs. Malo has come without her husband but he seems harmless. Less harmless is the man at the end of the creepy dark tunnel who is eventually awoken by her sing song echoing towards him. He screams and runs at her and though she gets away she finds herself in a dilapidated area where in a photo that she takes for a friend she notices a fully naked man staring at her. It's not entirely clear if the naked man is the same one from the tunnel because the one from the tunnel is wearing clothing but also it doesn't really matter. Who then follows her back to her home and we get one of those classic oh my god just look behind you scenes and and I don't say that as an insult they are classic for a reason and I really appreciate that Garland staged this one during the day. All of these men are played by Kinnear. Every man other than the former Mr. Marlowe is. Even the little boy wearing the Marilyn Monroe mask turns out to be digitally wearing Kinnear's face beneath it but and this is important the casting stunt is a metaphor. While they may all look the same that is only to the audience Harper never mentions this when her landlord shows up after she has been harassed and frightened by a whole lot of people who look to us just like him she's not trying to get him away from her because she doesn't see that they're all the same only we do. It's not subtle Garland's work rarely is. Some people take issue with that but I think it's fine especially in the context of A24 horror. I love most of the films that A24 puts out and the style of horror that has become so associated with them justifiably or not over the years is something I totally vibe with but I say that word intentionally. It's the vibes for me. I don't always understand what they're trying to say but I certainly understand men. Take that sentence however you want. That said men does have A24 vibes especially as it nears its buck wild finale turning towards these sort of long montage of disconnected images that you would expect from an A24 back project before hitting you with something that's like at least on the level of annihilation's climax if not arguably weirder by virtue of being less expected. Instead of jump scares men builds up a constant feeling of dread where you get every bit as paranoid as Harper but even if the danger comes from the dark it comes straight at her. She can see it but can she stop it? Going back to the bluntness of the whole project I think it's worth asking who men is actually for and I think the answer is right there in the name. It's kind of like promising young women in that way except it's also made by a man and so much happier to indict us collectively but sometimes that's what's needed. Obviously people who have felt like Harper can enjoy the craft and all that but they are not going to learn anything here. Oh scary man running at me and screaming while I'm walking alone through the woods yeah that sounds about right oh super cool the only other woman in this town is a cop who thinks that the scary naked man covered in cuts is harmless and I shouldn't worry about it. Ah yeah my husband blames me for the bad things that he does and then the church man I confide in takes his side etc etc it's not new I have heard stories like these but I've never told them because I've never had them to tell and that's the point women deal with scarier shit than men do period and yeah I guess women can be creepy too literally two days ago I was coming home on the subway and I saw a woman following a man across the cars we got off at the same stop and she followed he tried to double back to get up the stairs but there she was and the two of them were dead silent the entire time it was really fucking strange but so what shouting what about isms or like not all men is the same thing as reporting a dude's Facebook comment about men being terrible as hate speech it is a sign of deep deep insecurity and maybe something you should talk to a therapist about but for real though fuck anyone who says not me it's it's all of us most of the time I do think of myself as one of the good ones because I'm not actively the worst but I also know that I have made women uncomfortable I know that I have done good things for bad reasons not all men all of the time sure but the difference between like crypto bros and me is ultimately a matter of decree that degree matters obviously but it only gets you so far so too and men most of the caneers aren't actively out to get harper but they support a culture in a system that lets the men who are run free and when push comes to shove they will stand on the side of their brethren and sometimes the only way to get people to realize things is to smack them in the skull with a dang sledgehammer I'm not saying men is the solution to the problems in our society or that like alex garland deserves a Nobel Peace Prize but art can be a catalyst for serious conversation and even introspection and that is a start so if the right people big manly dude bros like myself are willing to seriously engage with this film it's a whole lot better than fucking Joe Rogan or Jordan Peterson or whatever fuck those guys 8.3 out of 10 thank you so much for watching thank you particularly to my patrons my mom my cat cat saracada benjamin schiff anthony coal elliott fowler greg lucina cojo phil bates willow iron the sword maddie zimmerman claire bear taylor lindy's andrew madison design and the folks who'd rather be read than said if you like this video great if not oh well if you want to see more you should come see me perform in london uh in two weeks okay uh bye