Men (15, 100 mins)
Valuation: 
Verdict: No garlands here
Bergman Island (15, 112 mins)
Valuation: 
Conclusion: Pretty dull fare
To the placards on the London Underground warning that ‘intrusive staring’ is a form of sexual harassment, there are now placards promoting the psychological horror film Men, in which the male of the species is variously portrayed as a bully, Crawler and a Psycho is shown. Anyway, nothing good. And that applies even to students and pastors.
Whether designed as such or not, Men, like last year’s brilliant Last Night In Soho, is the horror arm of the #MeToo revolution. The central character in both films is a woman whose life would be infinitely happier without men.
Coincidentally, both films were also written and directed by men: Edgar Wright directed Last Night In Soho, while Men is Alex Garland’s third feature film, following Ex Machina (2014) and Annihilation (2018).
Whether designed as such or not, Men, like last year’s brilliant Last Night In Soho, is the horror arm of the #MeToo revolution. The central character in both films is a woman whose life would be infinitely happier without men
We often hear about the women’s sorority, but not so much the men’s fraternity, perhaps because it’s reminiscent of a cheesy 1970s pop group, and who wants to be reminded of Save Your Kisses For Me? Nonetheless, this branch of the fraternity’s declaration is obvious that #MeToo is their fight as well.
Men starts off great. Never less than convincing, Jessie Buckley plays Harper, an Irish woman whose estranged and mentally fragile husband (Paapa Essiedu) fell to his death before her eyes after a huge argument at their London flat.
To put the trauma behind him, Harper rents a beautiful honey-colored stone house in the Cotswolds for two weeks. And when she arrives, she’s picking an apple from the tree outside. Every echo of Eve in the Garden of Eden is strictly intentional.
Classic film on TV
Toy Story 2 (1999)
What better movie for a holiday weekend than this Pixar merrymaking? Not only was it a delightful sequel to the 1995 original, it was even better and the perfect warm-up for the upcoming Lightyear.
Saturday, BBC1, 3:15 p.m
The rude, joking owner Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear) runs her rounds. Like the house itself, Geoffrey is a quintessentially English guy, and Kinnear has great fun playing him, talking about the WiFi “and all that mumbo-jumbo”. He’s full of airy bonhomie; The only waxy thing about him is his jacket.
But of course there is something wrong with Geoffrey and, as will soon become clear, with the seemingly charming bucolic world Harper has ended up in.
For one, there are bluebells in the forest at the same time as apples are on the trees, but maybe that’s just a continuity error. Maybe Garland doesn’t know how the country works.
Surely this feels like a movie made by a townsman, with a menace lurking behind every strong oaken door, along every sun-dappled forest path.
At least when Harper was terrorized by a naked man, called the police, found a fortifying pint in the village pub, was molested by a local child, and was “comforted” by the creepy vicar, we all realized that all of the male characters in this film, with Except for her dead husband, are played by Kinnear.
It’s a neat device that’s simply meant to reinforce the questionable notion that guys really all blink alike. And Kinnear, a great actor, does a great job.
But it has an air of drama school practice; and I was also reminded too much of the TV series The League Of Gentlemen and the Strange Denizens of Royston Vasey – sometimes even The Dick Emery Show of Happy Memory – to take it seriously.
Garland does its best to up the horror, with a sharp score and plenty of religious symbolism and folk horror tropes, not to mention full blown body horror extravaganza. And like I said, he gets impressively engaging turns from Buckley and Kinnear.
In the end, however, his film is undermined by his own conceit. It can be triumphant when an actor plays multiple roles (see Alec Guinness in the 1949 Ealing masterpiece Kind Hearts And Coronets). But here you have the feeling that a message is being hammered in so hard that the hammer breaks.
At least when Harper was terrorized by a naked man, called the police, found a fortifying pint in the village pub, was molested by a local child, and was “comforted” by the creepy vicar, we all realized that all of the male characters in this film, with Except for her dead husband, are played by Kinnear
It’s a neat device that’s simply meant to reinforce the questionable notion that guys really all blink alike. And Kinnear, a great actor, does a great job
Another good cast enriches Bergman Island by French director Mia Hansen-Love. Tim Roth and Vicky Krieps (the Luxembourgish actress who so beautifully held her own against Daniel Day-Lewis in 2017’s Phantom Thread) play a couple of filmmakers, Tony and Chris, who stay on the Baltic island where banned Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergmann lived and worked.
Tony is something of a Bergman expert, Chris not so much, but our own knowledge is much more relevant. Bergman Island will leave those unfamiliar with The Seventh Seal (1957) cold, and frankly, so will those who think Bergman is the greatest thing since slices of rye bread with herring on them.
The crux of the story is the gently crumbling relationship between Tony and Chris. But it’s pretty drab fare, as is the movie within the movie, a script that takes shape in Chris’ imagination, brought to life by the ubiquitous Mia Wasikowska as the American in love.
Undoubtedly, there are some joys, and if you want to learn more about Bergman without looking at too many of his images, this isn’t a bad place to start. But the longer Bergman Island lasted, I’m afraid I got more and more eager to get off.
Sandler’s sympathetic thread hits the bull’s eye
Hurry
Valuation:
I am Zlatan
Valuation:
Olga
Valuation:
Basketball superstar LeBron James is co-producing the Netflix film Hustle (15, 117 mins), which gives a hint as to its plot.
Adam Sandler plays Stanley Sugerman, a revered scout for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association.
But Stanley wants to be a coach and spend more time at home with his wife (Queen Latifah) and their daughter. Eventually, he gets his chance from the team’s wealthy owner (a cameo for 91-year-old Robert Duvall), who then leaves helpless and dies.
The old man’s prickly son (Ben Foster) orders that Stanley remain a scout and continue to scour the world for up-and-coming talent, prompting Stanley to seek out a gem on the streets of Mallorca: a giant construction worker named Bo Cruz (played by a real NBA -Star, Juancho Hernangomez). Will Bo make it big? Can Stanley outmaneuver his aggressive boss?
It’s a fictional thread that still feels like a true story and is told formulaically, but Sandler is an engaging lead and the film jumps along nicely.
Adam Sandler plays Stanley Sugerman, a revered scout for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association. But Stanley wants to be a coach and spend more time at home with his wife (Queen Latifah) and their daughter
I Am Zlatan (15, 100 mins) is another sports drama, but this one is true: it’s inspired by the autobiography of the powerful Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic, which shows how he overcame his difficult childhood as the son of divorced Slavic immigrants in blue . Collar Malmo to make it one of the greatest forwards in the world.
Usually such stories are told more effectively in documentary form, but actually it’s well done.
To conclude the sporting trilogy of the week, Olga (HHHII, 15, 85 min.) is a Swiss drama that is also well worth seeing. Set in 2013, the title character is a Ukrainian gymnast who joins the Swiss national team after her mother, a journalist in Kyiv, sent her away for her own safety during violent convulsions (then and now) back home. It was the worthy Swiss entry for the best international feature film at this year’s Academy Awards.
All three films are in cinemas. Hustle will also be available on Netflix next Wednesday.