By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.2 cats
Director: Ben Wheatley
Starring: Elisabeth Moss | James Purefoy | Jeremy Irons | Keeley Hawes | Luke Evans | Sienna Miller | Tom Hiddleston
Country: belgium, united_kingdom
Year: 2016
Running time: 119
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462335
Jason says: “HIGH-RISE carries so many illustrious pedigrees, such as the novel by science fiction author J.G. Ballard, and a committed performance by star Tom Hiddleston, and its press notes are filled with so many adjectives such as ‘ambitious’ and ‘respectful’ and ‘shocking’, that it is disappointing to report what a piece of shit it is. Use of the word ‘dystopian’ is almost always a signal to run in the opposite direction: My MacBookPro refuses even to acknowledge it as a word, and I understand the laptop’s reticence. If only producer Jeremy Thomas possessed a soupçon of such forbearance he might have avoided this fatuous pronouncement: ‘I know he {Ballard} would have been very excited by Ben and Amy’s {screenwriters} take on his prescient novel’.
“There is an early warning about what the audience is in store for when elevators in the luxury high rise begin to malfunction, an instant demarcator of the class structure represented. Set in a version of London in the 1970s that had to be filmed in Belfast to evoke verisimilitude (an inadvertent dollop of irony in a film sorely lacking in it), the social order quickly breaks down into increasingly violent chaos. Architect Jeremy Irons, who lives of course on the top floor with priceless museum artifacts, luxurious gardens, and a menagerie including trophy wife, horse and goat, has unfortunately neglected essential aspects of such a complicated building’s design.
“HIGH-RISE is ponderous and witless, feeling dated in the same way a reboot of LORD OF THE FLIES by Terry Southern might be, with adults running amok instead of children. In the film’s coda, young Toby (Louis Suc), who has spent the movie working on radio communication with the outside world instead of sex, drugs and cannibalism, creates a radio tower from which we hear an impeccably phrased and piously pronounced speech on the virtues of capitalism by the loathsome Margaret Thatcher. Meant of course to be ironic as in this OED definition — ‘the use of language with one meaning for a privileged audience and another for those addressed or concerned’ — the scene is not only witless, but even ghastly. One could easily excerpt the final scene from the morass of idiocy that precedes it, toss out the rest of the film, and still have plenty of time to perform a good deed before the end of the evening.
“Under the circumstances, it is almost a waste of time to point out that the gifts of Tom Hiddleston are better appreciated in Joanna Hogg’s UNRELATED and ARCHIPELAGO, and Jim Jarmusch’s ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, and those of Elisabeth Moss in Alex Ross Perry’s QUEEN OF EARTH and LISTEN UP PHILIP. Even director Ben Wheatley, who ultimately bears responsibility for the noxious HIGH-RISE, can be experienced exhibiting greater competence as a storyteller and creator of vivid cinematic moments in the quirky A FIELD IN ENGLAND. 2 cats”
Chris says: “I thought this film’s first half was so promising – that production design is all one could ever hope for! – but it really lost its way once chaos descended on the building’s inhabitants. It’s one thing to depict a microcosm of society run amok, and quite another for the filmmakers to run amok while doing so (it made me appreciate director Ben Wheatly’s smaller-scale stuff like SIGHTSEERS). With a steadier hand guiding and making sense of all the madness onscreen, HIGH-RISE could’ve been great. Instead, you can sum it up by the final scene Kyle alludes to in his review: I fully appreciated its intended sentiment, but its glib, tossed-off execution made me want to throw stuff at the screen. 2.5 cats (mostly for Hiddleston and all the awesomely hideous, retro-brutalist architecture.)”
Brett says: “I find Chris’s review much more in line with how I saw it. So much potential. His assessment about its derailment is more in line with how I viewed it, and totally agree with the management aspect and how SIGHTSEERS was more ‘managed’ and benefited as a result. It wasn’t a travesty on all levels like the initial review, but I’m agreeing with Chris in every word as it was written in his comments. That just nails it.”
Thom says: “Now, some 10 short years into his career, Ben Wheatley has already considerably established himself as one of the world’s premiere directors. But I’m just as certain there are any number of people that will never appreciate his work because of its dark and dire nature. With DOWN TERRACE, KILL LIST, & SIGHTSEERS he brought fresh insight to horror themes adding a Shakespearean quality to the lives of people that you pray you’ll never meet. They all seem like they are in some alternate universe where the answer to almost every problem is killing. That he is able to establish a macabre humor with the projects makes them truly outstanding. With his next film A FIELD IN ENGLAND he goes back to 17th century England where a Civil War is taking place. A group of deserters flee into a psychedelic field where an alchemist forces them to search for a supposed hidden treasure. The creepy mysteriousness that the films seeps itself with is a fascinating take on the supernatural.
“HIGH-RISE is adapted from a J.G. Ballard novel and while I’ve seen two other film adaption from his work in the remarkable CRASH & rather good EMPIRE OF THE SUN, I’m not otherwise familiar with his writing although he is highly rated among consummate readers. While the film has many post-apocalyptic elements the film is lately identified as a Margaret Thatcher condemnation although the book was published prior to her heinous reign. Laing (a lovely Hiddleston), a budding businessman, moves in to a modern high rise where the floors are inhabited in reverse order with the higher floors naturally where the upper class live. While outside the surrounding society is disintegrating with riots and civil disobedience our skyscraper world is turning into a venous bestiary and a class war progresses inside as elevators turn into violent reprisal areas and calm, precognitive residents resort to the laws of the jungle brought on by primal fears. Exquisite film techniques drew me into the ongoing madness. There is a certain timeliness that creeps through the proceedings and the able supporting cast adds the perfect odd texture. I thought it was a brilliant descent into the Hell that might well be coming at any instance. 5 cats“