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A12 PEOPLE & ARTS
Wednesday 18 May 2022

Alex Garland confronts the horrors of

past, present in ‘Men’

ing her. As the film progress-
es, her personal safety and
search for peace come
under attack in ways both
subtle and not.
Whenever Kinnear would
come on set as a differ-
ent character, Buckley said
there was always a shift in
the air. When the home-
owner Geoffrey was there,
it was “party time.” When
the vicar came, “there was
an iciness.” Kinnear isn’t
method, so it wasn’t any-
thing he was doing per se,
but it was a visceral expe-
This image released by A24 shows Jessie Buckley in a scene
from “Men.” rience for the actors and
Associated Press crew. It helped that they
kept it light between the in-
tense takes.
By LINDSEY BAHR great actor, but it was a “Rory is probably the funni-
AP Film Writer meeting of sensibilities that est person I’ve ever worked
It wasn’t Jessie Buckley’s made her right. She’d do a with, which was a com-
audition but an observa- primal scream in a church plete tonic,” Buckley said.
tion she made that got her that would end up becom- “If it was someone who
the leading role in “ Men.” ing a note in the actual was incredibly serious and
When speaking to filmmak- score, throw out ideas of heavy with it, it would have
er Alex Garland about his her own and try wild things been completely differ-
heady idea to grapple with that she knew would prob- ent.”
masculinity and its founda- ably end up on the cutting Garland looked to many of
tional myths and virulent room floor. his frequent collaborators
cycles within a folk horror “Alex sets a place where to help bring the world of
construct, Buckley caught everything is possible,” said “Men” to life, like produc-
him off guard: She started Buckley. tion designer Mark Digby,
talking about the metallic Garland had been think- set decorator Michelle Day
taste of blood and how the ing about the concept and cinematographer Rob
character might feel about for many years. He wrote Hardy. Garland feels like
it. It was strange and unusu- the first draft sometime af- he’s always asked to pres-
al and perfect, he thought. ter writing “Sunshine” and ent a kind of lie to the world
“It was quite an abstract would go back to it time as the public face of a film
way of thinking. It was also a and time again. Sometimes and he wants to give credit
very clear way of thinking,” themes would even find where it’s due.
Garland said. “It wasn’t try- their way into his other films “Everybody overdignifies
ing to second guess either like “Ex Machina” and “An- directors,” Garland said.
me or an invisible person nihilation.” Though toxic “I’m constantly being giv-
who might be observing masculinity is a contempo- en credit for things I have
and judging the conversa- rary phrase, the concept is nothing do with. So many
tion. It was very unfettered anything but and Garland things that feel directo-
and very instinctive and it wanted to make some- rial in the film are Michelle
just spoke to me. I thought, thing that acknowledged Day. Sometimes people
‘Oh we’re going to be able that. will talk about the way I
to work together.’” But “Men” didn’t come framed a shot, but it’s Rob
For “Men” to work, or at together until he distilled it Hardy who framed the
least not be conservative down to its simplest form: shot. There’s a phrase that
or boring, which are his A woman, Harper (Buck- often gets used: ‘So and
greatest fears, he knew ley), has just had a trau- so coaxed a performance
he’d have to take big, matic experience and out of such and such ac-
weird swings. After all, personal loss and retreats tor.’ I don’t think I’ve ever
“Men,” which opens in ex- to the English countryside coaxed a performance out
clusively theaters on Friday, for a stay in a 500-year-old of anyone in my life.”
is a film which draws on the estate. There she encoun- But, Buckley noted, some-
ancient imagery and sym- ters a variety of men, all of one does need to lead.
bolism of the Green Man, whom are played by Rory “You need somebody to
an historic symbol of rebirth Kinnear. There’s an aggres- set that tone,” Buckley
and regeneration, and the sive child, a misogynistic said. “I’ve worked with di-
Sheela-na-gig, a carving of vicar, a kind homeowner, rectors that don’t do that.
a naked woman with exag- a police officer, a barkeep, They don’t create a space
gerated female anatomy. some townies and a drifter where there is a collective
He knew Buckley was a who appears to be follow- conscience.”q