Men Director Alex Garland's Five Favorite Films (original) (raw)
Men Director Alex Garland's Five Favorite Films
The writer-director of Ex Machina and Annihilation on complicated themes and surprising films, from a recent Best Picture winner to an animated gem and a Soviet anti-war film.
TAGGED AS: Film, films, Horror, movie, movies, psychological thriller
(Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)
Alex Garland’s movies tend not to explain too much. Ex Machina and Annihilation both left audiences with more questions than answers, and the writer-director’s latest film, Men, is no different — by design.
“The more complicated the questions get, the fewer answers there are, because I really do think there’s a real value in just the question sometimes, and sometimes less value in the answer,” he tells Rotten Tomatoes.
Men, out in theaters on May 20, stars Jessie Buckley as Harper, a young woman who vacations in the British countryside in the wake of a terrible, complicated loss. However, once there, she’s haunted by a man played by renowned character actor Rory Kinnear — or rather, by men played by Rory Kinnear. The film is full of striking visuals, terrifying moments, unexpected body horror, the possibility of catharsis, and many more provocative mysteries. What it all means is not ever clearly explained, and even though Garland has his own ideas as the creator, that openness to interpretation is what drives his work.
“I always have a sense of what I think is happening, but I try not to let that get in the way of what someone else might think is happening. I kind of concentrate a lot on allowing films to work perfectly well on different levels,” he explains. “So, Men could just be a ghost story. ‘Woman loses husband, goes to country house to recuperate, is haunted’ could be the story. And then, for other people who want more, there’s more. It’s there for them if they want it, there if not.”
It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that five of his favorite films also trend towards the unexpected. They sit with the viewer well after the credits have rolled and invite the viewer to ask themselves what it means. From a recent Best Picture winner to a gripping Soviet anti-war movie, here are some of Alex Garland’s Five Favorite Films, as told to Rotten Tomatoes.
Men opens in theaters on May 20, 2022.
Thumbnail images by: Eric Chakeen/©A24, ©Neon, ©Janus Films, ©Buena Vista, ©20th Century Fox Film Corp.