Why you should watch "Male Gender", although it is very difficult to withstand

On June 23, a new film by Alex Garland "Male Gender" (in the original simply Men) is released in Russian cinemas. This is the third full-length work of the director, although he also personally directed all the episodes in the series "Developed" (or "Programmers").

Since the debut of Ex Machina, fans of auteur cinema have fallen in love with Garland: a director who writes himself scripts for all the films, usually shoots dystopian science fiction, but writes topical Topics.

In 2020, Developers divided viewers into two camps. Some believed that this series was the apotheosis of Garland's style. The action develops very slowly, and the author gives a lot of scientific facts in the plot. Others decided that the director was just bragging about his knowledge of quantum computers for 6 hours.

And Alex Garland seemed to listen to the comments of the audience. "Masculine", although it raises the same topics as previous works, it looks much simpler. This is the first case in the director's work when the action is not tied to science and even

fantasy.

Here the author clings differently. He got an immersive picture in which the reaction of the viewer is almost more important than the plot on the screen. Moreover, throughout the film, Garland rather does not tell the story, but throws up all sorts of provocations to evoke conflicting emotions: from laughter and empathy to disgust.

"Male Gender" raises very relevant and tough topics

After the tragic death of her husband, Harper (Jesse Buckley) leaves the big city for the countryside. She rents a beautiful estate and wants to live there alone in order to calm down and put her thoughts in order. The owner of the house, Jeffrey (Rory Kinnear), seems to be as friendly as possible, if a little intrusive. But then Harper meets a crazy stranger, and things only get scarier from there.

If you look at Alex Garland's directing stories, it's easy to see that he almost always makes women the main characters, and ties the story itself to their confrontation with the conditional "male" the world. Yes, formally in the tape "From the Machine" they talk about a programmer who became interested in android. But it's also a film about how two men test whether Alicia Vikander's character is "real". And in Annihilation, female scientists deal with extraterrestrial intelligence after the male military could not do anything with it. And even indeveloped»It is the girl who finds out what is happening in the secret department of the IT company.

In The Kind of Man, Garland finally makes society's confrontation with toxic masculinity a central theme. But at the same time he adds to this the feeling of guilt that is placed on the victim, and wonders if there is a way out of the endless cycle of misunderstanding and violence.

To reveal the theme, the director uses an unusual technique. All the men, except for Harper's husband, are played by the same Rory Kinnear. That is, for the heroine, in the most literal sense, they all look the same. This is not even a spoiler, just look at the frames from the picture.

Kinnear appears to be a master of disguise, and it's not just the make-up (and in one case, creepy computer graphics): in each of the images he behaves in his own way. In a press release for the film, they wrote that the actor not only thought out the character and behavior of his characters, but also sketched out their biographies in order to better understand the characters. Each time, Kinnear got used to the role so convincingly that even the film crew treated him differently: the shirt-boy Jeffrey pleased everyone, and the obsessed sex the priest frightened many.

One of the most important dramatic scenes of the film is connected with the last character, in which literally all the pain of the main character is expressed. It is interesting, by the way, that the text in the dialogue between the priest and Harper was invented by Jessie Buckley herself. Therefore, even with a slightly grotesque presentation, it sounds as realistic as possible.

At this point, we are talking about feelings of guilt and normalization of violence. Moreover, “Male Gender” also reveals why the director chose the countryside as the scene of action. For Harper, a single moment of aggression from her husband drew a line under the relationship. However, she leaves the modern progressive city in the wilderness. And there they still say in plain text that men sometimes beat women, there is nothing wrong with that. The main thing is to apologize later.

With each scene, it becomes clearer that everything that happens is partly a metaphor for the internal trauma of the heroine herself. She tries to rid herself of guilt for something she was never guilty of. After all, although Kinnear plays almost a dozen characters, and Buckley only one, she is the same archetype, the embodiment of an infinite number of women who find themselves in a similar situation.

This is a real horror, sometimes even too unpleasant.

Male Gender is marketed as a horror film, although Garland's previous work has more often been classified as science fiction. However, viewers who are well acquainted with the work of the author know very well that he always knew how to scare. Before starting his directing career, the author wrote scripts for the films "28 days laterand Inferno by Danny Boyle. Yes, and in the same "Annihilation" two incredibly scary scenes at once - for example, the appearance of a "bear" - will give a hundred points ahead of many classic screamers.

However, now the director has finally gone into the horror genre. To be more precise, it approached the now popular post-horror, or “elevated horror” (the term elevated horror has long taken root in English-speaking countries). Garland packed a gloomy drama into a genre shell, supplementing it with folklore elements. Therefore, "male gender" is easier to compare with "beacon” and “The Witch” by Robert Eggers than with the tape “Ex Machina”.

The first third of the picture looks even ironic. In one of the scenes, the main character goes for a walk in the forest. It is easy to imagine that the conventional James Wan would have thrown a dozen screamers in these 10 minutes. But Garland just pumps up tension, sometimes even diluting what is happening with humor. But by the time something really tough happens, everyone's nerves will be on edge. Gradually, the film will turn into a kind of analogue "disgust"(and even the entire "apartment trilogy") by Roman Polanski. After all, even Harper herself cannot understand whether what is happening to her is real. Although this is not so important.

If the dramatic plot of The Male Clan is quite straightforward, then its horror component is metaphorical. The director has collected many references to mythology. And it's not just about the most understandable religious allusion: just after arriving at the house, Harper eats an apple from the garden without asking. There are also more complex references: for example, one of the images of Kinnear clearly resembles the folklore Green Man, who is still depicted in English pubs.

And, by the way, this character of his is the most ambiguous in the entire film. Perhaps he poses less danger than other incarnations, precisely due to his closeness to nature.

However, those who expect Garland to be just a beautiful and intense spectacle are in for a cruel test. By the end of the film, the director will turn into almost Lars von Trier the time of the Antichrist. It will mix religious and mythological references (google Sheela-na-gig) with naturalistic body horror that only people with the strongest stomachs can handle.

I'm sure the final scenes will piss off a lot of people. It will seem that the author deliberately mocks, forcing one to feel disgust and even shame. And it is true. Part of the point of the nasty scenes is just to not only see, but also feel the experiences of the main character, and many other women.

However, the picture remains very beautiful.

Perhaps after describing the horrors body horror this will sound weird. But The Male Gender is also an incredibly aesthetic movie. Garland always shoots gracefully and very atmospheric. Even those who scolded "Developers" for the plot, note the amazing visuals. “Gender male”, with relative simplicity, allows you to reveal two facets of the director’s talent.

On the one hand, Garland is great with outdoor scenes. The nature of the English Gloucestershire, where the picture was shot, is beautiful in itself. And the director also allows you to enjoy the plans of endless fields, again referring either to von Trier (not let's forget that there are many beautiful scenes in the "Antichrist", either on the idol of the Dane - Andrey Tarkovsky.

Garland, in a press release, notes that Male Gender is like a kind of mirror: the audience will decide for themselves what the film says and what it does not say. And here he almost verbatim quotes Tarkovsky's words about his "Mirror». And if you look closely at the picture, you will notice that Garland portrays many beautiful scenes through reflections in water or glass - this is also one of the favorite tricks of the Soviet classic.

But the evil irony is that external beauty is fraught with many dangers, so the heroine quickly escapes from the enchanting forest. Or maybe Garland just wants to put his heroes in a confined space as soon as possible. And here the other side of talent is already revealed: the author perfectly creates a feeling of hopelessness. No wonder the director's debut "Ex Machina" was almost entirely filmed in several rooms. Not only that, Garland is once again working with a minimal cast of just four people.

Together with the production designer, decorator and cameraman (in all the films of the author, the same team, hence the recognizable style) the director turned the old estate into one of the most disturbing locations horror. The soft tones of the exterior of the house give way to red inside. Here, each room has its own individual atmosphere and many important details. And when it comes to a climax beautiful house turns into a cage, on which the heroine rushes with the camera relentlessly following her.

But the peak of aesthetics can be considered the scene in the tunnel, where an echo is added to the complete symmetry and reflections in the puddles. From that moment on, sound design becomes no less important part of the picture than the visuals. The choral music is almost inseparable from the sounds of the film itself: the heroine's scream turns into off-screen singing, the voices escalate the tension and mix with the noise.

Alex Garland shoots slowly again. Of course, the scenes are not drawn out the way they were in Development, since the timing is three times less. But still, the camera allows you to look at the faces of the characters for a long time, and the scenes shot in slow motion turn into paintings. Almost to the very end, “Male Genus” pleases with literally every frame. And then maliciously destroys this aesthetic with the most brutal body horror to get rid of any romanticization of injuries.

"Gender male" will not stand every viewer. But it seems that Alex Garland deliberately turned the film into a test. He submits his thoughts even too directly, but the reaction to what is happening will be individual. Someone will laugh at the most uncomfortable moments, someone will close their eyes, someone, on the contrary, will not be able to tear themselves away from the screen.

But regardless of the first emotions, the film will surely leave a strong impression. Because its relevance cannot be ignored. The words that the men met by the heroine utter can be found literally in any discussion of relationships. The feelings she experiences are familiar to anyone who has interacted with toxic people. It’s just that the director managed not only to talk about these feelings and show them, but also makes you feel the trauma. And this is as annoying as it is important.