Horror comes to the Magic Lantern in ‘Men’
Above: "Men," starring Jessie Buckley, opens Friday. (Photo/A24)
Horror comes in many forms, from zombies to devil-possessed dolls to leering serial killers.
But for women in particular, horror can simply be experienced by co-existing with what used to be known their opposite sex.
In other words, men. And “Men” is the title of one of the three films that will open Friday at the Magic Lantern Theatre. The other two are “All Sorts” and a re-release of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.”
“Men”: Written and directed by Alex Garland, and starring Jessie Buckley, “Men” tells the tale of a young woman (Buckley) – still grieving the death of her husband – who goes on a vacation in the English country side. She then encounters a number of uncomfortable – perhaps even horrific – encounters with the men she meets.
The reviews – no surprise – are somewhat split depending on whose writing them.
Writing in the online magazine Inverse, Jenni Miller had this to say: “ ‘Men’ is audacious, terrifying, and annoyingly oblique. From its declarative title to the brilliant use of Rory Kinnear … ‘Men’ wants you to think about gender and trauma, but the movie itself is a funhouse mirror reflecting back your own biases.”
In contrast, Keith Watson of Slant magazine wrote, “ ‘Men’ is ultimately about as deep as its title, a swipe at the multi-faceted terribleness of its titular subject that rarely gets beyond being a mere catalogue of the different ways that guys can be irritating around and dangerous toward women.”
Variety’s Peter Debruge offered up something a bit more neutral: “Audiences are all but guaranteed to leave this folk-horror bizart-house offering feeling disturbed, even if no two viewers can agree on what bothered them about it.”
“All Sorts”: A quirky independent film written and directed by J Rick Casteneda, “All Sorts” is a twist on the romantic comedy. It involves a young man and woman competing in a, get this, filing contest.
Freelance critic Michael Ward wrote, “This absurd, surrealist workplace comedy sets up shop largely inside a generic workspace called Data-Mart – a facility where data gets entered and files get filed and people go home. Mostly.’
And, Ward added, “The inventiveness alone makes ‘All Sorts’ worthy of a viewing.”
“The Shining”: Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of the Stephen King novel famously stars Jack Nicholson as a would-be writer who takes the job as a winter caretaker of an old – and haunted – hotel. Shelley Duval stars as his beleaguered wife and young Danny Lloyd as their son, both of whom have to deal with dad as he slowly but gradually and ultimately completely loses his mind.
The late Roger Ebert wrote, “In a snowbound hotel, three people descend into versions of madness or psychic terror, and we cannot depend on any of them for an objective view of what happens. It is this elusive open-endedness that makes Kubrick's film so strangely disturbing.”
That’s the movie news so far. I’ll update as the week progresses.