Men's Group

It is what it says it is and doesn't pretend to be anything other. And for that, we are grateful. Don't be misled however, it is also much more.

Director Michael Joy brings together a wide group of men to talk about their various issues in a free range, ad lib style and yet the characters find themselves with similar issues, a little too similar to be a co-incidence and one wonders if this isn't reflective of the Director himself.

Having said that, it does make for a sense of unity amongst the men, and some cohesion in the piece. The performances are powerful, the emotions genuine, so real in fact, you'll be struggling to separate the men from the actors. It feels so authentic that it's impossible not to be moved. While it may be very much a man's film and men over a particular age, young men and women can also learn a lot from this bunch of blokes. We are more sensitive and complex than we are given credit for.

Not all of the character threads are explored and though we don't need all loose ends to be tied up, in fact, it's legitimate to leave something to the imagination, one character is left unexplained and it feels as though something is missing and even a little false. Yet this is nothing compared to the thin, contrived plot lines of Australian dramas over recent years. Once again, it takes an independent film to show how it can be done. The strength of the performances are so gripping, the underlying issues so intricate and so beautifully drawn to the surface, that in the end, you know you've witnessed something very special.

I'm a 27 year old guy - I just finished watching Men's Group, about a therapy group for middle and older aged men, and it was like a punch in the stomach. No other film I've seen has conveyed to me the intense hurt, anger, aggression, and confusion that many men feel but try to repress. In that sense, I actually found the film really tense and often scary, because I constantly felt like someone was going to break or blow up at any minute. However, it also showed the compassion, empathy, and need for love that were underneath the brittle exteriors of some of the characters. I'm not a particularly emotional person, but my eyes watered for substantial portions of the running time. A movie that so affects me and my view of humanity is really special, and for that reason Men's Group is going into my mental top 10 list. It couldn't have achieved what it did without the genuinely phenomenal acting by everyone involved, and very clever direction and editing. It seemed incredibly real. I can't speak highly enough of this film, it bewilders me that there are only two comments on it so far, even though it's already been on DVD for some time! See it!

This is an intriguing movie. It is not a plot-driven movie, but is rather a movie of ideas. And the main idea it explores is how do men deal with their emotions? It demonstrates how we often deal with life feeling like we are doing a good job managing things and hiding the things that bother us, when in reality our character becomes formed by the very acts that we use as a cover. In this sense, our lives become not something we control, but that control us as we run to avoid the issues. We use humor, crudity, self-involvement, alcohol, and on and on and on, pretending that is what we care about and all the while using it to shield us from having to deal with the discomfort is being honest with ourselves. There are significant things going on in each character's life, yet none of them is able to figure out what to do about them, and cannot find it within them to be honest enough with others to find help for their problems. Another user complains that the movie is disjointed, but I found the editing to be done artfully, moving in an out of each character's dilemmas interspersed with the men's group meetings to provide some explication of the daily events.

Here is the truth. I give you nothing but the simple truth about this movie:

The other people writing the positive reviews here must, undoubtedly, find dish-washing machine manuals to be the greatest works of literature, in the entire history of humanity, ever produced. I can think of no other reason why they found any single aspect of this rottenly dull movie to be interesting in any possible way. Period.

You know how it feels to sit at a restaurant table and overhear the mind numbingly boring conversation wafting over from the adjoining table as you await your girlfriend's late arrival!? You do? Well this is a movie which perfectly captures what it's like to overhear the most typically boring, structureless, banal conversation. The scriptwriter could not have written a more boring script if he tried. In fact - no one could write a more boring script and screenplay if the tried their very hardest to do so. Dull as dishwater is the phrase which perfectly captures the very essence of this movie. This production is almost tortuously boring. I could repeat any two minutes of the script here and you'd have the antidote to insomnia in words. Some writing here, have even claimed that the acting was "great"!?? Well how difficult is it to recant near endlessly boring conversations? Need more, I say?

And lest I forget... did I mention the hand-held lack of steady-cam? Need I really, really say more?

Awful. Awful. Awful in the dullest sense of the word. I give it 3/10 probably because my finger fell asleep on the "2" button as the credits (most thankfully) rolled, and accidentally hit the "3". If anyone, in your company, happens to "like" this movie then I would strongly advise you to give them a cup of hot cocoa, as you defensively insert your wax earplugs (to prevent yourself from hearing another dull word from their lips...) and prepare your bed for sleep - the only escape from the countless legions of thoroughly uninteresting people.

This film has the best ensemble cast I have seen in living memory. The film itself, and the actors, are so convincing that, in some recent festival screenings, audiences thought it was a very powerful, emotive documentary. Not so, cinema watchers. It is a drama. This is film making at it's peak! We are lead into what appears to be a quite ordinary, not very interesting situation, with characters to suit. A cast of anti-heroes, men driven by various circumstances who have been reluctantly persuaded to try and see the benefit of mutually sharing their experiences. So how are we going to relate to them? As the film unfolds we feel like voyeurs as we pry into their lives. Cannot recommend a film more highly. A blokes' response to chick flicks!