Men (2022)
Men (2022) is a 2022 body horror/weekend away movie written and directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation, Devs, Never Let Me Go, 28 Days Later, The Beach)
Men Trailer Here
Next Week: Pearl Minisode and Frank visits the last Blockbuster on earth.
0:00 - What we're watching (Bupkis, Dune rewatch, Johnny Neumonic rewatch, Shrinking)
11:00 - Men Intro and quick spoiler free review
15:00 - Men Summary and Trivia
17:00 - Men Discussion
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Transcript
Men
[:[00:00:09] Frank Roll III: Hollywood and the independent video store
[:[00:00:18] Scott Moran: See of streaming services and ask the question, what the fuck is that? Does this hold up? And just, what the hell is a good movie? Anyway, I'm Frank Roll. I'm Scott Moran and we are the last
[:[00:00:31] Scott Moran: What?
[:[00:00:40] Frank Roll III: Get see that? Do you have rough spots around your heels? No. You need to moisturize. No need to scrape. Hummus. What is it? Hummus stone. Should I come
[:[00:00:54] Frank Roll III: little stir. Keep it a little stir.
[:[00:01:04] Frank Roll III: Oh man. You know, speaking of that scene with the little arm, the movie we're gonna talk about once the arm split happens, I had a flashback to that kind of, it reminded me of the same thing. Was it Chris Cooper? Was that that guy's name?
[:[00:01:21] Frank Roll III: ca. Is he a cabin man?
[:[00:01:27] Frank Roll III: Yeah. Now, otherwise, he is just a fucking creepy guy from something about Mary
[:[00:01:37] Frank Roll III: in, uh, something about Mary Two. So a bunch of creepy guys in that
[:[00:01:40] Scott Moran: Why is Brett Favre creepy? Uh, he's just turned into kind of a, one of the shitty people. Did you watch anything new? Nothing new. Nothing new. How do I know that something terrible is coming? Right after that statement, nothing
[:[00:02:02] Scott Moran: weird
[:[00:02:03] Frank Roll III: I am the captain now.
[:[00:02:19] Scott Moran: Yeah. That's different now. It's different now, man. I would actually say that I like it more now. It's different now, to be perfectly honest.
[:[00:02:48] Frank Roll III: And I was like, like there
[:[00:02:53] Frank Roll III: Well, there was this whole like Star Wars scrolling backstory of what the situation was and with the smugglers and everything. But then there was like this, you know, like nineties 3D virtual reality opening and it's like internet 2021, and I was like,
[:[00:03:11] Scott Moran: That is a really weird case of taking a short story and then making it too complicated for the movie, and then
[:[00:03:21] Scott Moran: I very much enjoy it. Well, it's a William Gibson thing. The Matrix is just a William Gibson ripoff.
[:[00:03:31] Frank Roll III: He does. Res.
[:[00:03:38] Frank Roll III: I know we can always talk about knock, knock. Anyway. Um,
[:[00:03:45] Frank Roll III: not. Olympia watched Knock, knock before I did. What'd she think about it? I think she liked it. Yeah.
[:[00:04:02] Scott Moran: Like, what's this? And I was like, maybe wrong choice to watch with you, because I did sort of enjoy it. But, uh, wa watching it with her was weird. Yeah. Because she did not, so
[:[00:04:19] Scott Moran: Of Pete Davidson's show BCUs. Oh, Joe Peche. Yeah. And, uh, Edie Falco Good. Who are show stealers ultimately the better part of the show than Pete Davidson. But it was good. I think it was trying to have a lot of heart and it did, but also I kind of wish it didn't and it went a little harder. Mm. That's it for a show that starts with, uh, accidentally coming on your mom.
[:[00:05:09] Scott Moran: Hmm. From. 10 years ago. Well, I mean, once you're a wet
[:[00:05:13] Scott Moran: didn't wanna be a wet bandit. That was just stern. R i p
[:[00:05:25] Scott Moran: now. But you watched, uh, all shrinking now, right?
[:[00:05:44] Scott Moran: Harrison Ford is just like my first stepfather B.
[:[00:05:50] Frank Roll III: gruff. Yes.
[:[00:06:07] Frank Roll III: it's perfect in so many ways, and
[:[00:06:10] Scott Moran: Every episode of that show,
[:[00:06:27] Frank Roll III: But it's like all the time, like I'm like, I'm doing this more than I've done in a, like a show in a long time, if ever. Because I'm not, like, I'm not trying to fuck with you. And I'm like, let's enjoy the show. But it seems, I'm like, you heard that too, right?
[:[00:06:40] Scott Moran: It
[:[00:06:58] Frank Roll III: Is that Jason? Yeah, Jimmy. Yeah. Yeah. I wanna like, oh, and, uh, Jessica Williams. Williams. Yeah. Yeah. The balance in that cast is amazing. And then the way they interact and man, it's just, it's what I needed and it's my first Apple. TV show. I That was your first Apple show. It's, I picked
[:[00:07:14] Scott Moran: I'm gonna go hard on silo. No silo. I'm really excited. Plus, I love Rebecca Ferguson, rose the hat. From, uh, the Shining Sequel. Oh, from Doctor Sleep? Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. That was, I think the first time I was like, I fucking like this lady, and she's good. I re-watched Dune as well this week. Oh, dune. Well,
[:[00:07:38] Scott Moran: November. Nove. Oh, fuck. I was trying to wait until. Closer. I watched it when it came out. Mm-hmm. And then I was like, I'll watch it again and then I'll go see the next one. And I just had like a, this is what I wanna watch right now feeling.
[:[00:07:57] Scott Moran: again.
[:[00:08:20] Frank Roll III: alien.
[:[00:08:29] Scott Moran: I was pretty young when I saw the David Lynch dune and it made a huge impression
[:[00:08:37] Frank Roll III: Zombies.
[:[00:08:59] Scott Moran: Because I read that book when I was so young that I had no fucking idea. But I stuck with it. I kept looking all the words up in the back. The thing like what the fuck's a Gaja
[:[00:09:13] Scott Moran: I love it. I haven't read the ones that his son wrote after he died, because there's more, the story wasn't as awesome when Herbert was still around.
[:[00:09:44] Frank Roll III: TV thing. I forget. These original series are shows
[:[00:10:07] Frank Roll III: Did you know that if you do pew pew in a text message on your iPhone, it does little laser blasts. But
[:[00:10:14] Frank Roll III: I know. Believe me. I know. I fuck with Luke all the time too, cuz he's such a big Star Wars guy. So I say Stars Trek shit to him.
[:[00:10:23] Scott Moran: Yes. Even though I like both, I like both all above, but knows
[:[00:10:31] Scott Moran: Not true. Whether you know it or not, no. There's just more Star Trek. I don't know. I feel like more, I like Star Trek differently than I like, I feel like you
[:[00:10:42] Scott Moran: It's cuz it upsets people more when you talk about Star Trek than it does when you talk about Star Wars. Just in general, the average person tunes out faster. When you talk about Star Trek.
[:[00:10:57] Scott Moran: I'm gonna kill you
[:[00:11:05] Scott Moran: who are you
[:[00:11:27] Frank Roll III: It's like, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be that way, but I feel like I'm a dash of, uh, each of those people. His patience? Well, I'm more like the violent one, and then the chick who can't wear outside, closed inside. Like both of those are me. Oh. But then also the angry guy. Like, why the fuck does the coffee guy want to talk to me?
[:[00:11:51] Scott Moran: thought about seeing a psychiatrist? Yeah, I've been there, done that. I think that's an ongoing thing. Yeah, it's, you know, it's not like going to the dentist where you just go like once every 10 years.
[:[00:12:03] Frank Roll III: was a pleasant surprise. Caught me off guard. Didn't see it coming.
[:[00:12:10] Frank Roll III: It's, and it's, I liked it, you know, and we won't, I won't talk about it right off the bat, but the end, I see what you did there, but at the same time, cool.
[:[00:12:22] Scott Moran: I thought you were gonna maybe feel. A little Swiss army man
[:[00:12:39] Scott Moran: loft.
[:[00:12:54] Frank Roll III: This though, just that outdoor and then that classic, like this was like the UK right?
[:[00:13:02] Frank Roll III: this might be Scotland. I was gonna say like maybe there was a little bit of Ireland and Scotland scattered in there. I mean, definitely like when they're showing the, the flat scenes, you know, when they're at
[:[00:13:16] Scott Moran: Yeah,
[:[00:13:28] Frank Roll III: I don't know why London Bridge
[:[00:13:33] Frank Roll III: it's there, falling down. It's there. Wanna play Bloody Mary. I didn't get to ride the Ferris wheel. There's a big Ferris wheel. It's in a lot of movies. It's right there. When I went, we went over the bridges, but we never got to ride on the
[:[00:13:44] Scott Moran: Eh? Ferris wheel suck. Didn't even make it. What's it? The world. I mean, they're like the
[:[00:14:02] Frank Roll III: Um, but anyway, no, this was beautiful. The way the locations, oh, it just, ugh. And Jesse Buckley, like, we'll get into the cast. She's great. Damn. She's one of those people that I wanna see in more things now because I'm like, she
[:[00:14:20] Scott Moran: That's just who she is in my head.
[:[00:14:28] Scott Moran: This movie's gonna live in my head for a long time. It creeped
[:[00:14:36] Frank Roll III: Wait, he looks like, huh? And then you're like, oh, I was trying to find the message in it. You know what I mean? And then the title of the movie, I was, I think I was doing my own
[:[00:14:51] Frank Roll III: Men is, men are pretty good. Men was pretty good. I like men.
[:[00:15:21] Scott Moran: Summary Men. Summary Men. Here, following
[:[00:15:40] Frank Roll III: After asking James for a divorce, he threatened to commit suicide. James ends up punching Harper in the face during the argument and she locks him out of the apartment. Moments later, she sees him fall from the roof, but the look of shock on his face leads Harper to question whether James meant to fall or slip, trying to re-enter the flat from the balcony.
[:[00:16:11] Frank Roll III: She learns from the arresting officer that the naked man was released back at the house. The man returns. As do all of the other men trapping Harper in the house. After that, things get very, very weird and it's better that we just talk
[:[00:16:29] Scott Moran: I've read all your books. Uh, the beach is very good. The movie is just okay. Although Garland started writing this screenplay 15 years before its release in 2020. During the pandemic, I take it, he decided to take another look at it. Men was released in the US anyway by a 24 in May of 2022. So it sounds like they filmed it pretty quickly and as we said, it stars Jesse Buckley as Harper Roy, caner as Jeffrey, the owner of the house.
[:[00:17:14] Frank Roll III: Two for sure. Two. Because I don't think the bartender makes it to the house. He had a bar to close. He had to closing
[:[00:17:24] Scott Moran: Papa ou, I think is his name. I'm sorry, sir, if I mispronounced your name as James Harper's dead husband and Gail Rankin as Riley Harper's friend that she talks to on FaceTime a couple times and then appears at the end of the movie. Critical Reception of Men was pretty focused on whether or not it said anything new about its subject matter, but the continuity of every review is that this movie is going to be impossible to stop thinking about.
[:[00:18:14] Scott Moran: It's a
[:[00:18:17] Scott Moran: to the scene, but I think all of Alex Garland's movies live in my head, but I think that all of his movies are sort of about like creatively destructing. Like for himself, that is directly the point of Ex Machina. Mm-hmm. Was it was this Mark Zuckerberg guy who was like, let's see if I could get myself killed.
[:[00:18:56] Frank Roll III: I had, I had like some fox catcher vibes, if you know what I'm saying, but, and then I, I was like, oh, he won something. So I clicked and then like four articles down, I'm like, yeah, he lost, complained about it. Then got both medals and I was like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Here's the story. So sure enough, I started digging in.
[:[00:19:24] Scott Moran: Yeah. I'm sorry I made that comparison. Oscar Isaac as a tech genius that builds a robot is not comparable to this fucking guy who keeps fucking up my Oculus headset.
[:[00:19:38] Scott Moran: Meda. My avatar looks so stupid. He doesn't have any legs. You just kind of hover. Just a torso.
[:[00:19:50] Scott Moran: Oh,
[:[00:19:54] Scott Moran: Live. I used to not have to look at it, and then they put a fucking mirror so you can see yourself in your home screen.
[:[00:20:18] Frank Roll III: tried to simplify it first. Once I saw that she had been through a traumatic experience and then she was seeing this the same face on every person, I was like, this is her way of dealing with the trauma and this is how we are being exposed to it.
[:[00:20:30] Scott Moran: she seeing the same face on every person, or are we. Seeing the same face on every person because she doesn't seem to acknowledge that these people all have the same face. Mm-hmm. She doesn't seem weirded out about it. If that was the case, like I was like, why this guy? Well, and I'm glad you
[:[00:20:51] Frank Roll III: Well, she doesn't. Then
[:[00:21:00] Frank Roll III: no. But that's what I'm getting to you. So Jeffrey was first naked man, then the police officer, right? Male. So male police officer was the third Jeffrey Face?
[:[00:21:17] Scott Moran: face. I don't think so. See, I don't think she reacts to them looking the same. Well, that's the thing.
[:[00:21:35] Frank Roll III: Maybe like a little head tilt. Like, I swear there was a slight reaction from her after they cut away from the male
[:[00:21:48] Scott Moran: Where there were lots of them around. Yeah.
[:[00:21:55] Scott Moran: or the little boy in the vicar. Yeah.
[:[00:22:04] Frank Roll III: I
[:[00:22:20] Frank Roll III: was fucking, and then the mask so creepy when she first came around the corner and you see him with the mask.
[:[00:22:30] Scott Moran: Oh yeah. That was really
[:[00:22:34] Scott Moran: it for a minute. It would've been funny if he had made like one of those, like he was trying to make one of those whistles, like in the Flintstones, when they like have to, they leave work and they pull on
[:[00:22:44] Frank Roll III: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I can't do it. I had bad experience with geese and some ducks.
[:[00:22:59] Frank Roll III: a little bit, because it had that art indie vibe at times. It just, it didn't go full on Tree of Life, you know what I mean?
[:[00:23:11] Frank Roll III: No, but I mean like the actual visual. Art indie thing
[:[00:23:21] Frank Roll III: sense. Well, I mean, you get into a tree of life or a melancholia where these scenes are just so long
[:[00:23:27] Scott Moran: I never felt like he was wasting my time.
[:[00:23:36] Scott Moran: movie, I think that that all had narrative structure to it. Too, because you know when the guy starts pushing the leaves into his face, Leafhead and he becomes the green man.
[:[00:24:08] Scott Moran: No, it's like, it's just weird. It's damn weird that it's involved in Christian symbolism. Hmm. It's one of those things that's like leftover from pagan symbolism and it's just in so many architectural things, particularly churches. And I thought it was interesting he became the GR because I was like, he looks like the, like a green man, green naked man.
[:[00:24:33] Frank Roll III: about this. Well, so I, I did think it was odd that the police officer, the female officer was. Like acknowledging it was a fucked up situation. Like, yes ma'am, you've handled it well, but at the same time, like they didn't really, like, wow.
[:[00:24:52] Scott Moran: He doesn't need eyes. Yes, exactly. The female officer and the 9 1 1 call, which he calls 9 9 9, sorry, 9 9 9. Uh, here it's 9 1 1 when she calls 9 9 9, and the woman on the line asks her if there's any.
[:[00:25:18] Frank Roll III: for distinguishing things about him or the house? I thought she, she was like, is there anything distinguishing about the house?
[:[00:25:25] Scott Moran: maybe she did. Cuz she did describe her car sitting.
[:[00:25:30] Scott Moran: I thought she asked about distinguishing characteristics of the man.
[:[00:25:37] Scott Moran: it.
[:[00:25:42] Frank Roll III: Yeah, I'm in, I mean, I'm in Shakespeare's fucking cottage lady. Was
[:[00:25:52] Frank Roll III: the fucking house was 500 years old.
[:[00:26:00] Scott Moran: down in England. Yes, there's definitely 500
[:[00:26:10] Frank Roll III: I'm like, that house really does have some old ass wiring probably from like, Thirties to fifties, somewhere in there, and they've just never done the redone, the electrical in that old cottage. It was a cool house though. It was, and, and
[:[00:26:29] Frank Roll III: I I, yep. That's exactly what I was just about to say. Did we stumble upon another weekend
[:[00:26:40] Frank Roll III: Yep. The only thing we're missing is, uh, handheld camera found footage, but I'm glad. No, no. I'm glad this wasn't that style.
[:[00:26:49] Scott Moran: he had a naked man.
[:[00:26:55] Scott Moran: I liked some of the little storytelling things. When she goes into the tunnel, she's literally crossing the threshold, which I think he tells kind of a plain story in all this madness.
[:[00:27:27] Scott Moran: I had met, let never, all the
[:[00:27:34] Scott Moran: elaborate on that. So I find it very hard to believe that you didn't infer things about the story considering
[:[00:27:43] Frank Roll III: I went simple. I was like, look, it's called men. I. Her husband fucking killed himself. She watched it happen. Can you imagine making eye contact with someone as they're falling to their death? Especially if they, you were in such a close relationship that's a F that was fucking
[:[00:28:01] Scott Moran: And her kicking him out. Like it gave her the release of like, if he does this, this, this has nothing to do with you. You shouldn't feel anything about it. But then she did, but you're going to, you're a
[:[00:28:23] Scott Moran: that it was gonna, that that was the face of someone else.
[:[00:28:31] Scott Moran: incident, I felt kind of like all those things were purposefully laid there to make you start to gaslight
[:[00:28:44] Scott Moran: but I think it was for our benefit only.
[:[00:28:58] Frank Roll III: us. Yes. I mean, true, true. Very true. I, I went from mine to what if, what if it wasn't like anything like sexual abuse or anything, but someone had been killed in her life and somehow that village was tied into her past.
[:[00:29:27] Scott Moran: same. Yes. I, I totally get what you're saying. Simplified, Uber simplified. She made all those men have the same face.
[:[00:29:59] Scott Moran: And then she does that. Like she doesn't run away. And when she's taking that picture and she zooms in. Well, yeah, I mean, maybe
[:[00:30:07] Scott Moran: Yeah. But when he starts walking, starts to walk towards her, she fast walks away and instead of just like outright running, at first she get
[:[00:30:17] Frank Roll III: Huh? Huh Huh. It was catchy. Yeah. It stuck in my head. It was a good, that was a good tone. Like
it
[:[00:30:34] Frank Roll III: but no, I mean, I've listen to it, so I mean, okay. In that instance then the face is meant for us.
[:[00:30:42] Scott Moran: there? I think he was trying to get you to infer things about her. He was just, he put you in a weird position. Yeah. By doing that to you, but he didn't do it to her necessarily.
[:[00:30:57] Scott Moran: Why do you think Don't think anything caused it? I think that that was, it was just time. It was just
[:[00:31:04] Scott Moran: headed towards that. The whole time I felt it coming. Mm-hmm. I was like, this is gonna get really
[:[00:31:15] Frank Roll III: I was like, ah, here we go.
[:[00:31:36] Scott Moran: Mm-hmm. But then when Jeffrey fucking, she hits him with her car when she's escaping and he gets up and he fucking gets up and steals her fucking car and then chases her down. Uhhuh, you're like, oh, fuck. Jeffrey wasn't safe either the whole time.
[:[00:31:53] Frank Roll III: I noticed them before they started to like put more emphasis on them because if you notice it was there from the second she got kicked out. But then it like, almost. Highlights in a sense. Well, she
[:[00:32:04] Frank Roll III: but I, I feel like they even like visually, like they made it brighter. Yeah. It looks like a painting as a pan out.
[:[00:32:19] Scott Moran: written by Alex Garland.
[:[00:32:27] Frank Roll III: Yeah, I do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's driving through the, the, uh, Like a meadow, I guess
[:[00:32:35] Frank Roll III: bright. Just nice little touch. You know,
[:[00:32:39] Frank Roll III: isn't there 28 days later? Like, isn't there another one coming out with uh oh.
[:[00:32:45] Scott Moran: I don't know, but it's got Silly and Murphy. Yes. Kelly and Murphy Cian.
[:[00:32:54] Scott Moran: the way this movie felt, it felt like a Robert Eggers movie. The witch, the lighthouse, but modern day. Whereas like I think Robert Eggers only will make a period
[:[00:33:07] Frank Roll III: Then that end was just like, bam,
[:[00:33:26] Scott Moran: She was over that shit. I did not expect her husband to come out at the end.
[:[00:33:33] Scott Moran: saw it. It had to go somewhere, and I trust Alice Garland enough. I mean, I stuck with devs all the way to the end. How many people can say that I didn't. Um, yeah, it, it's, do you think that when her friend shows up at the end that that's him letting you know that this really happened?
[:[00:33:55] Frank Roll III: what I was just gonna bring up and ask you. So the friend shows up, right?
[:[00:34:07] Frank Roll III: okay man. Hold on, hold on. Wait, wait. These were my notes. The Leafhead had a natural birth pepe and a veg.
[:[00:34:22] Scott Moran: that was really weird. The shoulder was, I wasn't
[:[00:34:29] Frank Roll III: Still? Yes. And see like that's why I think I saw the husband coming cuz at a certain point in the front yard, one of them had the broken leg that the husband had in his death scene. I like how
[:[00:34:41] Frank Roll III: knife was caught in the middle spot, it pulls
[:[00:34:57] Scott Moran: But it, it turned into a body horror movie, but not a stealing cronenberg's body horror movie. Not of the thing. Maybe a little bit of both of those things, though. It did, you
[:[00:35:08] Scott Moran: the way the arm seemed to work once it was split. Dude, it grabs her by the neck at one point. Yeah. When he, the vicar was trying to like rape her.
[:[00:35:17] Scott Moran: was gonna happen, but I was like, that speech the vicar gives about how he's like, you put these thoughts in my head and he was like holding her responsible for mm-hmm. All the sins he decided that she was capable
[:[00:35:34] Frank Roll III: You
[:[00:35:57] Scott Moran: A comforting thing, and then you're like, no, no, wait, no, this is not okay. And then he fucking starts to like gaslight her about how she drove her husband to commit suicide and that it's her fault. I think she was almost baiting us into, or, oh, this isn't happening. You brought this upon yourself. You brought, yeah, somehow you've done this to yourself.
[:[00:36:32] Frank Roll III: that it happened by the friend showing up, but then what was up with the blood smear on the ground out through the door?
[:[00:36:37] Scott Moran: the car was wrecked. There was definitely a blood smear, and I find it hard to believe that she did all those things. Like she's nuts, just wreaking havoc in this
[:[00:36:51] Scott Moran: I mean, that is the only version that exists is the one that's.
[:[00:37:00] Frank Roll III: Yeah. Pretty accurate I would imagine in a sense. You know, I mean, of course exaggerated for effect, but you know, did you notice like the skull damage, like how it was like just that one kind of crease in the, and I was like, yeah, and then like the, you could see the trauma to the eyes, but then part of it with the arm, through the bar, through the arm.
[:[00:37:23] Scott Moran: I the think all of those things were put in there to make you start to overanalyze it and to come to some sort of conclusion. Mm-hmm. And I don't think fucking Alex Garland knows what happened or anything like that.
[:[00:37:56] Scott Moran: That's the best thing about like when you listen to a song and somebody's like, no, that song is about this. And you're like, fuck you. That song's about me. Once you write a song, it's not your fucking song anymore. Whoever listens to it and the baggage they bring to it, and that's the way I felt about this movie.
[:[00:38:15] Frank Roll III: the movie, like I said, I've been watching shrinking, so I mean, I offloaded my baggage in my Happy show. This was. It was, like I said, you said it at the beginning. It's a beautiful movie, fucking scenery, wherever the locations were for this great job.
[:[00:38:48] Frank Roll III: watched that recently, but I don't know how I can handle
[:[00:38:51] Scott Moran: I wanted more at the end of that movie. Personally, it didn't go hard enough. Oh, man. But also, it lives in my brain and I'm never gonna stop thinking about it. I can't wait to see. Bo is afraid. What's Paul, Fred Ari Astor Midsummer or red js? Yeah. We don't have a movie for next time. Rox is paper, dude.
[:[00:39:11] Frank Roll III: Thanks everyone for joining us. For the last video Store Clerks podcast, be sure to leave a rating and subscribe. You can find us on Twitter at Last Clerks Instagram at the last video store clerks, and you can find Scott at dispatchesfromthepit.com.
