4 minute read
Screens: Men is a
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Sunday 6/12
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music
Acelia. The local singer-songwriter blends indie, pop, alternative, and folk. $10-12, 7pm. The Front Porch, 221 E. Water St. frontporch cville.org Isabel Bailey Duo. Ivy native Isabel Bailey performs originals and covers that blend blues, folk, and rock. Free, 2pm. Glass House Winery, 5898 Free Union Rd., Free Union. glasshousewinery.com
Paramount Presents: Buddy Guy Live in
Concert. Chicago’s electric “real deal” musician returns. $49-109, 8pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net Vincent Zorn. Brunch with live music. Free, 11am. South and Central Latin Grill, Dairy Market. southandcentralgrill.com
dance
Salsa Class. Learn to salsa and strut your stuff. $6-8, 7pm. Ix Art Park, 522 Second St. SE. ixartpark.org
classes
Paint and Sip with Catelyn Kelsey Designs. Learn a variety of techniques and skills and practice them on your very own canvas. Free, 2pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwoodfarmandwinery.com
outside
Bruce Barnes Mile. A unique, no-frills, downhill one-mile road race to honor and remember Bruce Barns, who was one of the fastest runners in town in the ‘80s. $12, 9:30am. Greenwood Community Center, 865 Greenwood Rd., Crozet. runsignup.com
Monday 6/13
music
Baby Jo’s. Tunes from the seven-piece New Orleans-inspired boogie and blues band. Free, 6:30pm. The Whiskey Jar, 227 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. thewhiskeyjarcville.com Berto & Vincent. Rumba. Free, 7pm. South and Central Latin Grill, Dairy Market. south andcentralgrill.com Gin & Jazz. Brian Caputo Trio performs in the hotel lobby bar. Free, 5:30pm. Oakhurst Hall, 122 Oakhurst Cir. oakhurstinn.com
Summer Celebration Series: Music Mon-
days. Experience live music from Matt Johnson, and enjoy complimentary access to the one-acre putting course. Free, 6pm. Birdwood Bar & Grill, 410 Golf Course Dr. boars headresort.com
etc.
Radio Relics: A WTJU History Exhibition.
See listing for Wednesday, June 8. Free, 10am. WTJU, 2244 Ivy Rd. wtju.net Sedona Taphouse Dine Out For Charity. One dollar for every flat-iron steak and salmon sold goes to SARA. Price varies, all day. Sedona Taphouse, 1035 Millmont St. sara cville.org
Tuesday 6/14
music
Strand of Oaks with The Still Tide. Imaginative lyrics with striking arrangements. $1822, 8pm. The Southern Café & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. thesoutherncville.com
Country creeper
Men presents a surreal rural nightmare
A24
Jessie Buckley stars as a recovering widow in the gripping, folk-horror film Men.
By Justin Humphreys
arts@c-ville.com
Director Alex Garland’s tersely titled new horror film, Men, is the kind of movie we need more of: unpredictable, relatively inexpensive, and risky. Garland (Ex Machina) builds a genuine sense of mystery, then pulls off a rare move when he allows the audience to parse the story on its own. Some may argue that his deliberate obscurity goes too far, but Men is a fascinating, gripping, and memorable experience.
Recent widow Harper Marlowe (Jessie Buckley) retreats to a plush rental house in rural England to heal from her husband James’ (Paapa Essiedu) apparent suicide. Initially enraptured by the estate’s sartorial splendor and the idyllic countryside, things shift quickly toward the bizarre. The locals, all men (all played by Rory Kinnear), are nearly identical—and almost unanimously hostile toward Harper. During a walk in the woods, she is followed by a silent, naked man, and her rustic retreat begins to unravel.
Men is infused with religious symbolism and pagan iconography, beginning with the apple Harper eats upon arriving in this seemingly Edenic setting. (“Forbidden fruit,” her landlord, Geoffrey, jokes.) Her visit to a local church reveals that the cross from its steeple has been cast aside and an altar, adorned with a mythological Green Man and birth imagery, is standing in place of a pulpit. And the film hints at the identical males as expressions of some kind of heathen demigod.
These details position Men firmly in the British tradition of folk horror, where stories involve city people confronted with strange and deadly pagan doings in rustic settings— it is a grandchild of The Wicker Man (1973) and a more obscure gem like Robin Redbreast (1970). The bittersweet song brilliantly bookending Men, Lesley Duncan’s “Love Song,” is the most eerily effective cinematic use of vintage music in ages, and could easily have appeared on The Wicker Man’s unforgettable soundtrack.
Men’s otherworldly plot is grounded by Buckley and Kinnear’s performances. Buckley beautifully conveys Harper’s mercurial emotions, all underpinned by her grief. Kinnear wryly differentiates his many characters—vicar, cop, publican, et al.—imbuing them with a darkly comic edge. This sinister sense of humor is one of Men’s major assets.
Rob Hardy’s excellent cinematography has long phenomenological stretches where the verdant landscape seems like a single, unified organism. Hardy vividly captures the sense of an underlying primeval threat constantly lurking outdoors, treating the scenery as a character unto itself.
People will leave the theater talking about Men. But it loses something in its last act, as
Men
R, 140 minutes Regal Stonefield IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema
it gets loopy, cartoonishly gory, and, at times, nearly indecipherable. When done just right, ambiguous endings are fantastic, but more clues would have helped this one. Men’s murky commentary on misogyny and patriarchal attitudes could also do with clarification. Still, it’s a film that deserves to be seen. One intriguing, imperfect movie is worth a hundred tedious, neatly packaged blockbusters.
