If you're not already on the Jessie Buckley bandwagon, now is the time to get aboard. The Irish actor has been a star on the rise ever since her head-turning performance in Tom Harper's 2018 film Wild Rose, and after earning acclaim for her work in Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking Of Ending Things and the series Chernobyl and Fargo, this week she earned her first Academy Award nomination for her turn in Maggie Gylennhall's The Lost Daughter.
And as though that weren't enough, we now have this amazing first trailer for Alex Garland's Men, which features Jessie Buckley front and center in what looks like a mysterious and seriously scary film.
Men is the the third directorial effort from writer/director Alex Garland, who is best known for writing the screenplay for 28 Days Later and directing the films Ex Machina and Annihilation. He tends to go hard when it comes to implementing elements on science-fiction into his storytelling, which makes this new trailer interesting as there isn't any kind of sci-fi angle made explicit. Instead, it looks like a straight-up horror movie.
It's possible that whatever is causing the surreal events featured in the footage is based on futuristic ideas or advanced technologies... but that's not in the preview. Put in the position to describe what is presented, I find myself leaning toward "fantastical nightmare." Alex Garland most definitely knows what he's doing when it comes to making scary movies – the bear scene in Annihilation is one of the most terrifying cinematic moments in recent memory – and regardless of whether or not there is any sci-fi in Men I'm thrilled he is going back to the horror genre.
Details about the plot of Men are being kept under wraps, with the only description available saying that the film follows a woman who takes a vacation in the English countryside after the death of her ex-husband. Rory Kinnear, best known for his work in the Daniel Craig-led James Bond movies, co-stars, and based on the trailer I'd guess that he is playing the supposedly dead man... but admittedly that's pure speculation.
The genre-diverse studio A24, which produced Ex Machina (the best movie of 2015), is set up to distribute Men, and will be bringing it to theaters this spring. Look for it in cinemas on May 20 – and check out what else is on the way film-wise in the coming months with out 2022 Movie Release Calendar.
