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| Laing (Tom Hiddleston) really wanted that paint. |
The Basics:
Who made it? Ben
Wheatley (director), Amy Jump (writer, based on the novel High Rise by
J.G. Ballard)
Who’s in it? Tom
Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, and others
Synopsis: Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) moves into a London skyscraper where rising tensions
and class warfare lead to anarchy. Watch the trailer.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen
anything quite like High-Rise. Wheatley’s
films tend to be more artistic and abstract (“weird”), but how the characters
treat their situation is what I found most fascinating and enjoyable.
Essentially, even though their modern building has turned into anarchy and
class warfare, everyone acts as if this is just normal, daily life (like walking past piles of garbage, open fires, and burned out cars to go to work). There’s no “How
did we get here” or “How do we get back to normal” conversations you normally
see in apocalyptic films. It’s a realistic look at what happens when a society
slowly collapses. If it changes little by little, day by day, who’s going to
notice the change? It’s an absurd, deranged film that’s shot straight (and
beautifully, I might add. A+ to cinematographer Laurie Rose). I really, really
enjoyed it and it’s stuck in my mind since watching it. It’s on Netflix, so no
reason not to give it a shot.
Scene of the film: A chilling montage set to Portishead’s cover of ABBA’s “SOS”
showing just how anarchic and deranged the community has become. It’s
beautiful.
Watch
it if you like: Dystopian sci-fi movies, absurdist comedies, indie/art films,
good movies in general.
My Rating: 8/10
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